DIY Demolition for Beginners

Rarely in home renovation do we begin our projects with a completely blank canvas. We often need to remove things like cupboards, closets, walls, tiles and flooring before we can move ahead with our plans of building a space to suit our needs. But DIY demolition can feel intimidating to those new to doing their own home renos. Luckily, there are ways to make demolition easier and safer through proper preparation and investing in the right equipment.

Staying Safe

The demolition stage of construction tends to be the most injury-prone. Risks can arise from applying extra force on materials, scattering debris, handling waste materials with sharp edges and protruding nails. In addition to this, demolition can potentially expose hazards like asbestos. Taking preventative measures before demo begins, such as investing in the proper protective gear, can help you stay safe and injury-free.

Safety Equipment

Personal protective equipment is essential and should not be overlooked when beginning your DIY demolition project. A ventilator mask, gloves, steel-toed boots, safety glasses, and hearing protection, are the basics that I would recommend. In a previous post, Stay Safe While You Renovate With These 7 Safety Items, I listed the essential personal safety items to invest in. I also provided links to the specific gear I would recommend to ensure you are well-equipped before you begin demo.

Shutting off Power and Water

It is very important to locate your power breaker and emergency water shutoff before you begin demo. If you know you won’t be working around plumbing, shutting off water isn’t always necessary, but it is important to know where your emergency water shutoff is just in case you hit a water line you weren’t expecting.

Electrical is trickier because it can be hard to predict where cable might run. Especially in houses that have undergone previous renovations and decades worth of electrical retrofits, cables and circuits can be a bit of a maze, and even if you think you have isolated the circuits of the spaces you are working on and shut off those breakers on the panel, there is no guarantee that a buried cable won’t feed into a live circuit you are unaware of. That is why, if you are able to work without power, it is sometimes best to just shut it off completely. To do this, switch off the main breaker to the entire house, and consider working during daylight hours, using battery-powered lighting and power tools.

Remove Construction Waste

As much as you can, keep waste materials contained and outdoors. If you don’t have a waste disposal bin or dumpster, bag up waste in construction waste bags, seal them when full and bring them outside in case the debris you have removed contains any hazardous materials. Keeping debris and construction waste separate also keeps your work site organized with less potential for trip hazards, or injuries from sharp debris. 

One thing to remember when using construction waste bags is that nails have a tendency to pierce through the bags and snag the legs of the person carrying the bag. So hold waste bags at a distance if you can.

Ladder Safety

Ladder falls are one of the more common injuries during construction, often because they are being used incorrectly. A-frame step ladders are most commonly used for indoor projects, where the height required to reach is generally one story. When using an A-frame ladder:

• Always set up the ladder on a stable surface 
• Make sure it is fully extended into an A formation, with hinge arms locked
• Only climb the side that is meant for climbing
• Keep one person to a ladder, and try to have someone hold the base of the ladder if it feels unstable in any way
• Never stand on the top of an A-frame ladder or the top step. Even standing on the second step from the top can be dangerous because your knees have nothing to brace against
• Always lean over the ladder, not away from it. Reaching for something away from the ladder can cause it to tip over

Common Sense

Finally, here are a few safety tips, which just come down to basic common sense:

• Do some stretching before you do demo or any type of strenuous renos. Our bodies tend to take a beating during work we might not be accustomed to, so prep your muscles and stretch ahead of time if you can.
• Wear good shoes, preferably steel toed boots. Running shoes can be easily pierced by a nail and that includes the rubber sole of the shoe
• Don’t cut or scrape towards yourself
• Be aware of where your body is and be careful of pulling at materials that might suddenly dislodge and snap back towards you

Wrecking Tools

Okay, now the fun part: picking out the demolition tools that will be needed to do the heavy lifting and wrecking work. Below are links to the tools I would recommend and have personal experience using. Even if you have very little DIY demolition experience, these tools are suitable for even the most novice renovator.

*Please note this list contains affiliate links, so if you do decide to purchase any of these products, I might receive a small percentage of the sale, at zero additional cost to you.

Hammer

About 80% of the time I spend doing demo, there are two tools that I hold, one in each hand. One of these tools is a heavy duty hammer. The hammer is used in combination with prybars, to add power through blunt force or leverage so you don’t have to exert as much effort. For instance, you can use the hammer to hit the top of a pry bar to get it in behind things if there is resistance, then you can pry up on the bar to wedge objects free. You can also turn the hammer around and use the claw of the hammer to alternate prying up an object with the claw and the prybar in order to keep the gap behind a material open, sliding it along and prying up on the object until it can be fully removed.

Flat Pry Bar

You can do the majority of demo with a medium to large flat prybar (in combination with a hammer), and you can save money by getting a few in a set like this. Having more than one flat pry bar is definitely useful when you have more than one person doing demo and different sizes are good to have for the various sizes of materials you will be removing. The larger bars provide more leverage and can be more destructive, whereas the smaller bars allow you to be more delicate and precise, making them perfect for removing objects like trimwork you wish to reuse, or removing something from a wall you don’t wish to damage. These bars also have reveals for pulling nails, something that is always needed on a demo site.

Large Wrecking Bar

This gooseneck wrecking bar is nearly 30″ long providing a lot of leverage for pulling up things like flooring and tiles, and the extra length allows you to work from a standing position. The added natural weight of this tool packs a bigger punch if the goal is to break something apart. You can use the back wedge as a scraper or to get behind sheet goods like drywall or plywood to loosen adhesives or fasteners and lift off layers in larger sections.

Cat’s Paw

A wedged bar with a single cleft, called a cat’s paw, is perfect for digging out embedded nails. To remove stubborn materials from a space, start by locating the fasteners and pulling them out first. The sharp edge of a cat’s paw cuts into wood and other materials. A few hits of a hammer wedges it underneath the head of a nail, making it easier to pull out. This improved version of a cat’s paw includes a flat claw on the back, providing a good surface for hammering. You can also use this side in place of a hammer’s claw. Without a hammer head, you can wedge the claw under something and roll it back on the slightly curved end for better leverage.

Scrapers

While there is a lot of ‘wrecking’ involved in demolition, some demo required can be more refined, like scraping finishes or wallpaper off a surface you wish to preserve. If this is the case, I would advise you to try out different types of scrapers and see which ones work best, starting with the the ones that will do the least amount of damage to your walls. I often go for a metal putty knife first, before resorting to something sharper like a razor blade knife because it doesn’t gouge the wall as easily.

Reciprocating Saw

If you are a beginner to DIY demolition, the thought of picking up a power saw, especially one with such a long blade probably feels intimidating. But the reciprocating saw is one of the easiest tools to use, and certainly one of the safest saws you can pick up, because the blade only moves when you are pulling the trigger, and stops as soon as you release your finger. Blades are available for wood, metal and mixed materials (good if you are cutting through wood and think you may hit some nails or screws). I have used this tool to cut through cabinetry, stud walls, and old (drained) PVC plumbing. While it is not required for the majority of demo tasks, there is a small percentage of things you will run into that are pretty difficult to do without it.

Utility Knife

A utility knife will be your go-to tool to cut carpeting and thinner materials to make them easier to remove. This particular utility knife is my favorite because the blade is easy to replace, you can adjust it to different depths, and snap it off in sections to reveal a fresh edge, keeping it sharper between blade replacements. This model also has a hooked metal utility tool on the back, which comes in handy for things that required a thin, sturdy edge like getting into the cracks between floorboards, or opening a can of paint.

Working Smarter, Not Harder

It can be tempting for the beginner DIYer to take on demo jobs with a lot of gusto, busting holes in drywall with a hammer and breaking through walls of lath like they’re made of matchsticks. Yes, this is one way to do it, and breaking stuff is fun, but keep in mind that you’ll also have to spend the time sweeping all that up later, so sometimes it is in your best interest to just keep things in tact and remove them in larger pieces. 

Remember to let your tools do the work so you don’t have to expend as much energy. When using prying bars, consider how to best utilize leverage and try different sizes of bars, different angles of prying to see what gets the best results. Keep a hammer in hand to use with your prybar to add force or or help with leverage using the back claw of the hammer.

There are also cases where simply removing fasteners can be the simplest and most effective way to demo. Various demo tools have clefts for pulling nails, and you can use a cat’s paw tool to dig out embedded nails in a few simple steps.

If you are doing kitchen demo, you might picture yourself smashing up cabinetry with a sledgehammer, and of course we see this on home reno shows and want to try it for ourselves. However, because most cabinetry is fastened to the wall using screws, the easiest method for removal is to unscrew the cabinets with a power screwdriver, taking them out in one piece. Whenever you can do things in a controlled way, it is just safer and often more efficient. 

DIY demolition can be an intimidating job for anyone who his new to renovating. But with a but a bit of preparation and by selecting the right demolition tools and equipment, it can be a rewarding experience with the potential to save you a lot of money if you decide to tackle it yourself.

Final Thoughts

Always equip yourself with the proper safety gear and remember basic safety tips like shutting off power and water before work begins, keeping the jobsite organized, and moving waste and debris outside and practicing ladder safety as well as following your own common sense. Select the right tools and allow them to do the work for you, working in a controlled manner that optimizes safety and efficiency.

But also remember to have fun with demo and enjoy the process (and the exercise) it provides. There are few other construction jobs that permit such freedom, where even a lack of traditional techniques can still get the job done successfully. The trick to to prioritize safety and just enjoy the rest.