How to Properly Get Rid of an Old Kitchen

To Do Your Demolition Right, Forget the Sledgehammer!

When performing a demolition, the shows on HGTV will tell the amazing story of a couple working on a small butterfly-catching business trying to renovate their dream home for the child that's on the way. They'll talk through a design with the host of the show before a crew completely demolishes the interior of the home in true dramatic fashion. Unfortunately, that's not the way to remodel a kitchen. Not only does it leave you with dust and debris EVERYWHERE, it introduces a whole new array of safety hazards that could be avoided by following these tips.

The demo process can be sorted into three major steps:

1. Prepping your kitchen for demo
2. Taking down the trim, counters, cabinets, and fixtures
3. Patching, sanding, priming, and painting your drywall for the remodel

Mistakes Prepping your Space
This is less about what not to do and is more about the reminders.
Whatever you do, make sure to remove all your belongings from your cabinets. Literally everything in your cabinets must go out. In addition to that, make sure to TURN OFF the electrical, gas, and water lines going to your kitchen. You may have to shut off the water to the house if you don't have a line solely for your kitchen. This is important because if you're planning on moving or replacing your appliances, they will have to be disconnected. Set up some barriers to avoid dust going into other rooms, and use cardboard to protect your flooring if you aren't planning on replacing it.

How to Take Down your Cabinets
NO SLEDGEHAMMERS.
We mean it. Cabinets can be sold or donated if you're not planning on reusing them. In addition, the extra debris is not something you want to deal with when you could have neat, stackable, wooden boxes instead. Since cabinets are secured into the walls and to each other, you may spend some time carefully hunting down every screw you can to uninstall the cabinets properly. Some screws may be covered by stickers that would have been used to hide the screw heads in the original installation.

Generally speaking, you want to move from top to bottom. The process isn't always linear but the following should be a good guideline for the best way to approach your demo. Start with your trim and moldings including the crown, light rail, and toe kick, and then move on to your upper cabinets. You may need to use a pry tool and utility knife to cut away the caulk from the trim and the cabinets. Be sure to have an extra set of hands to help you with any heavy cabinets. Next, move on to removing the countertops, and then your tall cabinets before uninstalling the base cabinets. Countertops—especially if made from stone—can be very heavy. We do not recommend you remove your own stone tops without several people available to help. If they are too heavy, it's best to hire a professional to remove the countertops.

Prepping Drywall
We don't really specialize in drywall repair but we can offer a few tips about how to patch your drywall after a demolition. If you have a small hole, some drywall mud will do the trick. If you have a hole that's between 2 and 8 inches, then you may have to do what's called a California patch, which involves cutting a drywall piece with a 2 inch paper overhang and then patching the perimeter of your drywall piece with joint compound.

Check out our YouTube video
If you want more detail about how to perform a kitchen demolition, we have a video explaining these tips in full and more, which you can watch by clicking here!

Thanks for reading, and keep building.

—The Cabinet Academy Team