Demolition - gutting the existing kitchen

This was the worst part of the renovation so far. The house was built in 1940 and some of the construction appears to have been built to protect against a nuclear bomb. The walls were made with one layer of drywall, one layer of plaster, one layer of steel mesh, and one layer of ceramic tile, resulting in a wall about 1 inch thick. Behind the wall was a paper/fiber-like material that appeared to have been blown in from the outside of the house after the walls were put up. The floor was two layers of linoleum affixed with a black tar like material. Here is what I learned from the demolition:

Tearing down the walls

The first layer on the walls was the tile. I bought a good wrecking bar (which ended up helping me throughout the entire project). I purchased the FATMAX 36 In. Wrecking Bar for this job ($17.97). This took care of the tile easily, leaving me with the next layer - plaster sitting on top of the dreaded steel mesh. The plaster made the biggest mess, seeing that I had to smash through it to get to the steel mesh. Once at the steel mesh, I found it most effective to try to peel it off of the studs using my hands and my wrecking bar. I also found it useful to cut pieces of the steel mesh off of the wall so I could get to other sections. The tricky part was finding something to cut through the extremely tough mesh. The Wiss Metal-Wizz 9 In. All Purpose Snip ($10.47) worked perfect for this situation. This thing cuts through anything and made this job a bit more tolerable. Some other things that I purchased to help with this job were a drilling hammer ($15.97), a pair of leather palm safety gloves ($1.97), safety glasses ($3.98), and a high quality mask ($6.97).

Removing the old countertops

I had laminate countertops that I was removing. This job wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Just make sure you spend the time removing all of the screws and bolts underneath (which can be a bit tricky). Once the screws are removed, just use the crowbar to pry the countertops up off the cabinets (be careful not to damage the cabinets when prying).

Ripping up the laminate floor

This is where I made my first big mistake. I tried to cut and scrape the 2 layers of laminate floor up to remove it. I was trying to use a utility knife to cut up sections of the laminate top and then used the crowbar to lift it up. This was horrible. The tar adhesive was very hard and brittle and it took hours to rip up just a small 12 x 12 section. I decided to buy a power steamer ($49.00) to see if I could soften up the tar. This worked quite well at softening the tar adhesive, making it easier to scrape off the sections of laminate. The problem now was the absolute mess this created. The adhesive would turn into a gooey liqued and made for a disaster. Plus the power steamer only covered a 12in. x 9in. section. This would have taken me forever. I finally decided to just rip up the entire plywood floor that the adhesive and laminate was attached to. This exposed the subfloor beneath. Wow, this was so much easier, cleaner, and will actually prove to be the better decision when I'm ready to install the new floor. I wish I had done this from the beginning - I would have saved hours of time and $49 for the steamer.

WALLS and COUNTERTOPS

LAMINATE FLOOR and SUB FLOOR