Pair Street Home

Time for a man update.

Demolition has been longer and a lot tougher than I initially imagined. The kitchen was no sweat, Jerry and I had it totally taken apart in barely over an hour from start to finish. Pulling up the carpet wasn't too bad either, all we had to do is cut it up in big strips and drag it to the dumpster. There's a crapload of tacks left in the floor everywhere, each of which has to be pulled up with a catclaw or pliars. It's not hard but it's incredibly tedious. I've been doing a little bit every time I go over there in order to retain my sanity.

The bathroom is a whole different story. Back in the 60s they did tiling differently - back then it was backed with steel netting and concrete, which was then stapled to the stud. Needless to say, it's pretty strong. The stuff takes two or three good wacks with a sledgehammer before it starts to crack. Andrea had a ball hammering at it, here's a good picture that shows the netting with the concrete attached to it.



But I did realize that it's easier to pull it from the studs than hammering away with brute force. With that in mind, I bought the biggest pick axe I could find from Home Depot. If you can get it between the netting and the wall behind it, you can use the leverage to pull it out. Of course it comes out in a huge shower of concrete pebbles and a twisted mess of steel harness and tile. The netting is a danger in and of itself, because it's really sharp and can cut you if you're not careful. Needless to say, it's hard work and it is taking a lot longer than I expected.



Jeff also helped me get the toilet and bathtub out. Let me tell you, bathtubs are heavy. Like really, really over 300 pounds heavy. Just in case you were wondering. The tub is now propped up against the dumpster, and I'm probably going to have to get a couple friends to help me lift it up over the edge. Maybe I'll call a couple friends from CrossFit, or maybe I should accept that my lifting weights my entire life has prepared me for this one task. Who am I kidding, I can't do it on my own.

So during all this I didn't give much thought to the floor because it was carpeted. But when we pulled it up, guess what was there? More tile. A lovely 1960s vintage green, and a whole lot more concrete. This stuff came out a little easier. Jeff showed me that the best way was to get the narrow end of the pick axe under the edge and then wack the surface with the sledgehammer to break it up. Everything has to come out so we can build a new subfloor with 2 x 4s and plywood. Then on top of that will come hardie board and the tile (which we're close to making a decision on, we did narrow our options considerably over the weekend at Floor & Decor.)



We're almost at that point, but not quite yet obviously. Here it is with all the wall tile pulled out, this is what I worked on today. I took this before pulling up the concrete from the floor. Now all that's really left is a few chunks and a lot of debris that needs to be taken up with a shopvac. Thankfully my mom and her Slic will help. I think the hardest part is over, which is a good thing since the dumpster has to be returned soon and the joys of demolition have long since faded.