Bathroom Demolition: Stage One

It has begun. Our "Packer" bathroom renovation. 

To start this massive undertaking, we started with the removal process. We needed something to put all that old tile and dry wall into. After running some of the costs, we decided on going with a newer product from Waste Management called The Bagster. It holds up to 3330 lbs. of materials and was perfect for the size we needed. The cost of the bag itself is $29.95 and is located at most major home stores, we got ours at Menards. Removal costs vary by city. Here in Milwaukee it is $105 for the first bag and $84 for additional bags. If you "like" them on Facebook you can receive a coupon for $5 off removal service. Hey, every bit helps!

Here we are just starting the filling process.

It was nice to finally remove the carpet we've been hiding storing in our backyard all summer from the bedroom remodel. We killed the weeds and everything...oops! Also never mind my really overgrown garden in the top of the photo.

Here we go with the start. I got the first pull and I went with an already broken tile hole. Unfortunately, nothing moved after I pulled and we learned to start from the top of the tile and work our way down.

Much better.

Max was a little more efficient at the removal than I was.

Here is a little clip of him in action.

As we rounded to the tub we had some fun discoveries. This wasn't the original bathroom like we had thought. The yellow tile was actually a remodel. Max started to pull the tile off and found an inch of plaster cast on a wire frame.

As we removed the wire, we found another layer of tile beneath it. The tile actually wasn't even that bad looking.

This was some of the slightly more fashionable tile they had covered up.

Another discovery was newspaper was used as some sort of an insulator. We weren't a 100% sure why but it was crammed around the fixtures of the tub. Most of it was still quite intact.

From our conclusion, the last remodel was approximately in 1971, forty years ago, so we are definitely over due for an upgrade.

When we started the removal process, we were hauling out tiles in a five gallon pail. When we learned of the plaster we got the wheelbarrow out and literally started shoveling out materials.

I had to joke about Max's hair looking like an old man with all the plaster dust. I found his first gray hair earlier that week. Poor old man.

Knowing we still had to use our shower for this week, we improvised a way to still stay clean. We bought two cheap shower liners for $2 a piece and overlapped them around the shower wall. Using a staple gun, we stapled them directly to the wall. No biggie, the wall is coming out anyways.

The next step of demo is to remove the walls before the weekend. That's when we start putting everything back together again. Quite the whirlwind project!

What sorts of remodel hurdles did you have to deal with like us having to still shower? Just really enjoy demoing like we do? Let us know!


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