What Happens During a Kitchen Demolition Day

Nothing about the first morning of a remodel looks like progress, and that is how it should look. The first hours are mostly shutting things off, taping things down and walking a kitchen in Scottsdale, AZ with a marker and a stud finder, in the order laid out by kitchen remodel scottsdale az primal health with jean for the rest of the job. The loud part comes after the quiet part, and the quiet part decides how clean everything else goes.

Shutting off and capping

Water is shut at the supply stops under the sink, or at the main if the stops are seized with scale. The dishwasher line and the ice maker line are capped. A gas range gets its valve closed and the line capped by a licensed person, never left open. The electrical circuits feeding the kitchen are turned off at the panel and tested with a meter, not trusted to the labels.

Containing the dust

Dust is the main complaint in the Sonoran Desert. Fine drywall and concrete dust travels through the whole house on the air conditioning return. Plastic sheeting goes up on a zip pole at the kitchen opening, the return vents near the work are covered, and a fan in a window or slider pulls air out. Floors in adjoining rooms are covered with hardboard, not just paper.

The order things come out

Countertops go first, because they are heavy and break easily. Then the sink and fixtures, then the upper cabinets, then the lowers. Appliances are pulled before any of it. Flooring comes up last, once nothing heavy is left on it.

The range hood duct

The hood duct is usually the first surprise. In many homes across Maricopa County it climbs through the soffit and across the attic to a roof jack, and the run is longer and more crooked than the plans suggest. It is checked for grease, for crushed sections and for the right size before it is reused or replaced.

What turns up behind the walls

Old tile and plaster can hide cut wiring, patched plumbing and the occasional hornet nest in the attic space. Houses near the Indian Bend Wash or any older neighborhood sometimes have mixed generations of repairs. Anything found is photographed and logged that day, so the plan changes before the wall is rebuilt. By the end of day two, the room is a clean shell and the real layout can be marked on the slab.