Background: See “Stairs: Part 1: Demolition Right“
“Demolition Left” begins like the right side: Remove the inside drywall and pry the top board off of the vertical studs. From there things differed, since I’m going to build (rather than remove) a wall and add a door at the bottom.
I had a lot of options for cutting the drywall. I opted for a Dremel that was set to a shallow depth in case there were studs, wiring, etc. hidden behind it. Good thing I did, since most of the area behind the drywall was composed of hidden studs (I wouldn’t have been able to use a sawzall or jab saw).
Some details on the work itself:
- No need to sawzall the half-wall studs this time since they’ll be handy for securing the new, longer wall studs.
- I cut the new wall studs; they’re ready for installation (to be done in Part 3).
- I removed the ceiling drywall that crept into the unfinished side above the half-wall. It included a metal exterior drywall corner; I used a utility knife to cut the edge along the inside wall prior to removal to limit damage to the drywall which remained.
- The finished landing crept too far into the unfinished side (drywall, carpet). That had to be removed for new stud installation. It proved a job in itself!
- I measured from the new wall studs to determine how much material had to be removed for securing the door framing and studs.
- I screwed a piece of old molding to the wall and ceiling to serve as a guide for my Dremel.
- I used the Dremel’s drywall cutting attachment to cut the drywall. Then I ran a utility knife through the cut a few times before removal to cut through any drywall backing that remained.
- I used my DeWALT Multitool (DWE315K) with a blade attachment to cut the carpet.
Photos of the progression are below:
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