OT Ultradog or anyone who remodels

Girlfriend is into home remodeling shows. Therefore I get to painfully watch it on the tube. So I watch and learn??? I find it hard to believe that the first thing you do is put on safety glasses, take a 9 pound hammer and beat holes in the walls and the hell outa the floor. I pulled up some tile working as a laborer when I was a kid and boy did we do it wrong! We started at the edge and got under it then broke the mortar off the cement. Hell little did we know just pounding randomly in the middle was the proper way. WTF???

I am personally very offended that you would question the authenticity of something you saw on TV! Everyone knows that if its on TV or the internet its true! I hope they did their lead abatement and applied for the necessary permits too

I get a kick out of those people going on about how bad the kitchens are ! Heck I'd love to have some of those cabinets those idiot take a sledge to.
Could always use them in a workshop too.

You don't like them? Why, you can re-tile your bathroom in 30 minutes for a total cost of only $15,000. Far less than the 75,000 a contractor would charge to do it.

I built my whole house for less than they say it costs to remodel a kitchen.

Thats just foolish, makes a mess, no rhyme or reason as to what you are doing. I've done a fair amount of this work in more recent times to make a buck, I'll lay out my cuts with a chalk line in gypsum wall board, cut with a knife and carefully take it apart, demo never takes a lot of time, but you can save yourself a lot of patchwork, and eliminate poor quality work if you plan it out. If you are gut rehabbing an entire structure, not so bad, but say you are changing something, I don't see the value in cave man tactics LOL !

Last spring, the neighbor lady's daughter finally moved out, 4 year college and nursing school grad, RN now and has a nice career started, so she bought a place, very admirable young person. Mom wanted to change all the back to back closets in the house, eliminate one on one side and enlarge it, as well as making nice double closets in each room, it worked out nicely. I had her assist me on her days off, made it easier for me. First thing she wanted to do was take a hammer and start smashing away. I said no, let me show you a better way. I took the tape measure, chalk line, did a neat layout, used a straight edge to guide my knife and carefully cut all of it, then removed what was coming out, the new trim covered all of it,no patching, on the reverse side, there was less work to patch in a new piece of wall board, less mess, dust and so on. One thing I hate using is my power tools for things like this, all that dust is sucked into the motor, is dispersed everywhere, and in my case I will take the tool apart and clean it with compressed air.

A few years back I did a large job in a 100x100 building a friend bought to base his business out of. I did 2 35 yard containers worth of demo. I had to use my trusty old Hilti TE-53, with a chipping bit on it, to take off old masonry or plaster in what was at one time a Ford dealership shop bathroom, I did not have time to do it by hand, what a mess, I took the TE-53 completely apart and cleaned it, like I would a rifle or other prized tool, hate doing work like that, schedule dictated it, next time I'd think different, hire it out or what have you, good tools cost money, hate the smash and bash technique. The rest of the job, modifications were done with minimal impact and or mess. Most times I have a fleet of trash barrels lined up, containers outside, no piles allowed inside whenever possible, makes a mess, hazardous to walk on, as it comes down, it goes out immediately, customers appreciate being neat on a job, had many notice that when I did this to keep busy after leaving my career for several years.

Rightfully so, my background is in construction management, and some may think demo is smash and bash, never really a good tactic. One has to realize, structural components need to be respected, identified, mechanical, electrical and plumbing as well, all of this has associated dangers, like I said above, demo work usually goes quick, but one must always use care, like with anything else, compel things to happen according to a well thought out plan. Field conditions will change things at times, but you just cannot go in blindly, you may regret it or it could hurt you, someone else etc.

What do you expect people just throw stuff away any more even if there is nothing wrong with it. I learned years ago salvage any thing and every thing you can. Shoot the room I am sitting it has at least 50% salvaged lumber in it like the Knotty pine on the walls

Rich, there was a recent post about that show Building Wild, and I think the poster said that episode "Dirty Dozen" took place just north of here, sure looked like it. I can't say how many old barns went down in '11 with all that snow we got, but there was one nearby our other place, slate roof, all kinds of beams and boards, right next to a 2 lane road, and it just sets there, rotting. Sure there is labor, but there is cost savings incentive to salvage. I like what he did with that half fallen down old barn. The one I mention was about that size, dry useful space is a premium, even on the show, I think they made a mistake towing the previous cabin down, and destroying it, that would have held and kept dry, a bunch of firewood, enough for several hunting seasons or for when you just want to go up to that awesome new cabin they built. It would have complimented the new one, seems there was space too, perfect use for it or how many other uses? Maybe it was just for the show, I was like what in heck are they doing ? LOL !! Reason I say that is I've seen so much waste just in my own little circle, we had 3 huge barns, a very large well equipped shop, everything you needed to could have been kept inside, all of its gone, now its scarce, have to tarp things, squeeze my tractor inside the garage here, no space to work, salvage is something to really appreciate, even with the labor, its always worth doing in the end.

That's what you get for watching the stars of the show instead of the people who do all the work.

My wife watches them and I occasionally take a peek. I've farmed and remodeled and built new homes all my life. All I can say is they are just putting on a show, and people think that is the way to do it. If they had to clean up their mess they would soon learn an easier way to do it. Not to mention the waste. It's no wonder the landfills are filling up so quick. The larger the pieces the easier it is to clean up. Nuff said, much more and I'll get irritated.

I would beg to differ when you're taking out a whole sheetrock wall, and don't need a clean "edge" anywhere. Fastest and cleanest way is to "bump" the rock between studs by holding a sledge up near the head and pushing it into the rock, so it cracks- then pull it off. Much less dust than cutting, and you don't endanger any of the wiring inside the wall.

I think that guy goes by the handle Big Tone or something like that.
Shoot my shop is built from salvage stuff as in my hay barn.
Back when I still drove truck in this area (dump) I hauled off more then one building that could well have been salvaged. Shoot one has a water heater that got dumps as trash that was less then a year old and still had all the tags etc on it. And people wonder why stuff cost so much well duh you destroy so much good that yep it has to go up in $$

What is funny is the women that are on those shows have nice hair, nice facial features, nice other parts too. And they are busting up a bathroom floor and painting, and tiling. In the real world these "hot babes" would be sitting on their azz telling their boyfriend what they want done.

Why, everything I know how to do I learned from watching those shows. And youtube too.
My problem is they always have a pretty girl helping and I could never find the right girl. I did find one recently but she doesn't like getting her hands dirty so I'm back to square one. (though I am still a little better off I guess)
The reason I picked doing remodeling for a living was I didn't need to make such a big investment in tools. I only need a few: an 8 lb hammer, 3 lb hammer and a square point shovel to clean out the debris. The shovel also works well for throwing the plaster on the wall when I sheetrock and for smoothing it out to a fine finish. Long handle means you can do the ceiling without a ladder too.
Usually if I get into a bind I just use a lot of liquid nails or JB Weld works too but it's more expensive.
Safety glasses?
Yeah, I have that in my pickup. I think all cars and trucks have safety glasses by govt. mandate but I don't know for sure.

OR...you could just bulldoze what you have down and rebuild it in 1 week.. lol..had that show come through our town couple years ago..From what I was told is the pictures you see everything looks so nice.. but up close.. nope.. Another thing I'd like to know is after they build these large nice homes for folks is how long did the people end up staying in them??

NAH , that would not have worked here in this old house . NOTHING i mean nothing i have ever seen on them shows came even close . Home was built in 1892 and what i found under the horse hair plaster was nothing like i have ever seen before and none of my buddys that bend nails for a living had ever seen before either . To start with removing the old red oak trim was and eye opener , my brand new handy dandy SUPER bar was not so SUPER , it was no match for the 4 1/2 inch finish nails that were used every six inches on the door trims and OH you ain't seen nothing yet them six inch finish nails that held the base boards on must have been left over from when they nailed J/C to the cross and they had well over a hundred years to set themselfs in the wood. Would have loved to have them Experts here for THIS OLD HOUSE REMODEL All the walls had to be SCRAPED of the 3/4-7/8ths inch of plaster as there was NO lath strips it was inch and a quarter poplar six inches wide tong and grooved with a double dovetail cut on the face this was from floor to ceiling on all outside walls . Oh and it was nailed with four nails to each stud. The old carpenter who built this OLD HOUSE was proud of his work as he signed and dated each piece of trim in this house Joesph West 1892 , Oh yea while i had the ceilings down i removed the gas pipes that were in the walls and ceilings from the gas light that were in here many years ago.

I've seen an unbelievable amount of waste on commercial building sites, new materials, and or just workers disregarding common sense. I've been on sites where you could pick up buckets of A325 high strength bolts, and similar hardware. I filled a few buckets with all the hardware they dropped under a material hoist, most if not all just from the hoist itself, big turnbuckles, lynch pins, bolts, shackles, clevices, all of which they would have eventually buried it against the foundation. Some balk at the practice, you may not have the aesthetics of new materials, but all is useful around a farm, certainly has a place or a 2nd use. Sometimes what looks ok, is in fact clutter causing junk, but other times not. One thing is for sure, there is a lot more to some dilapidated old buildings that is good salvage, my silly little makeshift wood shed roof came from a demo job I did years back, think I got a truck load (F600 grain truck) of 2x4's 20 sheets of 3/4 plywood, all useful lumber.

Yep it is a shame what some people throw out. Shoot I have a 35lbs re-curve fiberglass hunting bow hanging on the wall that I pulled out of some ones trash can years ago. I also have a toy truck that my dad got out the the Winfield KS city dump back when I was a kid. He told me back then if I took care of it that it would be worth some $$,. I had it appraised a few years back and it was said to be worth around $1500

I'm a remodeling contractor and I hate those shows. I hate the house flipping shows too. You know the ones where they have 12 hours left until the open house and they're still setting tile, painting, and another hundred details to finish, and low and behold they get everything finished, cleaned up and the house staged before the open house. Oh yeah, then they sell the house for $70,000 profit with it only being on the market for 2 hours.

A few years ago I was working on a house in an exclusive neighborhood. My client asked me to give the next door neighbor woman some advice. She was trying to paint the brick on the front of her house with watered down paint and made a real mess of things. She asked my client to ask if I'd give her some advice. So I went over and introduced myself and asked what she was trying to accomplish. She said she was tired of the dark brick and was using watered down paint and then rinsing some off, but the result was a splotchy mess. She asked what she should do. I said, "since you asked......the most important thing you should do is stop watching those renovation shows on TV". She wasn't amused. She said I sounded like her husband, who as it turned out was a remodeling contractor! Apparently he was not in favor of the project be she assured him the house would look better with the white washed (for lack of a better term) bricks. She said he was going to be furious when he saw the splotchy paint job on the bricks. I told her to get a bucket of hot water and put a lot of dish washing soap in it and get a course scrub brush and scrub like her marriage depended on it, then use the garden hose and run water over it (not use a high pressure spray which could force the paint further into the bricks) to rinse it. I looked over there later in the day and she was scrubbing away like crazy. When she was done it actually looked ok but I'm sure it was far more work than she thought she was getting into.

Enough ranting. As for the OP's question. No, that's not how demo is done. I just shake my head when they have the obligatory shot of someone using a sledge on kitchen cabinets.
I use a screwdriver.

I've heard not very long because they can't afford the property taxes.

And when they find a spot of mold... Stop all work! Evacuate the house! Call haz-mat! Call the city! Call special forces mold remediation!

Sure, we're already over budget, what's another $30,000...

Yeah, right.

Or the "babes" dippin' & spittin' and out cussin' the men!

They are putting on a show for people that don't know any better! I have been around logging all my life and I refuse to watch Axe-men or Swamp loggers, they are so stupid. If you watch those shows it's guaranteed to lower your IQ!
Try to get her to watch This Old House, it's a little better.

I watched an elderly Hispanic couple make the rounds in the area around my work place a few years ago.

They would buy an old falling down shack, which are plentiful in this 'hood. Dismantle it, save EVERYTHING. I'm talking right down to nothing standing but the studs and rafters. Jack up the floor, put in piers and pour a skirt. (Round here, nobody has a basement, the old houses were built right down in the dirt, sitting on wood blocks, termite heaven!) Then put it all back together, sell it, do another one...

It was amazing to see how fast this couple could turn one of those houses. Worked by themselves, and they were not in good health. And they looked good when they were done, never went inside, but the outside was sure nice.

That's sad to see, tear out real cabinets and replace them with particle board junk that's falling apart in a year.

Randy them boys doing the work look like me. Who wants to see them? Girlfriends a "shiny" gal. Guess that's why she likes to watch them "shiny folks".

Jerry I have to admit I can turn the smallest home project into a major deal. Just not my forte I guess. As a kid I was(and am still)amazed at someone that can lay tile(or blocks or whatever)and make it look like they are just slapping them together and end up with a perfect job. All those tools you mention have and will be used at my place in those ways you mention. Just blew me away how they can make poundin nails into a TV show.

Amazed me how they ALWAYS have a tight time line. I
wonder how much of that garbage they stick up with
liquid nails stays hung. Not to mention tearing out
"dated" solid oak to put up pressed board cause its
"contemporary".

The camera man sure does know how to get some good shots of the homeowner's wife. LOL

I tore down buildings for the lumber back in my younger days. I used a hammer and crow bar mainly and I tore them down board by board. I tried very carefully to not damage the lumber I removed. I worked at a slow but steady pace hour after hour. If I would have been swinging a sledgehammer like they do in the TV shows, I wouldn't have lasted a half day. My record is tearing down a big gambrel roofed corn crib in ten days with the help of my neighbor. At the end of every day we pulled the nails out of the salvaged boards so they were ready to stack. If I tore down a house (never again!) I SAVED the counter tops and cupboards. I did not smash them to smithereens. I know it's all for show on the TV but I still think of them as wild idiots taking out their frustrations on someone's kitchen. Jim

Where in NY are you? I like your style and am looking into a kitchen remodel. If you are nearby and interested I would like to talk. I am near Mount Upton

I believe I'm 110 or so miles east of you, outside of the Albany area, might be a little too far to get involved with the actual work, but depending on what you are contemplating, might be able to help in another way, email is open !

Thats a really great keepsake, he sure was right wasn't he ? Years ago, I did a term paper in college and I chose the subject of garbage, landfills etc. When doing the research, I found a publication that was industry related. There was an article about a college professor, who left his career to embark on a salvage business, I have it in a box somewhere with all the things from my school days. The man had a PhD, well respected, left that career, and made/grossed $600,000 his first year, literally getting chased out of landfills or places similar, he set up and organized a yard with warehouse racking, mostly architectural items, I think he was in a dry climate, but what an inspiration to salvage old quality items, never forgot that article, lot of people doing that today, its a good thing, funny he made more doing that than his old day job LOL !

You do know Winfield KS is or was home of the biggest wax based colors kid use. Can not spell there name but but famous for the 64 colors in a box. My dad would bring home 100s of the colors due to bad wrappers on them etc so when I was in school there my parents never payed a penny for my colors

I wonder how many divorces/bankruptcies have been caused be the "we'll fix up this house in a day for very little money" shows, and, on the other hand, the restore/jack up the truck shows where nothing's rusted and a complete makeover/paint job is easy/cheap!

My sister bought a house in Florida and wanted to make a couple of changes to two bathrooms and a local contractor only wanted a little over half of what she paid for the house and land for the job. She decided to live with what she had.

My wife loves those shows. I can't stand them. It's bad enough we have rentals where we have to go in every few years and repair the damage done by tenants, I don't need to watch it on TV as well.

My favorite complaint is how they start doing a demo, usually a young lady in a tank top swinging a sledge, then cut to what is supposedly a few minutes later when everything is cleaned up and there's not a bit of damage to the structure. Of course, what they don't show you is the day of work by a professional crew who performed the actual demo. I usually get asked to leave the room when I point out such obvious chicanery.