Let’s talk about knocking out a few walls and framing a few new ones, shall we?
After two slow weeks of thinking things through and getting contractor bids, progress suddenly accelerated in the laundry area and everything started moving quickly. What began like this…
…now looks a whole lot more open. Yowza.
Early last week we decided to take a hybrid approach: handle what we’re comfortable doing ourselves and hire pros for the rest. Our goal is Option 4 from an earlier post: create a dedicated laundry room and reclaim the old space for storage and future use.
We made a task list and marked the items we planned to subcontract. The plan was simple: DIY where practical, call in licensed trades for plumbing, electrical, and some drywall finishing. The list included moving the washer and dryer, demolishing the cased opening and parts of walls and floor, framing new walls and doorways, relocating plumbing and electrical, hanging drywall, insulating, painting, installing flooring and trim, and adding cabinets and fixtures.
You saw that we already moved the appliances, so next up was demo. On Tuesday we carefully pried off baseboards and trim to preserve what we could for reuse.
We started the drywall demo at the cased opening and used a rubber mallet and crowbar for most of the work.
For cleanup, smaller debris went into garbage bags while bulky pieces went into the attic for now. We’ll either rent a small dumpster or use another Bagster later — some studs and trim will be reused.
Next we removed the old cased opening framing, which involved a lot of hammering and prying to separate nailed 2x4s and pull out nails.
Slowly but surely it came down.
We removed the upper cabinet and emptied the space, which made it clear how the new laundry room will begin to feel.
Demo also involved removing a section of hardwood flooring where the new wall would be framed. Because we installed the floor over a sticky Elastilon adhesive, the process required prying and slicing through the adhesive layer to remove the exact section needed. I pulled up the hardwood in sheets and removed the particle board subfloor to expose the plywood ready for new framing.
Removing the floor convinced us to shift the frosted storage-room door forward to where the hardwood ends. That avoids extending hardwood into the future TV room (we’re leaning toward carpet there), shortens the hallway slightly, and creates a small vestibule so the door swings into an entry rather than the middle of the room — all practical benefits for furniture layout and finish transitions.
Before framing we also removed an attic step that was in the way; it’ll be rebuilt on the other side later.
We stopped demo at the point our framer recommended so we could protect the cool storage room and avoid overworking the AC. Framing would be done in two phases to accommodate plumbing and electrical changes, so it made sense to demo in two stages as well.
Wednesday morning looked like this…
…and under three hours later we had two new framed walls thanks to our framer, David.
Watching David work made it clear that while we could have attempted this ourselves, hiring him saved a huge amount of time. His quick framing allowed the plumbers to come later that day to move the washer and dryer hookups.
The plumbers completed their work in about three hours. Since the work is above the garage, they had good access, though it required cutting a section of the garage ceiling — a repair we’ll bundle with other garage drywall work later.
The electricians arrived the next morning and moved outlets, switches, and fixtures. We planned locations ahead of time so their time was efficient. For example, we added a light above the attic stairs, moved an outlet to the future laundry room for an iron, and positioned the main fixture box so it will be centered after the upper cabinets are installed.
David was scheduled to finish framing on Friday but had food poisoning. He rested and returned the next morning feeling much better to complete the job so we can move toward drywalling.
With plumbing and electrical relocated, we resumed the second phase of demo over the weekend.
Drywall came down in large sheets in many spots and revealed the daylight coming into the hallway — a welcome change.
We also removed more framing, including the wall with the old storage-room door, which helped us visualize the new laundry room footprint. The electricians left outlet boxes positioned so they’ll sit neatly inside the newly framed walls.
With more of the framing down, the space is finally beginning to read like a room.
We also opened the wall where the old washer hookups were; the plumbers had left the disconnected pipes in the wall for demo, and a reciprocating saw made quick work of removing them.
That brings us to the image you saw at the top of the post.
Right now the final two walls are being framed: the wall to close off the laundry room and the wall for the frosted storage-room door. To illustrate the change I made a quick GIF of the framing progress.
To make the layout even clearer, here’s an updated floor plan. It was oddly satisfying to change the “Current Laundry” label to “Former Laundry.”
Once framing is complete we hope to hang drywall ourselves. We’ll try mudding and taping too, though we know we’ll need practice — and we still need to reroute the dryer vent before finishing the ceiling. Here’s the updated checklist with completed items crossed off:
Move washer & dryer and remove cabinetryDemo cased opening, side wall, back wall, part of the floor and the attic stepFrame new walls & doorways*Move laundry plumbing hook-ups & drains*Move laundry electrical (plus other lights, switches, and outlets)*- Move dryer vent
- Hang drywall
- Add insulation
- Mud, tape, and sand all the drywall seams in the new room*
- Rehang laundry door
- Add new frosted door to attic
- Prime & paint laundry room and hallway walls
- Tile & grout new laundry floor
- Add baseboard and door casings
- Bring washer & dryer back in and hook them up
- Add upper cabinetry and shelving
- Tile & grout laundry room backsplash
- Add lower cabinet
- Add ceiling light fixture
- Hang art, ironing board, and bring in other laundry room items
- Finishing touches and repairs (drywall in garage, step in attic, etc)
I’ll leave you with one last shot before I taped up drop cloths to keep the attic heat out. Natural light is finally streaming into the end of that hallway — such a satisfying change.
We’ll share a cost update once we have the final bill from the framer, but so far the framer, plumbing, and electrical have come in well compared with the contractor estimates we received. What did you tackle this weekend? Anyone else swing a rubber mallet and let drywall know who’s boss?