Basement Renos Part 1: Demolition

After it became clear that the basement would leak every time we had a big rainstorm, I decided that it was time to clear out the hodgepodge of poorly finished walls and dangerous electrical that constituted my basement. Hadn’t decided on what to do with it yet though, I wasn’t ready to commit to completely renovating it, just thought that I’d rip all the crap out, paint the concrete walls and maybe put a few shelves up…little did I know this was just the beginning… I developed a strong hate of drywall during the teardown. The dust was constantly irritating my skin, and in my eyes and lungs, no matter how I tried to protect myself. I discovered many interesting things hiding behind the walls; multiple generations of spiders, completely rotten footplates, bare and live electrical wiring, scary mixes of aluminum and copper wiring etc. The first pic is after the initial flood, the next pics are of the progressive demolition of the walls, until finally beautiful bare concrete.