Tips and best practices for removing drywall, mold remediation

Things you will need:

Heavy duty trash bags
Dust masks
Work gloves
Flat bar
Straight edge/Level
Measuring tape
Skil saw
Oscillating saw
Hammer
Pry bar
Razor knife and extra blades

See thread for where to cut.
Generally, in 4' increments, but if over 6', remove entire sheet.

Lowe's and HD in Covington have plenty of supplies. I expect that will change shortly, just an FYI.

From Stout:

By the way OP, if after all of this you have some mold to deal with and do it yourself, don't listen to the OT and/or people and us bleach and kilz. Use an actual antimicrobial (search microban on ebay) and Zinsser makes some mold blocking primer. The mold you will most likely deal with won't be toxic but you can get a test kit to be sure.

If it is toxic, you may want to get a company like Servpro to come in with their equipment to truly remove all of the mold spores. There are nightmare stories of people not blocking off the original room with the mold and running the proper HEPA filters and mold spores spread throughout the house bothering people for months even though no mold was visible.

I have posted this before for those that DIY on the mold but the best way to go about it is to remove any contaminated drywall and insulation, treat the studs or ceiling joist with an antimicrobial, let them dry out completely, add a mold blocking primer, then put back new insulation and drywall. A mold remediation company will do all of this plus run an air scrubber and dehumidifiers to remove all mold spores. You can try to simulate this using HEPA filters inside air purifiers and a store bought dehumidifier.




From Fishfighter:


First, remove a molding. Past a knife at the top if there is silicone. Use a flat bar prybar. DO NOT PULL THE NAILS. Use something to pull the nails out from the BACK SIDE. Once removed, hose them off and PUT THEM IN THE SHADE to dry. They can be reused.

Once you remove the old rock and insulation on the outer walls, get a bunch of fans, run a genset and let them blow thru out the house. That will help speed up drying studs.

Another thing. Turn off all power. Remove all wall socket cover plates. Put screws in a ziplok bag. Remove all plugs if water covered them and trash them. They need to be replaced.

Carpet and padding, floating wood floors, just rip them up, they are trash now.

Cabinets, remove everything from them. Remove doors, but before doing so, take a piece of masking tape and number them from were they come from. A piece of tape on the cabinet too. Ziplock for screws. You will have to remove them. There should be screws that are screwed into wall studs. If you need to remove the counter top, at each end, there will be screws at the corners. If and when you do remove the bases, you will have to unhook the plumbing. Just turn off the water if there is a water valve. Once everything is removed, take a rag and plug up were the drain is at the wall. arse gas will come in the house if you don't.

There is some much more for recovery. I will be more then happy to help or point y'all in the right direction for the people that plan on doing it themselves.




See thread for drywall removal process.