Taking Down Walls for Dining Room Renovation with Open Concept

Check out the process for taking down walls for our dining room renovation, where we created an open concept to our living room and kitchen.
If you’ve been following along on our Instagram or our YouTube channel, you know that we’ve been in full-on renovation mode for the last several months as we renovate our dining room. It’s been chaos ’round here, guys.
Today I’m sharing with you the saga of how a simple weekend flooring project turned into this 7-month full home renovation that includes taking down walls.
This article about taking down walls for the dining room renovation contains affiliate links, but nothing that I wouldn’t recommend wholeheartedly. Read my full disclosure here.
YouTube Video
If you’d rather watch, feel free to check out this YouTube video which walks you through the whole story.
If you love DIY videos, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel!
How It Started
It was a cold snowy Saturday morning in January and we were sitting around watching some T.V. after breakfast. We hadn’t been able to leave the house much over the last few days because we had a major ice storm. The cabin fever was starting to set in, which is never good for DIYers.
We decided that we needed a project to keep us occupied for the weekend since we knew we’d probably be stuck inside. So we decided to replace the old carpet in the home office / homeschooling room. We already had all of the supplies and had been meaning to do it for literally years.
Simple, right? We’ve installed laminate flooring several times. No big deal. Rip out the carpet, clean things up, put down underlayment, and put in the new flooring. Logan seriously said, “I’ll be done by dinnertime.” Jokes on me, here we are 6 months later.
The Doorway Discovery
Things were off to a great start. We removed the carpet and I was working away removing staples from the floor when Logan removed the baseboards. And then I heard a gasp and a “what the heck”.
After pulling back one of the baseboards, he could see at the bottom of the wall that there were remnants of an old doorway leading into the kitchen.
Now, since this home office is in the middle of our home with no windows and only one door, it is “technically” not considered a legal bedroom. For fire safety, bedrooms need to have 2 points of egress. If we ever wanted to use it as a bedroom, we would have to add another door. So this was pretty good news when we found one that was already framed out inside the wall.
So we had a quick chat and concluded that we should just open up the doorway to the kitchen while we were doing the flooring so we could tie the floor together. Still seems pretty simple and, in general, sane…right?
Logan’s exact words were “We should do it. It will be easy.”
I would have to figure out a new furniture arrangement for the homeschool room but we’d cross that bridge later.
No Turning Back
Once Logan started ripping the drywall off of the wall in the spot where the old doorway was, there was no turning back.
20 minutes later, there was a lot of dust and drywall mess…but, there was also an opening to the kitchen. Yay!
A Major Floorplan Flaw
Don’t get me wrong as I jump into the next part of our story. We love this home. But it is an old house that has old house quirks.
The home has also undergone a lot of renovations and add-ons over the years (not just from us). Somewhere along the line of the renovations, there was a major floorplan flaw that made this house…well, weird.
The front entry is in a converted garage that is a couple of feet lower than the rest of the house. After going up a couple of steps, you have to go through the LAUNDRY ROOM to get to the kitchen, bedrooms, etc.
It’s a little awkward inviting guests into our home….”Welcome, and yes, please avert your eyes from the piles of laundry sitting on top of my washer and dryer.”
The Open Concept Dream
From the first time Logan and I toured this house, we thought it would really change the house for the better if you could open up the walls of the office so it was open to the kitchen and the living room. So in the back of our minds, this has always been the dream for this home.
But we knew just what a huge undertaking the wall removal project would be. We were aware that they were load-bearing walls. We knew that it would be a major structural change for our older house. Not to mention a big renovation and an even bigger mess.
Especially since we thought the walls that needed to be removed were cinder blocks. Talk about an unrealistic dream.
A load-bearing wall is an interior wall that helps carry the weight of the roof and/or upper floors of a home. It is sometimes referred to as a structural wall vs a non-structural wall.
In general, you can determine the structural bearing of the wall by determining if the wall runs perpendicular or parallel to the rafters, trusses, or upper floor joists. Perpendicular to joists usually means it is load-bearing and parallel usually means it is non-loading-bearing. However, there’s a lot more that goes into it – especially for older homes where blueprints are not available or where there have been multiple renovations.
The Wall is NOT Cinder Block
Since moving into this house about 6 years ago, we’ve always thought the walls here between the home office and kitchen (and also the living room) were cinder block. You see, all of the exterior walls in our home are made from cinder blocks, and even some of the interior walls (strange, I know).
After pulling back some additional drywall around the doorway we made the discovery that the wall was NOT made from cinder blocks. We were shocked and our wheels started turning.
Logan said “I didn’t realize it was going to be so easy. I thought I was going to have to grind out cinder block.”
This was lunchtime on Saturday. While Logan cleaned things up, I sat at the kitchen table with the kiddos eating….staring at the wall trying to weigh the pros and cons of removing the walls.
- Pro: fix major floorplan issues, create an open floor plan, and bigger seating area for entertaining
- Con: mess, stress, taking on a major renovation without really planning for it (#typeAproblems)…
To keep the wall or remove it?
We started seriously considering removing the entire wall between the kitchen and the home office. Logan spent the rest of the afternoon doing a lot of complicated math stuff, spending time up in the attic looking at the roof framing, figuring out the extent of its structural bearing, and more.
We just so happened to have a large support beam that Logan found for free and it was the perfect size. It’s like it was meant to be, right?
Taking Down Walls
After lots of research and chatting, we decided to go for it. Guess that is what happens with two DIYers who are stuck at home too long in a snowstorm. We just start random renovation projects and start knocking out walls, haha.
Fact: our viral faux shiplap wall project in our old house was also the result of being stuck inside during a snow storm. Guess we have a track record already.
Containing The Mess
Now since this started as just a new flooring project in the home office, all of the furniture was still in the room so we covered everything with plastic sheeting to try to protect it. This isn’t ideal. If we had known the extent of the renovation, I would have completely emptied the room.
We also hung plastic sheeting on the opposite side of the wall in the kitchen (where we were removing the wall) to try to contain the dust. This definitely helped a lot, but let’s be real. There was still dust…everywhere. For a long time. Regardless of how much I wiped everything.
Removing Drywall and Wood Paneling
After pulling back the drywall, we found old wood paneling or siding.
We thought the old wood was very cool. It was so wide so you could tell it was very old. They just don’t make it like this anymore. We did our best to try to remove it carefully so it could be reused but it was nailed in so many places it was impossible.
We found openings for windows on both the walls that we removed, which leads us to believe that maybe this room used to be a front porch or something. Who knows what the original floor plan of this home was? If only I could go back in time and see it in the 70s or 80’s.
Temporary Wall
Our roof framing is interesting. We determined that both of the walls that we wanted to remove were load-bearing so we had to put up some temporary walls. A temporary wall is exactly what it sounds like. It is a wall that you use temporarily to hold up the weight of the roof while you get your header in.
They are essential when knocking out load-bearing walls. If you knock out a load-bearing wall without a temp wall then that load is going to come down making it hard to get your header in and potentially have your roof collapse into your home. We made sure not to skip this!
Removing Old Studs
After our temporary wall was in and supporting the weight of our roof, we cut out the old studs knowing that the load was going to be coming down on our temporary wall.
We heard some creaks as we were shifting the load of our roof over to our temporary wall. You are moving around a lot of weight so the subtle noises are normal.
Although we had some minor creaks, we went slow as we let the weight transfer over to our new wall. Speed isn’t your friend here. Take this step slowly like we did so you can listen and watch for any issues.
Pro tip: Cut your old studs at an angle as you remove them. This helps them naturally want to separate. If you cross-cut them level, you risk your blade getting pinned as the load presses the stud back together.
Adding Header Beam
Now we had an open space with the old studs gone and it was time to put in that header.
We ended up putting in two headers. One made of 2×6 with a sheet of half-inch plywood in the middle. The other header was a 6×6 glulam beam.
Why two headers? Well, we had plenty of space and Logan typically likes to overbuild. This filled in the gap between the old sheeting perfectly and gave us a good anchor point for our new header.
If you are working solo like Logan was (because someone has to watch the kids, right?) using cradles to help hold the header beam in place is a game changer. You can see him using them in our video (shown above or can watch it here) at 16:06.
Installing the header can be time-consuming and Logan had to trim the header just a bit to get it all the way in.
He also used temporary blocks above the new posts for the header to try and help with setting the header. The blocks were the same size as the header so the space would stay relatively the same size as our new header.
However, we also ended up having to use a bottle jack to lift that wall a bit so that we could slide the header in.
We took our time and also used a big sledgehammer to tap the headers into the right place.
Before we knew it the header was in!
Getting Rid of Temporary Wall
Before we removed our temporary wall, Logan secured the new header with framing nails. We followed that up with some TimberLok 8″ screws for added fastening. They may not be entirely necessary, but they really help tie in the header to the support and header above. The added strength and making all our framing act as one helps Logan sleep better at night too.
After that, it was time to get rid of the temporary wall. This was generally the same step as removing the old studs. We cut them at angles and demoed our temp wall out.
Lastly, we added L brackets to each corner for some extra reinforcement.
We were shocked with just how much this changed the look and feel of everything. It felt so open, which led us to the decision to remove the 2nd wall sooner than expected!
Removing The 2nd Wall (Open To The Living Room)
Originally we were planning on removing the 2nd wall (to the living room) at a later time. But ultimately we decided since we were living in a mess why not just continue living in the mess and get all the walls out we wanted at once?
I had originally thought I could only handle one giant mess at once but after cleaning and wiping and dusting I told Logan to just go for it. I didn’t want to have to relive the chaos again in a few months.
Plus he found another header that fit perfectly and also for free.
For that second wall, we followed all the same steps as the first.
We knew this wall was also load-bearing, but only a portion of the roof framing bore on this wall. So Logan did some math, quickly realized the header he had was way larger than necessary but decided to shove it in there anyway. Why not have an oversized free header, right?
Before You Start Removing Interior Walls: 6 Things To Do
- Figure out if it is a non-load-bearing wall or a load-bearing wall. If you don’t have experience here, we’d recommend bringing a professional (like a structural engineer or a licensed contractor) to figure out what type of wall you’re dealing with. Especially if you have a multi-story home. This is not the area to pinch pennies if you aren’t 100% sure of yourself and your math. I mean, your home could collapse! If you need to hire a contractor for your project, check out this article.
- Determine what is inside the wall by pulling back some of the drywall to see the wall studs.
- Consider what electrical wiring, plumbing and/or HVAC ductwork will need to be relocated. If you’re not experienced with plumbing and/or electrical, this is another area that you may consider hiring out.
- Often when the house is built, the specific locations for plumbing, electrical lines, or HVAC are chosen because it is the only possible way. Sometimes you just can’t move stuff.
- Gather your supplies. You’ll need hammers, sledges, a pry bar, even bigger pry bars, a utility knife or two, and protective equipment for your eyes. Respirator masks are also a good idea so you aren’t breathing in dust. Speaking of dust, you’ll want plenty of plastic sheeting and painter’s tape to try to contain the dust. Power tools, like a Sawzall, are really handy for demolition if you can get your hands on them. For our wall demo, it was also really handy having the bottle jack to push the wall up as we were adding the header.
- Make a plan for the debris. There’s going to be A LOT of trash. Come prepared with lots of heavy-duty trash bags and a large plastic trash bin for the small things. For the larger pieces of drywall or wall studs, you can take them directly outside. If you have a truck, you should be able to load everything in the truck bed and drive it to your local dump. You may need to rent a dumpster to get rid of all the demolition trash.
- Determine if you’ll need to add structural support (header, steel beams, columns, etc).
Now that we’ve gotten through the whole taking down walls process, we can really start the plan for the upcoming dining room project with a clear vision! We have some big plans – built-in cabinets, a reading nook, faux wood beams, and more! Stay tuned for future updates coming soon!