The Removal of a Cement Shower Wall

Walls to Remove

• You won’t necessarily need to remove all of the walls when you take out a cement shower. Showers built at the side of the room likely have one or two walls that also serve as the walls of the room. You only want to remove the free-standing walls built for the shower that don’t provide structural support to the remainder of the room in these instances. If you have a corner shower built using two permanent walls of the room and only one additional wall, remove only the third wall.

Removing the Shower Wall

• Removing a cement shower wall takes a taxing and somewhat dangerous effort. Accomplish the removal in a couple of different ways. Remove a cement shower wall in the most precise way by renting a concrete saw and cutting the concrete away in small 1- to 2-foot sections. Use a sledge hammer to tap the cut concrete sections out of the wall. You can also break the concrete wall into bits with the sledge hammer alone if you don't mind a messier approach.

Fill in the Holes

• You may end up with some holes in the surfaces that the wall touched, such as the ceiling, the floor and the adjacent wall, after you've removed the cement shower wall. Fill in the holes by mixing up a batch of Portland cement according to the packaging instructions and spreading the cement mix into the holes with a trowel. Applying a cement adhesive to the interior of the holes to prime them before adding the cement helps the cement adhere to the old cement surface.

Dangers

• Expect some flying pieces of cement when you break through your cement shower wall. Always wear work goggles to protect your eyes and thick full-length clothing to protect your skin. Also, open doors and windows to provide as much ventilation in the room as possible, because tearing down a cement wall creates a lot of dust. While cement shower walls won’t usually provide structural support to a home, always check with the original home plans or a contractor to ensure that you don’t remove a load-bearing wall.