How to Remove a Wall in a Galley Style Kitchen

Check the galley kitchen wall you intend to remove to ensure it is not a load-bearing wall. Load-bearing walls are necessary to maintain your home’s integrity. Check your home’s blueprints to determine whether the wall is load-bearing. If you determine that it is load-bearing, check with a professional contractor to determine how to remove the wall safely.

Cover any furnishings and nearby appliances in both the kitchen and the opposite room beyond the wall with plastic sheeting to protect them from debris that may scatter during the wall demolition. Place a large tarp or drop cloth across both your kitchen and the room opposite the wall to protect the floors.

Turn off all water in your home to stop the water supply to any piping that may be located in the wall. Turn off all the electricity to your home as well to avoid a potentially dangerous electric shock that can occur from contact with wiring in the wall.

Punch a hole in the wall’s drywall with a hammer. Use a prybar to pull out large sections of drywall. Remove all the drywall so that the studs are revealed. Remove any nails in the studs with the back of your hammer.

Use a reciprocating saw to cut through the fire blocks between the studs. Use your hammer to loosen the short stud blocks, located toward the bottom of the wall. Wiggle them back and forth to further loosen them and pull them up from the bottom plate.

Use the reciprocating saw to slice through the remaining studs. Cut through the studs at a diagonal, downward angle. Wiggle them back and forth to loosen them and them lift up to pull them free.

Make a cut, at a downward diagonal angle, across the top plate with your reciprocating saw. Insert the prybar between the cut sections of the wall’s top plate and pry the sections from the wall. Repeat this technique to remove the bottom plate.