Tearing down your basement ceiling and walls

Guess what, I tore down my basement ceiling and drywall with 2 things:

1. My bare hands (actually covered in cheap suede protective gloves)
2. A chisel! Yes, one of these:

It really is that easy to literally rip apart your basement drywall and ceiling! If you have lots of time and patience, you don't need a million tools. All you need is literally a chisel! Using the chisel and a bit of muscle power, I was able to pry off the drywall and ceiling tiles. I was able to cut through the drywall with the chisel as well. 

Our drywall was pretty thick. Probably 1/2" or greater. I didn't measure it, because I was just in the mood to destroy it! The ceiling tiles were stapled on acoustic ceiling tiles, that were 1' x 1' each. 

Of course, I had the requisite eye protection and a dust mask. Both of which shouldn't set you back for more than $20 or so. And of course, I'm sure there are tools that would make this a lot easier, but I didn't have any handy!

What did I learn?

I learned that removing ceiling tiles can be very messy. I could have literally ripped them all down by yanking really hard and yelling "timber!" but I would have had a lot of nasty dust all over the house. So instead, even though it took longer, I slowly pulled off the ceiling tiles, trying to pull them off "parallel" to the ceiling as much as possible, to minimize dust falling off the underside of the tiles. This seemed to keep the process somewhat clean. 

I didn't put them in bags as I went along, but I feel after the fact that I should have, as it would have kept things more neat and tidy. 

I also learned that a chisel probably isn't the best tool to remove drywall. I was using it to score the drywall to help with removing it, but it's not really sharp like a razor blade. Still, it got the job done, and I just got a better workout.  

I also learned that, it's important to go very slowly, to watch for wiring, and to never cut all the way through drywall in case there is wiring behind it. 

Next steps

Next on the agenda is to remove the framing, which will require at least a prybar and a hammer! Then to throw everything out that I tossed.