Doug Fair: Because this little room is often the main room, we’ve used it basically as a huge closet and so what happens with closet is we throw things in there.
Jody Fair: When we want to watch a movie, we can’t find the movie that we want to watch because it’s a mess like this TV and I’ve been worried about it ever since, about the kids, and about the fact that it’s going to get damaged somehow.
Doug Fair: What I wanted to do is make the room larger and I figured out what I do is take out this wall.
Jody Fair: When I heard Doug with the sledgehammer, I ran upstairs. Hi! How are you doing?
Doug Fair: Well, we talked about the — I just have to go to knock it out. We’ve talked about--
Jody Fair: Are you there at the wall already?
Doug Fair: I don’t think so.
Jody Fair: Okay.
Male: Good news, it’s not a live bearing wall. So we have to continue with our plan here. As a warm to opening this wall, first, we’re going to teach Jody and Doug how to use the same basic skills to create a small reopening to embed their television.
All right this is a good little project we’re doing here and why the reasons I like doing it and getting that television in the wall is because you be able to maintain your floor space back again.
Doug Fair: Sure.
Male: Yeah.
Doug Fair: That’s fantastic.
Male: Yeah and looks pretty cool to get a television surface mounted in there.
Doug Fair: That’s been great.
Male: While Doug is anxious to cut into the wall, we keep him busy removing the baseboards. Next, we mark out the area with a TV will be tucked away safe and sound.
Male: How does that bubble look?
Doug Fair: Looks right on.
Male: Okay. We nailed kind of whole a bit wide of the TV so the unit slides in freely without damaging the drywall.
Male: Okay well that’s our outline. Now there’s a few ways we can demolish this. We want to be very, very careful because it’s obvious, we’ve got a lot of services in there. And even when you can’t see anything in there, I never recommend going with the sledgehammer or going in with a saw. To prevent damage from any cables lurking within the wall, we use a utility knife to scour the drywall.
Doug Fair: Okay let’s make some damage.
Male: Next, we use a hammer to pound small holes in the drywall.
Male: Come on men, just take it out.
Doug Fair: All right step back. Is that a little better?
Male: Oh! Yup now try and just joint the dots.
Doug Fair: All right very good.
Male: Take down the wall. Just finish this top piece of there and let’s see if we can take this out. All right now, let’s just take it out. Wow! So this is a classic example where we can’t use you know a reciprocating saw because look, we’ve got cables coming down here and we don’t really know where they are coming from. Sometimes yes but this is also coming from the ceiling.
Male: Once the drywall is removed on the bonus room side, we punch a hole through each corner of the closet drywall with a saw. And then we can go now beside and it’s a matter of just joining the dots and we’ll do the same thing here.
Doug Fair: Okay.
Male: And that side.
Doug Fair: Okay.
Male: Hey! Look what I found.
Doug Fair: Very nice, looks prettier than here.
Male: Thanks mate. Once the drywall is removed, we drive screws into each stud stabilize the wall. Next, we use a reciprocating saw to cut down the studs. So you know the use of something like that or you can do it by hand but I don’t know which one you prefer to do.
Doug Fair: It’s a lot faster.
Male: Yeah, okay well now it’s like that. You get the permits and I’ll see you in a week all right?
Doug Fair: Thanks.
Male: Now that we have the opening for the television, we installed a 2x4 bottom seal and wood skids on the floor. These little guys will provide a solid foundation for the TV and give us some framing to that I lean to since we are working on carpet.
Female: Okay Jody, are you ready to build a giant box?
Jody Fair: I am ready.
Female: Cool! Well as you know, we’re building this box to set your TV into the wall. It’s basically going to be a five-sided open on the front box.
Jody Fair: Okay.
Female: And the first thing we need to do is just cut all every parts before assembling. We begin by using a straight edge and a circular saw to cut out our premeasured pieces. Once we have our pieces cut to size, DIY carpenter Nathan Hahn show’s Jody how to assemble the parts.
Nathan: Building things, this is one of my most favorite things to do.
Jody Fair: Oh! Good.
Nathan: Basically, we’re just going to butt joint this together.
Jody Fair: Okay.
Nathan: Very simple construction you do the nice job cutting all these.
Jody Fair: Thank you.
Nathan: And the pre-primed is a plus because sometimes when things are better, it’s hard to get in there and prime it so this is a good way to go.
Nathan: Although large in scale, the basic construction for the box is fairly simple. All we need is a drill, screws, and stamina. Come on Jody. That’s all punching bag in your garage. Well that’s the machine getting styled, there you go. You can figure a little more and keep tucking.
Jody Fair: Okay.
Nathan: Good job.
Jody Fair: Thank you.
Nathan: Now that our box is assembled, it’s just a matter of installing it in our opening. I think the hardest part is out of the way Doug.
Doug Fair: Okay great.
Male: Give me up those steps.
Doug Fair: Yeah.
Male: It’s quite of an adventure. And if we’ve done our homework, this should slip right into place, set the bottom in.
Doug Fair: Okay.
Male: Have the front out and then we should be able to slide back in there. Once we have it in place, we check for plumb and level, and secure it in the place with screws. We now have a safe enclosure for the television.
Female: Now it’s time to stack the shelves and have the family’s personal touches. Once everything is tucked away, all that’s left is a little heavy lifting.
Doug Fair: All right, how was that?
Male: That’s looking pretty good.
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