A kitchen renovation can take months. The kitchen demolition takes a day or two, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. Done carefully, it leaves you with clean walls, intact services, and a few hundred dollars of salvaged cabinets heading to a new home. Done with a sledgehammer and enthusiasm, it leaves you with a cracked gas line, a flooded subfloor, and a bin full of things someone would have paid you for.
This guide walks through how to tear out a kitchen the right way: what to plan, what to shut off, the order of operations, and how to size the bin so it is the right one the first time.
Decide what stays, what goes, and what gets saved
Before anything comes off a wall, walk the kitchen with your contractor or your renovation plan and make three lists.
What stays: plumbing rough-ins, electrical boxes, windows, and anything else the new design keeps. Mark these clearly so nobody pulls them out by accident.
What gets saved: more than you might think. Cabinets in decent shape, working appliances, light fixtures, and even stone countertops can have a second life. Habitat for Humanity ReStores accept donated kitchen cabinets and appliances in good condition, and some will even arrange pickup. Selling through a local marketplace is another option for appliances and cabinet sets.
What goes: everything else, from the old laminate counters to the damaged drywall behind the sink.
Salvaging takes a little more care during demolition, but it shrinks your bin, helps someone else, and sometimes puts money back in your pocket.
Shut off the services first
This is the step that cannot be skipped. A kitchen holds water, electricity, and often gas, all within a few feet of each other.
Water: close the shut-off valves under the sink and behind the fridge if it has an ice maker or water line. If the valves are old and seized, shut off the main and replace them. Open the taps to drain the lines.
Gas: if you have a gas range, have it disconnected by a licensed gas technician. In Ontario, gas work must be done by a certified gas technician, and a gas line is not the place to learn. They will cap the line properly until the new range goes in.
Electricity: switch off the breakers for every kitchen circuit, including the range, which is usually a separate 240-volt circuit. Test outlets and switches with a non-contact voltage tester before you open anything up. Label the breakers if they are not already labelled; you will thank yourself later.
Protect the rest of the house
Demolition dust travels. Seal doorways with plastic sheeting, and if you can, set up a zip wall with a door so you can get in and out without opening the whole space. Cover heating and return vents in the kitchen so dust does not get pulled through the house. Lay protective sheeting or cardboard along the path from the kitchen to the door you will use for carrying debris.
Plan that path to the bin before demolition day. The shortest, straightest route from kitchen to driveway saves dozens of trips' worth of effort and keeps debris off finished floors.
The order of operations
Kitchens come apart in a sensible order. Working top to bottom and inside out keeps things safe and saves you from removing the same piece twice:
- Appliances out.
- Countertops off.
- Sink and faucet disconnected and removed.
- Upper cabinets down.
- Lower cabinets out.
- Backsplash removed.
- Flooring up.
- Drywall and walls opened, if the renovation calls for it.
Appliances
Pull the fridge, range, dishwasher, and microwave first. They are heavy, they are in the way, and some can be sold or donated.
A few notes. A fridge with refrigerant still inside cannot go into a bin; the refrigerant has to be recovered by a certified technician first, or the fridge can go back with a retailer or to a municipal depot. Dishwashers have a water supply line and a drain hose to disconnect, plus an electrical connection. Over-the-range microwaves hang on a wall bracket and need two people to lift them off safely.
Our guide to appliance disposal covers every option, including scrap and retailer haul-away.
Countertops: laminate vs stone
Laminate countertops are light. They are usually held on with screws through brackets underneath, sometimes with a bead of adhesive. Unscrew them from below, cut the caulking along the backsplash, and lift them off. They go straight in the bin.
Stone is a different matter. Granite and quartz countertops are heavy: a standard 3-centimetre slab weighs roughly 16 to 20 pounds per square foot, so a modest 40-square-foot counter can weigh 650 to 800 pounds. Stone is also fragile when lifted the wrong way. Carried flat, a slab can crack under its own weight. Carry it on edge, like a pane of glass, with enough people.
If you want to reuse or sell stone counters, have a countertop fabricator remove them. If they are going in the bin, plan for their weight, which on its own can use a large share of a standard rental's included tonne.
Cabinets
Upper cabinets come down first, and they need two people. Cabinets are screwed through their backs into wall studs and to each other through the face frames. Have one person support the cabinet while the other removes the screws, starting with the screws that join cabinets together, then the wall screws.
Lower cabinets follow. Remove drawers and doors first; they come off quickly and lighten the boxes. Then unscrew the cabinets from the wall and from each other. Watch for plumbing and electrical lines that run through the backs or sides of cabinets, particularly around the sink and dishwasher.
If you are saving cabinets, take them off the wall in one piece and stack them carefully. If they are going in the bin, breaking them down saves space.
Backsplash, floor, and walls
Tile backsplash usually comes off with a hammer and a flat chisel or putty knife, taking some drywall with it. If you are replacing the drywall anyway, cut it out in sections instead of chipping tile off piece by piece.
Kitchen flooring varies. Sheet vinyl, tile, and hardwood each come up differently, and in older homes the same asbestos caution applies to old vinyl tile and adhesive. If your kitchen dates from before about 1990, read our guide to asbestos testing before you scrape or break old flooring. Carpet and vinyl plank are far easier, and our carpet removal guide covers flooring weights in detail.
If the plan calls for opening walls, check for wiring and plumbing before you cut, and keep cuts shallow. Drywall goes in the bin without fuss; our guide to drywall disposal explains how to load it.
Surprises behind old cabinets
Pulling cabinets off a wall that has not seen daylight in thirty years is a little like opening a time capsule. Plan for a few common surprises:
- Water damage under the sink and behind the dishwasher. Slow leaks rot subfloors and cabinet bases quietly for years. Soft, dark, or spongy wood needs replacing before new cabinets go in.
- Mould on the back of drywall or cabinet panels near the sink. Small patches can be cleaned or cut out; anything widespread deserves a closer look before you close the wall again.
- Mouse nests and droppings in the dead space under lower cabinets and behind the fridge. Wear a mask and gloves, and dampen droppings before cleaning rather than sweeping them dry.
- Old or improvised wiring, such as splices without junction boxes. Have an electrician look before the new kitchen goes in.
- Uneven floors and walls. Old kitchens were often built around them, and the new cabinets will need shims.
None of these are reasons to panic. They are reasons to leave a little slack in the schedule and the budget between demolition and the new kitchen going in.
How big a bin?
A typical kitchen tear-out, with cabinets, counters, backsplash, and some drywall, fits a 10 or 15-yard bin. Add flooring and a full drywall gut and you are usually looking at a 15 or 20-yard bin. Our bin size guide matches sizes to projects, and the cubic yard calculator helps with your own measurements.
Watch the weight. Stone countertops, tile floors, and plaster walls from older homes are dense, and a heavy kitchen can pass the 1 metric tonne of disposal included with a standard rental. Mention them when you book, and we will help you plan the load. Our residential rentals suit homeowners, and contractors running several kitchens at once can set up scheduled swaps through our construction bin rentals.
A realistic schedule
Day one: clear the kitchen, shut off services, protect the house, and remove appliances.
Day two: countertops, cabinets, backsplash, and flooring. With two people and a bin in the driveway, most kitchens come out in a day.
Day three: walls if needed, final cleanup, and bin pickup or swap.
For the bigger picture, our renovation cleanup timeline shows how to schedule bins across a whole project.
Where we help
We deliver bins for kitchen renovations across southern and eastern Ontario, including Whitby, Ajax, Cambridge, Waterloo, and Burlington. Call your local division with your kitchen size and what is coming out, and we will help you pick the bin that fits.
