August 25, 2025 Elevator Shaft Doors Demo
Ooops, that Martin already put up the “Elevator Shaft Final Demo Day” page and today is really that day. The glaziers will be up tomorrow and our contractor wanted the door openings cut as late as possible to leave the house opened for as short a time as possible. These openings were difficult because of the way that the Sto coating works. On top of the OSB sheathing is a metal lath, then fiber reinforced concrete, then fiberglass mesh, then finally the actual stucco goes on top of that.
Therefor, you have to do two cuts. The first with a diamond blade with the depth set to just go through the Stucco, fiberglass, concrette and lath, then the second with a wood blade to cut through the OSB.
First cut using the Skill Saw for the most precise cut.
The sheathing layers.
Another cut using the Skill saw.
Some of the cuts were so tight that the Skill saw couldn’t be used and a grinder had to do the job. This is much more difficult to handle because there is no baseplate and no guides! You have to do everything perfectly.
The last bits of wood were cut using a multi-tool.
Since the complete sheathing is heavy, they removed it in 4 pieces. This is the last piece of the upper door opening coming out.
The last thing that had to be done, cover the openings with plastic until the glass people are done.