Reason #4869 Why I Hate the Previous Owners of My House

[csberry]

I am getting a knocking from the pipes going to the master bathroom. On the bedroom wall is a panel (looks like a kitchen cabinet door they put on the wall and painted white). I've removed a similar panel in the boys' room to access the pipes to their bathroom. I don't recall how it was fixed to the wall, but it wasn't really hard to remove.

THIS panel however...*sigh* This morning I've managed to pry the top portion of the board off the wall. Each of those corners had 3 nails at all sorts of angles, which resulted in much of the drywall into which they were nailed being ripped up. The previous owners also put some sort of rubber gasket/caulk around the edge of the board gluing the board to the wall. I'm now attempting to saw the nails (which were nailed flush or sunken into the board and painted over several times) going down the side of the board. I don't care how damaged the panel gets, but I'm trying my best to minimize the damage I do to the drywall.

How foolish of me to think that the panel was a door to allow easy access to the pipes. I'm now of the opinion that the panels were actually a slap-dash patch job on the wall from when they had to cut into it to deal with the pipes previously. Whomever put this panel up did everything they could to keep it in place.

Wish me luck!

Comments

[chris21718.livejournal.com]

Screws are a much better way to secure a panel, since they can be removed with very minimal damage to the panel or what's underneath. I'd recommend refastening that way unless you wanted to be really fancy and put hinges and a fastener on there. The problem with the hinges and fastener is you have to have clearance to open the panel while with screws the panel can be totally moved away until the work is done.

Screws are great, nails are evil

[csberry.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, a sane person would use screws for ease of removal and reattaching. I will likely do that. There is a chance I might get fancy and fit a latch into one side so the panel can be slid into place and pulled off like a battery cover or the back of a picture frame.