When it comes to planning the demolition stages of your project, it’s important to remember that demolition isn’t as simple as just tearing buildings down. Professional demolition contractors offer a wide range of services around demolitions, allowing them to tailor a solution specific to your project’s needs. Here are some of the commonest approaches to demolition.
What is Demolition?
Demolition is the process of safely and carefully removing structures and buildings. There are many different reasons why demolition could be needed, from repurposing the land to renovating a structure, and there’s lots of different kinds of demolition projects and methods. A lot goes into a demolition project, requiring careful application of a range of techniques, planning and coordination. Some demolition services even utilize recycling techniques to salvage materials from structures, allowing them to be reused in further projects.
Total Demolition
Total demolition is where the entire structure or site is demolished. This is frequently seen when it comes to completely repurposing land, requiring everything on the site to be levelled, allowing for new projects and developments to take place.
Interior Demolition
There are plenty of projects where the structure itself is still desired. Demolishing only the interior of a structure can offer some unique challenges, especially when it comes to making sure the structure remains solid and undamaged. Examples of this would be the removal of partitions, such as walls and ceilings, in order to create bigger indoor spaces.
Selective Demolition
Selective demolition is where only certain parts of a building or structure are removed. Sometimes, certain parts of an existing structure are still wanted as part of the project, and in this instance, selective demolition is extremely useful. Essentially, the focus is on protecting the desired structures or buildings while demolishing the unwanted parts.
Deconstruction and Dismantling
Deconstruction and dismantling are a range of different techniques, specifically aimed at preserving key parts of the structure for refurbishment, reuse or recycling into new products. This can be a very green approach, minimizing waste and providing real environmental benefits. While a lot more labor intensive and there more expensive than other forms of demolition, if you want to retain parts of the existing structure or recycle extensively, this can be the right way to go.
Key Demolition Techniques
The three primary approaches to demolishing a building are by explosion or implosion, by machine, and by hand. Typically, explosion or implosion is used for multi-story structures, mainly commercial buildings, and is ideal for saving time and money. Implosions and explosions can be highly controlled and safe, causing the structure to collapse in on itself in a matter of seconds.
Demolition by machine is the commonest approach, utilizing heavy machinery and modern techniques to precisely tear down structures. Lastly, there’s demolishing by hand. This is often the slowest and most expensive option, although it has the key benefits of allowing you to recover valuable or recyclable resources from the structure. Typically, a larger-scale demolition would use some combination of these three in order to achieve the desired project outcome.