Even the most historic and beautiful buildings cannot last forever. There will come a certain point when a building needs to be removed. This happens because times change, buildings get old and unstable, and cities transform and change and require the demolition of buildings so that new ones can be built.
Demolishing these buildings has been a practice that professionals have studied and evolved over the years. As it always has been, building demolition is a very complicated and precise process that has includes many strict and complex procedures that all work together to guarantee efficiency and safety for everyone involved, including those knocking down the buildings and those who will soon dwell within them.
Demolishing a Building Questions Answered
How It Starts
Most of the time, the process of demolishing a building starts with careful planning and multiple meetings and business sessions that go over intentions for the building as well as evaluation of the current structure. Engineers and specialists evaluate the construction, components, and placement of the building to create a demolition strategy that reduces hazards and environmental damage.
The demolition project will spend a good amount of time doing a thorough decontamination of the building to make sure that no harmful or noxious substances will be decimated into the environment upon the destruction of the building. This is especially important when historic and older buildings are knocked down. Many of them were built with materials that are deemed unsafe today.
Following this, the building in question site is then prepared for the destruction process. What this entails is working with the city and cutting off utilities including gas, electricity, and water so that employees and surrounding buildings are protected and safe.
Demolition Begins
Once the preparation is complete, the real demolition begins. This part of the process starts after the site has been cleaned up of all the materials and the planning has been concluded. At this point, the engineers and construction workers are simply following the plan that has been agreed upon and laid out plainly.
This is obviously when the most important part of the procedure begins: the physical destruction of the building. There are many ways to demolish a building and technology has advanced so that crews have more options than ever before. Today, various techniques can be used to bring the building down.
Implosion: Perhaps one of the most popular and efficient ways to demolish a building is via implosion. When this is done, strategically placed explosives are employed to create the collapse of the structure on itself. To avoid harming neighboring buildings nearby, this technique has to be calculated precisely and applied with care. The process of imploding a building an exact science that rarely results in any extra, unwanted destruction. It also provides an exciting event for locals, who often come out to watch the building be destroyed.
Mechanical Demolition: The use of machines is relied upon often when demolishing a building. With this method, the structure is carefully dismantled via the use of trusted and reliable, modern machines such as bulldozers and/or excavators. This is an approach that is often used for smaller constructions or in places with a little amount of space because of how little an area it takes up and how precise the procedure can be.
Deconstruction: Carefully dismantling the structure by hand rather than total implosion or destruction is perhaps the oldest but most reliable method of demolishing a building. This technique often results in less environmental impact and holding onto recyclable resources too. It takes more work and often much more time too and needs to be done by a group of trained, seasoned experts who know how the step-by-step process works. There is inherently more risk too because any sort of mistake could result in the building falling apart with workers inside.
High Reach Arm: If a building is very tall, this is a method that will likely be used. The building that needs to be demolished is progressively taken apart from the top down using a specialized excavator with an extended arm with this procedure.
This is a method that is often used for skyscrapers or taller buildings in busy areas. Any other process is more dangerous and harder to complete when the building is very tall and surrounded by many other dwellings. Because of that, inner-city structures that exist in heavily inhabited areas often turn to this technique.
Beyond the physical act of taking the building apart, there are other things that need to be tended to during the demolition process. For instance, dust and debris control is crucial so that the air around the work site isn’t contaminated. There are many unseen materials that can prove to be toxic long after they have been dispelled from a demolished building. To limit dust dispersion, techniques like water sprays and dust barriers are used. Additionally, workers will often wear protective gear too.
After The Demolition
When the demolition process is finally completed, items are then gone through and divided up, either for recycling or disposal. After that, the waste is then processed. However, not everything is disposed of. Some materials can be used again. Demolishing a building also uncovers what can be used in the upcoming construction. For any new building projects, certain materials such as steel, concrete, and others can be recycled.
When the site has been cleared, more tests are often completed, oftentimes by the local government. They do this so that any pollution that may have occurred during the building’s use can be eliminated. Soil testing and remediation may be employed at this point too.
Building Demolition in Central Oregon
Deconstructing a structure requires planning, serious and expert execution, as well as a concentration on building security, environmental stewardship, and effective waste management. When a construction company is demolishing a building, it is also thinking about what will be in its place and the people who will be residing in it.
Bartlett Excavation provides excavation and construction services in Central Oregon. We are an experienced company in building demolition. Contact us today online or call at (541)447-3301.