Deconstructing a house. How too??

   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #11  
10k is just not a possibility. I sent the local fire chief an email today to see if they were interested or knew a VFD that may be. I have not heard back yet. :)

Around here they require you to have an asbestos inspection/and abatement before they will burn it. Probably got something about lead paint by now if built in the 70's or before.
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #12  
Hi all,

Some of you know that I have been trying to sale a 2200sqft brick house for some time and have had no takers. I am not going to pay someone 10k to tear it down. Now I am considering deconstructing the houe myself and salvaging whatever wood I can for future projects. All I can see it taking is time and an occasional construction dumpster rental Has anyone ever done this? Where do you start? Drywall and ceiling removal first then roof and work my way down? Any sites for how to out there?

Thanks
Wade

One of the easiest ways to dismantle the framing etc. is by using a reciprocal saw and cutting the nails...much easier than using cats paws and nail bars...The drawback is when you reuse the wood you have to be careful of the leftovers (sawed nails) that reek havoc on circular saw blades...
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #13  
I don't think this is such a big deal. It will just take time and some heavy lifting. Try to find some hard working laborers to help you. Most used brick will have good value, but it needs to be cleaned (of mortar) and that's a time consuming task. One caution - if this is a real brick house (not just face brick) brace the walls well before you take the roof off. Brick walls have surprising little resistance to side loads without bracing. I pulled the roof off a solid brick garage once and it scared me to death until I got bracing on it.

If nothing else, you can use the salvaged wood for firewood. The piping and wiring will bring a few bucks as scrap.
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #14  
We once needed to demolish a 12 x 26 structure. We gutted the innards most siding to the point of instability with the roof panels being impossible, they being nailed every 3" with 2 1/2 spiral nails.
My solution---tied a 3/4" rope up and over to the far side, locked the jeep in 4WD, LOW and flipped the whole structure upside down.
The landing jolt liberated all the nails nicely and we recuperated all the 4 x 8 BC fir plywood for re use as floor underlay.
With the rope and distance it was a very safe operation.
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #15  
You don't want to burn or bury your house, that will turn your land into a dump which someday will cost much more than $10K to clean up. That said, disposal is going to be your biggest cost.

The way the pros do it around here is to knock the house down, break it into pieces small enough to fit into a dumpster and cart the whole thing away. You have to decide whether you want to go that route, or the route of taking everything apart and sorting it and then disposing of it or reusing it depending on the material.

The pros just load the whole house into dumpsters because time is money, but you'll save a lot on the disposal if you sort the materials. In my neighboring state of Massachusetts recycling of building materials is mandated, so there is a market for used materials, but they have to be clean. Drywall is recycled, so a dumpster full of pure drywall is much cheaper to get rid of than a dumpster of unsorted debris. My local concrete recycler takes broken concrete and bricks for free, as long as it's clean. Wood can be reused or burned on site.

Demolition is dangerous work. Gravity is working against you. If you're going to disassemble and sort, I would take as much off as you safely can with the house still standing.

If you want to flatten the house, the key is that most buildings can't stand much sideways force. Some guys took down a two-story house across the street from me using only a Bobcat. They punched holes through the walls in one corner near the roof, and wrapped a chain around the corner post and pulled. The whole house came down right quick. If I were to do it, I think I would have two corners wrapped before I started pulling, in case I pulled a corner off and the house was still standing. I wouldn't want to go up on a ladder to attach another chain after I had ripped one corner off! And make sure the chain is long enough that there's no chance of the house falling on you.

Take lots of pictures!
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #16  
You demo in the reverse order that you build it. You can gut it first, don't remove any load bearing walls. Then start on roof and take it down from the top down.
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #17  
10k is just not a possibility. I sent the local fire chief an email today to see if they were interested or knew a VFD that may be. I have not heard back yet. I figure I have 10 months to do it. It needs to be down and off the books before Jan 1st 2014 so I do not have to pay a whole nother year in taxes. I am already stuck with 2013. As far as burrying them I don't see why now. I would just need to rent a back hoe I guess. With the current property I live on and the property that the house is on I have 13 acres to find a hole.... :)

The fastest way to remove that building is to offer it up in the free section on craigslist It will be down in days and gone many people will spend the time to reuse the brick and lumber ,I'll bet you get 5 calls the first day !
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #18  
You could rent it. Get some cash for a few months and they will tear it down within a year.
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #19  
Knock it down with and excavator and using the excavator load it into multiple roll of dumpster with a one way ticket to the land fill.

It's gonna cost money one way or the other.
 
   / Deconstructing a house. How too?? #20  
Knock it down with and excavator and using the excavator load it into multiple roll of dumpster with a one way ticket to the land fill.

It's gonna cost money one way or the other.

not if you give it away ,i would take it down myself if I was closer
 
 
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