DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this??

   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this?? #41  
I haven't done it but it looks to me like it would be easier and safer to use a bottle jack and some wood or concrete blocks to raise one side until it falls over, instead of trying to hook up the cables and blocks. At least until you get it high enough that you can push it over with the FEL on your tractor. Running a skil saw up the side walls a few times with a ladder to get up as high as you can, would help ensure it collapses when it rolls over.
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this?? #42  
I haven't seen anything about how you plan to get rid of the debris. That's the most important part and most of the work. My experience is that in the long run the cheapest and easiest way is just to hire a dumpster. You want the trash off of your property, if you burn it or bury it there's always a residue that never goes away and turns up to pop your tires or cause other mischief.

After safety, the most important consideration is containing the mess. As others have noted, dropping the building takes a small fraction of the time of cleaning it up. The more pieces, the more cleanup. The ideal situation is to have the whole building broken into pieces that are just small enough to move with your tractor and fit in the dumpster. The nightmare scenario is a thousand pieces on the ground that you have to pick up by hand. The alternative nightmare scenario is a thousand pieces on the ground that you don't pick up and cause you grief for the rest of your life.

I would work backwards from where the dumpster has to go and how you're going to load it. Make sure you have a clear path for the tractor. When dropping the building, I would drop it onto something to contain the mess. If you're going to take the sheathing off you might want to lay it on the ground in the fall zone to catch debris. I'd even consider a tarp under the sheathing to catch nails and pieces of shingle.
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this??
  • Thread Starter
#43  
I haven't seen anything about how you plan to get rid of the debris. That's the most important part and most of the work. My experience is that in the long run the cheapest and easiest way is just to hire a dumpster. You want the trash off of your property, if you burn it or bury it there's always a residue that never goes away and turns up to pop your tires or cause other mischief.

After safety, the most important consideration is containing the mess. As others have noted, dropping the building takes a small fraction of the time of cleaning it up. The more pieces, the more cleanup. The ideal situation is to have the whole building broken into pieces that are just small enough to move with your tractor and fit in the dumpster. The nightmare scenario is a thousand pieces on the ground that you have to pick up by hand. The alternative nightmare scenario is a thousand pieces on the ground that you don't pick up and cause you grief for the rest of your life.

I would work backwards from where the dumpster has to go and how you're going to load it. Make sure you have a clear path for the tractor. When dropping the building, I would drop it onto something to contain the mess. If you're going to take the sheathing off you might want to lay it on the ground in the fall zone to catch debris. I'd even consider a tarp under the sheathing to catch nails and pieces of shingle.
That's great advice, thank you. I'm actually planning on having a 30 yard dumpster on site when it goes down.
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this?? #44  
That's great advice, thank you. I'm actually planning on having a 30 yard dumpster on site when it goes down.

So, do you have forks?
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this??
  • Thread Starter
#45  
No, not yet anyway
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this?? #46  
No forks, then you might want to make a set of wood ones. It will save your back!
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this?? #47  
That's great advice, thank you. I'm actually planning on having a 30 yard dumpster on site when it goes down.

You do realize that per the unwritten rules of TBN you are required to provide FULL video of the take down don't you ? :)
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this??
  • Thread Starter
#48  
You do realize that per the unwritten rules of TBN you are required to provide FULL video of the take down don't you ? :)

Naturally! I'm inviting some friends over to partake in the festivities so they should be filming too. Or their wives anyway, from a safe distance!
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this?? #49  
Looks repairable to me from what I can see. ??


Agreed, but, there may be a lot of rot at the bottom we can't see. Still, that's repairable.


But if it has to come down.... there's a whole lot of overthinking going on here for a man who has a tractor with a bucket loader.
 
   / DEMOLITION -- Am I CRAZY to do this?? #50  
 
 
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