Demolish burnt house

DaKing · May 9, 2020

My home burned down, lost everything.

Insurance is giving me $XXXX.XX to go towards demolishing and removal. I'm thinking of using that money towards a tractor, as I've been wanting one for awhile. I own a few different plots of land across the state, so it will get use.

The roof of the house is still up on 3/4 of the house. The whole inside is burned dust. I have a dump trailer, or I can rent large dump containers to take the stuff off land.

I'm looking a compact tractors with front loader and a back hoe. Anyone use something like that to bring down a structure? I MAY hire someone with a larger tractor to bring the house down first...

I'm looking at B2650 or something near that from other vendors. I want the tractor to fit in my dump trailer. Although I do have a few other larger trailers if I go bigger.

Thanks.

Peter 315 · May 9, 2020

NAILS = flat tires .........

4570Man · May 9, 2020

I don’t recommend. Rubber tracks aren’t a lot better. They’re bad to cut. You need a metal tracked trackhoe. Even with the flat tire aside you’ll need a lot bigger boom than a tractor backhoe has to safely tear down a house.

old and tired · May 9, 2020

One story or two???

Don't hire a "Restore" type company - I wish I did the work myself.... I could have saved the insurance company and myself a ton of time, money and headaches....

ruffdog · May 9, 2020

The neighbor has taken down houses and larger buildings and he uses a trackhoe. Depending on the age and dust, he sometimes uses a water sprayer. Some of that stuff you don't want to be breathing.

orezok · May 9, 2020

Before you start demo, check with your local landfill. Some agencies will not accept burn out material because it contains hazardous material. If so, then it has to go to a special hazardous material dump and the costs will double or triple. If you already accepted an insurance payment you may be SOL.

Stimw · May 10, 2020

You can't sell burnt copper wire these days (EPA) BUT a friend got a letter from the Fire Marshal about origin and was aloud to sell it.
Some insurance companies frown on DIY repairs/removal be sure to check first.

Bigfoot62 · May 10, 2020

4570Man said:
I don’t recommend. Rubber tracks aren’t a lot better. They’re bad to cut. You need a metal tracked trackhoe. Even with the flat tire aside you’ll need a lot bigger boom than a tractor backhoe has to safely tear down a house.

^^ Yeah, that.

Hire someone to do the demo. You want a large excavator with a "thumb". Around here, that's about $1000 a day. Roll-off dumpsters to haul away the debris. Those are about $300 each, including disposal in a construction debris landfill.
Couple of years ago, a buddy of mine got a turn-key quote to demo a 1600 sq. ft. house. It was $6000, to tear it down and haul it away, including the concrete slab. Hope that gives you some idea of what you're looking at.

EddieWalker · May 10, 2020

I have a full sized backhoe and I used it to take down an old barn one time. That was one of the scariest things that I've done. I'm very lucky to have not hurt myself, but I did cause a lot of damage to my backhoe. Not just flat tires, but hoses got torn off, one of my rear fenders where cracked and a significant dent in my hood. What starts out as easy quickly became a mess. Getting debris out of the way and where it was going to be burned took forever. But the scary stuff what when part of it would come down, but something would hang up. Clearing room to get to that dangerous section is where things would go wrong.

If I ever did something like that again, I would rent a 15 tonne tracked excavator or bigger. It would have to have a thumb. I would also have to have something to pick up the debris and haul it to where it would be burned. A tractor with a grapple big enough to pick up a decent amount of material. My backhoe is 80 hp with a 4,000 pound lift at the loader, and that's about where I would want to be. I wouldn't want to be doing that with less power.

Sorry about your loss to your home, I can't imagine how bad that must be. I admire your desire to do the work yourself, I know that if I was in your shoes, that's what I would do. Just don't make anything worse by using something too small to be productive, or more importantly, safe. Look at what the pros use. Copy what they use and how they do it.

Good luck