House Demolition Question

[BrokenTrack]

I have experience demolishing a few houses...

House 1:
The first was an old house built in the 1960's which was 24 x 40. I used a small excavator (#34,000 pound class) to knock it down which took about 45 minutes. It took another 3 hours to clean up the debris and put it into big steel dumpsters. That took (2 more) than the one we intended to use, and yes I mashed every bit down that I could to get more room. The volume of a house is staggering, so plan ahead. Also, the truck driver would not allow anything outside the metal body, nor anything over the sides of the dumpster. Rental on an excavator that size is about $500 per day, add in $150 for diesel fuel, and then dumpster costs.

House #2
My father had his house burn down and so we took the excavator and hauled it across the road and down to our old gravel pit and let it sit there for a few years not thinking much about it. Then we got tired of seeing it, so we bulldozed it under, but our neighbor called the Dept of Environmental Protection in, and got all cranked up. While we had the legal right to bury the house where it was, by moving it across the road (though we owned the land) it was illegal. Thankfully we know people, and so we sorted it out in fairly short order, and was allowed to bury the rest of the house, but had to permit the area as a "municipal dump", taking it forever out of production as agriculture or as a house lot, and had to do so at the Registry of Deeds in our county. BUT we were fortunate, the gravel pit we have also has sand...the same clay type of sand used to encapsulate old municipal dumps, so we did not have to haul in that special fill. So in this instance, if you can bury the house onsite, do so. Hauling it away may be an issue.

House #3
This was a 1950's trailer and it took exactly 6 minutes with that #34,000 pound excavator to mash it into oblivion and bury it under the earth. Within 3 months no one even knew the thing even existed, much less was there under the soil. That house was however, well out of view and off the beaten path.

 

[KYErik]

Are you in a rural area? Is the house within the "city limits" of a town?

Last year, here in rural IL, the local volunteer fire department did a controlled burn/training on a small house that was in bad shape- it can't hurt to call the fire department and ask.

When I lived in KY, I tore down a 25 X 50 house that was not in the city limits. I tore it all down by hand down to the floor and ended up selling all of the 2x6 trusses for about $200. I salvaged a little lumber but the termite damage was pretty bad. I had removed the shingles so I was able to burn much of the framing wood in small piles over several months- maybe 5% of the total at a time. I would usually tarp the bigger piles and burn them at the beginning of a rain storm. After I had burned all of the wood that I could, I paid a trackhoe operator about $400 to bury all the concrete blocks/nails/ashes/shingles/drywall under 1 foot of clean soil. In 2 years, no one could tell it was ever there.

 

[Erik M]

Around here one can get rural houses or barns burned by the VFD when the weather conditions suit them, etc but all roofing materials (metal or asphalt shingles) needs to be removed first and the building knocked down with an excavator, so there are some expenses. Septic tanks need to be pumped and either removed or filled with gravel and marked.

Sometimes fires seem to start in these old buildings in the middle of the night on the deepest snowstorm of the winter.....go figure.

 

[Oldoak]

...........................Sometimes fires seem to start in these old buildings in the middle of the night on the deepest snowstorm of the winter.....go figure.

Nothing wrong with that. As long as there is no insurance claims. No harm, no foul!

 

[tallyho8]

I had 2 houses torn down on property that I bought within the last few years. A cheap permit consisted of having the utility companies come out and unhook the phone, electric and gas lines at no charge and having the septic tank pumped out, filled with sand, then dug up when the house was demolished.
I was charged $4000 for the larger house and $3000 for the smaller one.

Both jobs were done in one day each. The excavator operator was skilled in smashing down the material completely so it would fit in the least amount of disposal units to cart off.

 

[fidowanttobe]

"lightning" don't need no permits.

EXAAAACTLY. Don't ask, Don't tell. No accelerant and no idea what happened.

 

[4570Man]

EXAAAACTLY. Don't ask, Don't tell. No accelerant and no idea what happened.

Id be sure to secure the place against "trespassers" a couple months before the fire. You wouldn't want the fire department to ruin your work.

 

[tallyho8]

And if a drunk homeless person happens to be sleeping in there, someone may be charged with homicide.

 

[RobertN]

That kind of defeats the purpose for the FD. The best part of a burn building was making interior searches, having interior fire attack, practicing ventilation on the roof, forcible entry, etc.

Around here one can get rural houses or barns burned by the VFD when the weather conditions suit them, etc but all roofing materials (metal or asphalt shingles) needs to be removed first and the building knocked down with an excavator, so there are some expenses. Septic tanks need to be pumped and either removed or filled with gravel and marked.

Sometimes fires seem to start in these old buildings in the middle of the night on the deepest snowstorm of the winter.....go figure.

 

[4570Man]

And if a drunk homeless person happens to be sleeping in there, someone may be charged with homicide.

Look through the place first.