Knocking a house down with my JD 4310

[pilonidal]

Stay away from wooden strutures with nails. Quick story....while stationed at an Air Force Base there was this large wooden structure that the Civil Engineering guys took down with a couple of big end loaders. It probably took them 30 mins to demolish and make nice big wood, filled with nails, trash pile. The next day both end loaders are sitting there with every tire flat to the ground. To funny, these were regular construction/quarry end loaders with huge thick tires if you know what I mean. A ton of money was spent to replace those and I know someone's butt was in a sling and not about to get promoted anytime soon. ROFL

 

[Nissan197]

Let the VFD take care of. Is there any asbestos in the house? It would probably be illegal to burn that or tear it out without some kind of certification/permits. Even if the VFD will not burn, they will come out and get some practice in by venting the roof, etc...

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Just another option:

My Uncle tore his old farmhouse down when I was a kid with an M Farmall and a log chain. Ripped it apart piece by piece, drug those away, and burned.

Lots of flat tires over the years over there though . I'd recommend the Fire Department and a beer while you are watching

 

[dholly]

I'd recommend the Fire Department and a beer while you are watching

Tim, I knew I was forgetting something! And, yeouch!, that is some sobering pic and wise words from Lee too - it sure doesn't take long for a fire to get totally out of control. I just cringe when I see guys standing over their huge burn pile with a 300' long 3/8" garden hose hooked to a 5gpm well in the dry season...

 

[KYErik]

I just cringe when I see guys standing over their huge burn pile with a 300' long 3/8" garden hose hooked to a 5gpm well in the dry season...

I agree on the fire risk. I tore down an old house 3 years ago (mostly by hand so I didn't have any flat tires) and burned the remains. I sold the trusses and some interior doors and studs for about $400. That was more than enough to cover the expense of the trackhoe coming out to bury the ash/nails and what was left of the foundation. You can't even tell anything was ever there now.

If you are going to light a fire that big, wait on the weather to help you out. If there are no other structures within 300-400 feet, wait until you see a large continous area of moderate/heavy rain headed your way (without wind) on the radar. When the leading edge of the rain hits you, light it up! In the 5 minutes that it will take the fire to really get going, everything more than 50 feet from the blaze will be wet enough to be protected (if the rain continues and there is no wind). You will be amazed at how fast it will burn- if the wood was good and dry when the rain/fire started, we're talking 2 hours and the fire will be down to waist/knee high.

 

[sandman2234]

Lee,
You have my prayers. I had a skin graft as a kid and the scar will be with me to my grave. Fortunately it is in a area covered by jeans. (left leg near kneecap) There has been massive improvements in the area of burns and skin grafts(thank you Shriners!!) since mine was done by the U.S. Navy Hospital over in Pensacola, Fl. Mine is about the same size as yours, or a little bigger.
David from jax

 

[leeinmemphis]

Lee,
You have my prayers. I had a skin graft as a kid and the scar will be with me to my grave. Fortunately it is in a area covered by jeans. (left leg near kneecap) There has been massive improvements in the area of burns and skin grafts(thank you Shriners!!) since mine was done by the U.S. Navy Hospital over in Pensacola, Fl. Mine is about the same size as yours, or a little bigger.
David from jax

Thanks alot. I am hoping that I won't have to do the skin grafts. The doctor told me early this week that I will likely be able to get by without it. I just thought that I should post my experience just to help some people realize no matter how prepared you are that it can get out of control. I had a trackhoe, dozer, tractor, fire extinguishers, chainsaws, etc but I was by myself and that's where I really screwed up. I definitely needed more help. I should have had 2-3 more people there to help me and at that point I may have been able to avoid getting hurt.

 

[toy]

Lee hope your burn heals ok and thanks for sharing your expeirence. Last summer my fatherinlaws neighbor hired about four men to tear down an old house about 60 foot from his house. He had a suspicion that they were going to knock it down and burn it in place so he went out and told them not to burn it that close to his house and they told him that they had done that hundreds of times and they wasn't no danger and my fatherinlaw got stern with them not to set the house on fire and they assured him that they wouldn't so he went in the house to eat lunch . About 15 minutes later another neighbour called him and asked him if they was alright and he told the neighbor yea and asked why andthe neighbour said that it looked like the end of his house was on fire. My fatherinlaw went out and sure enough they had set the old house on fire and it had caught his house on fire. He ran back in the house got his wife out and called the fire department and went out and started spraying his house down until the firedepartment got there. The fire department managed to save his house but it still had a lot of damage. My fatherinlaw is 86 years old but when that 30 year old that he had talked to before tried to make him an excuse for how it happenend my fatherinlaw convinced him to set down and shut up and explained to him that he was a liar. When he did that it tickled me that is the hottest I had seen my fatherinlaw. Needless to say always be careful when doing a big burn, and consider others which I beleive all of you fine folks would do any way.

 

[mscheer772]

The house and four outbuildings are down, burned, and buried.
I hired an excavator and the house and outbuildings were down and in the hole within 2 hours.
Thanks,

Mike-