A comprehensive guide to tearing down your house is vital if you’re looking to tear down your home.
Tearing down a house can be a straightforward affair, especially if there are no specific areas worth protecting.
However, the process can be intimidating for most first timers, from what your neighbours will think, to how much it will cost you to demolish your home.
This process becomes even more complicated if there is a need for some thoughtful planning for demolishing the building.
In this guide, we’ll focus on what the demolishing process entails, covering one step at a time.
1. Determining The Best Demolition Method To Use
You can take apart your house in more than one way. That is why you need to know which demolition method will be appropriate for your home. In most cases, your options will boil down to two – mechanical demolition and deconstruction.
Mechanical demolition
For this means of tearing down the building, you will need to enlist hydraulic excavators and other appropriate heavy machinery and equipment. The debris the mechanical demolition makes will have to be hauled away to a designated dump site.
Mechanical demolition is perhaps the most affordable, highly preferred, and fastest way of pulling down a house. It can cost anywhere between $4,000 and $14,000 on average.
Deconstruction
This entails doing most of the work by hand, manually stripping the house down piece by piece. The objective of this is mostly to minimise damaging the construction materials so that you can salvage as much as possible.
The Department of Energy and the Environment says that it is possible to recycle or reuse more than 70% of the construction materials. That means the windows, doors, beam, lumber, plumbing, and other things can be repurposed or reused.
According to the building experts at BTB Concrete Pumping, modern houses often have recyclable materials owing to their construction, saying “there are many different types of materials which can be recycled, including: plasterboard, metals, plastics, glass, wood and bricks. For builders these materials actually reduce CO2 costs, reduce materials overheads, and create a competitive advantage.”
You may even be able to re-use materials, like timber wooden flooring, in your new home.
However, deconstruction is mostly manual work, and that means it is tedious, takes longer to complete and can prove to be a costly option. The demolition crew will exercise caution when taking off lighting fixtures, copper pipes, doors, windows, tubs, shelves, skins, faucets, doors the list goes on and on.
2. Finding The Best Demolition Contractor For The Job
You should hire an experienced, licensed, insured, and reputable demolition contractor to bring down your house. Such a contractor should meet you at the site and review all possible options for tearing down your building. That means the expert will discuss with you so that you understand what demo methods will suffice.
The contractor will give estimates for the project in writing while stating who will be responsible for applying and paying for the necessary permits for the relevant authorities that approve the plan. The technician should be familiar with the inspection requirement in your area.
For old homes and buildings, most states require them to be inspected first before getting demolished. It is a measure meant to detect any:
- Rot in the timber
- Asbestos
- Mould
- Other hazardous materials
3. Getting The Necessary Permits
You need to have the required permits before starting the demo process. Go online and visit your state’s relevant government website to know more before requesting the permits. What you need to request will depend on your state and local building and construction laws and regulations.
Please note that the rules for house demolitions may differ from state to state or city to city with some differences seen in matters related to the following:
- Hours of demolition
- Noise
- Disposal of the debris
- Notifications
Consider giving the job to a demolition contractor or company that is well-informed about the regulations in your area and is willing to pull the necessary permits on your behalf.
Before hiring the demo experts or the work starts, the contractor should explain up front all the services they will provide. This should include clarification about the permits, whether or not they will do it and foot the costs. You should feel free to ask any questions you may have and seek explanations of what you do not understand about the demolition process before it begins.
4. Disconnecting Existing Utility Services
Make sure that the gas, water, sewage, and electricity services are discontinued before the demo starts.
BEWARE: Gas and electricity pose a significant danger if the demolitions start while they are still connected and running.
You do not want the damage or soil the water supply and adequately notifying your service provider about the scheduled demolition of your house. It will help ensure your neighbours are unaffected; thus, they will continue to enjoy their power, water, drainage, and gas.
According to the building and roofing experts from Mr Highlights Roofing, it pays to plan ahead, noting “if you have a date for demolition scheduled, reach out to your existing utility providers in advance. Many providers require up to 10 business days to action such requests, so you don’t want to be caught with water still running when you start tearing down your home.”
You will have to place the termination requests for some of the services in writing to the supply company. And you also may be required to send your requests a week or two before you start pulling down your home. It gives the suppliers enough time to terminate and reroute their services before the demolitions begin.
5. Ensuring The Area Is Safe For Others
Installing protective fencing may be necessary or a requirement for the demolitions. The objective is to ensure that adjacent structures and properties are safe and protected from the debris. The fencing is a temporary installation and is of any suitable type.
If you have neighbours, then you should act neighbourly and inform them of the planned demolition of your house. The goal is to alert them of the mess and noise they should expect in the next few days. Instead and test your neighbour’s patience and endurance for the disturbance and inconveniences the demolition process will cause, informing them will make them aware so that they can plan accordingly. It also helps to make the process easier and faster since theirs are not distractions that can halt the project.
6. Tearing Down The House
The demolition can take a day or last several days depending on the methods used. As mentioned earlier, the deconstruction part of the process is what eats up significant time and money. Nevertheless, the demolition equipment used will also play a role. If the machinery is large and powers, then it can bring down the entire house in a matter of hours.
On the other hand, there also is the matter of the proper disposal of unwanted building materials. You should adequately plan for the hauling of the debris to the landfill site.
7. Getting Rid Of The Debris
You should have the necessary waste material container on site so that you can remove all the debris and leave the place looking clean. That means that even the foundation of the existing building should be pulled up and waste disposed of appropriately.
According to the commercial skip bin team from Bargain Bins, there are many things to plan ahead for, noting “it’s not enough to just throw everything out (including the kitchen sink). If your home contained asbestos you’ll need separate skips, with the option for recycling skips also popular in 2019 as more people move towards making sustainable waste disposal decisions.”
While bringing down a home to create space for a new home is exciting, make sure you follow this list to ensure a safe and smooth transition in this exciting phase of your life.
