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4 ways to Demolish a building

In the article “4 Ways to Demolish the Building”, by Rodriguez (2018), states the demolition workers were looking into the considerations and the ways on how to have the buildings to be demolished. There are 4 method on how to demolish a building stated in the passage.

The technique use for demolition will depends on the location of the building, the primary building materials so that specific method could be used.  Disposal of debris after demolition and safety of the demolition crew and the public must also be taken into consideration.

The passage also introduces the different ways of demolition of a building which includes implosion, High Reach Arm, Wrecking Ball and Selective Demolition.

The first method introduce is Implosion. It is to knock out a building’s vertical supports which causes the building to collapse onto itself from the inside out. They were often used to demolish huge structures in urban areas. In order to demolish it successfully, the crews need to analyse a complete set of structural blueprints, to identify the main components of the building, determine whether other areas need to be blasted, determine the type of explosives to use and where to position the explosives. The second method is High Reach Arm demolition. This method of demolition is using a base machine fitted with a long demolition arm consisting of three sections or a telescopic boom. A demolition tools, such as a crusher, shears or hammer is attached to the end of the arm to break up the building from the top.  The machine removes the large pieces of the building structure for the ground crew to further break them down for disposal. This method of demolition is used to demolish building of height more than 66 feet. It is used on reinforced concrete building, masonary, steel, and mixed material structures. The third method is wrecking ball demolition. This method is an old and common technique use to demolish concrete and masonry structures with a wrecking ball weighting up to 13,500 pounds. The ball is either dropped onto or swung into the structure which simply crushes the building with repeated blows. The demolition must be performed with highly skilled and experienced crane operators. It creates a great deal of dust, vibration, and noise.  The last method is the selective demolition. This method is to strip out, selective materials demolition. It allows builders to reuse or recycle the building’s materials such as wood, brick, metals, and concrete. The aim of this demolition is to recover the maximum amount of primary(reusable) and secondary(recyclable) material in a safe and cost-effective procedure. However, the process is labour-intensive and is difficult to achieve in a timely and economical manner for light-framed building.

From the passage, we learnt the different ways of demolition. Each technique has its’ own set of pros and cons. In my opinion, implosion is the quickest method to put down high rise building in seconds, even though explosives are involved, if well planned it is a very safe and fast technique widely use. However, implosion is not suitable for house or small structure demolition. Mechanical demolition using high reach arm method and wrecking ball will be better demolition technique to apply to such structure building. As for building that preservation of part of the building is require, Selective demolition is best technique to use.

Before selecting any type of demolition technique use, the demolition engineers need to consider and assess the building to be demolished and the surrounding environment. They must be equipped with the necessary tools, equipment and skill to carry out the task.  The team must always choose the safest manner to complete the task including the planning on how to get the building to be demolished safely.

 Demolition is a dangerous process. It may cause injuries and possible death due to collapses of inadequate support of partially demolished structures. Other than choosing the most appropriate technique to use for demolition, they also need to consider the total environment. Safety is one of the major consideration too, due to the demolition of structure, there are many problems faced by the demolition crew such as exposure to dust, noise, chemical and heat. To overcome all these problems, suitable measures must be undertaken.

The ultimate goal of demolition is to pull down a building in the safest and most efficient way possible while working within the budget. In order to achieve this, a careful and detailed demolition plan must be set up

Reference:

Juan Rodriguez (2018): 4 ways to demolish the building(2018) 

Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/ways-to-demolish-buildings-844420

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