Its funny, when a house is standing it looks big, when its demolished it just looks like a pile of rubble, then when they start to load it onto a truck the pile never seems to get any smaller.
We have just demolished the old weatherboard ready to build a new 2 storey townhouse. It took a day for two of them to get the asbestos out, then the big excavator arrived on the back of a huge truck. It was nervewracking watching it come off as it overhung the downramps on either side by about 6-8inches and although the power had been cut off, there were still other wires going into the house next door. It has gouged the kerbing and footpath but we had to replace that with a xover anyway so no probs.I had okd a tile place to come and get the tiles and although they only offered $100 it would have been worth it to have them removed. Anyway, what with Xmas they didn’t arrive so then it was a bit nervewracking worrying if they would skip off onto the house next door (You can tell I’m a born worrier but I couldnt not watch as I am fascinated by it all) So within hours all we had was a pile of rubble – didn’t seem big enough for a whole house.
Then the most massive truck you have ever seen came and they started loading. Took 2 1/2 loads. I don’t think we would have got away with 2 even if the tiles had gone, but I would try harder to get rid of them next time. Well we will start set out soon and slab is booked to pour mid Feb. Here we go again.[rolleyesanim]Fern
That reminds me of the time I helped a mate last year demolish his next door neighbours place. His next door neighbour wanted to build a quadruplex on the land and simply wanted the old 2 bdrm 1940’s brick and tile house gone. The neighbour gave him permission to get rid of it, but only gave him 30 days to do it in.
My mate wanted to salvage most of it for his extension out the back. I came on the scene on about day 4 and it looked like a bomb site. He’d cut a 10 foot wide hole in the fence to cart all of the bits and pieces into his back yard. Talk about spread stuff far and wide.
When I got there the old house was littered with debris and rubble on the floors. I could see that I was going to twist my ankle or something worse, so spent the first 2 hours with a shovel and broom and wheelbarrow and cleaned up the floor so we could work far more efficiently. Having the ex-tenants being druggies didn’t help either, scooping up used syringes with the shovel.
Rubbish management is the biggest issue.
Smacked out the surrounding bricks with a sledgy so the wooden door frames and the wooden windows could be removed. Jeez windows back in the 40’s are big and heavy. A smallish looking window, when completely removed is like an icebrg, more is hidden behind the walls than you think.
Took the tiles off in less than 6 hours with three men. One picking them off and stacking in piles of 4. One carting them around to the drop off point (the smallest guy who wouldn’t crack the tiles as he walked over them with the load in his arms). The last guy taking them from the roof and stacking them in piles on the ground. These weren’t being used on the reno out the back. A woman from 4 doors up saw the action and came down and bought the whole lot of the tiles for $ 1,200, which paid for a few of the skip bins and the subsequent hiring of the brick cleaner.
Next came the biggest job – the bricks….11,000 recovered out of about 12,500. All cleaned with old mortar removed and stacked on pallets in the rear yard, taking up most of the yard. His wife wasn’t too happy having these taking over the only area for the kids and sitting there for over 8 months before being able to be used on the reno…..waiting for council approvals etc.
The Owner of the lot then hired a big FEL and removed the remainder of the slab and debris in 5 hours one morning. I agree, it’s fascinating to watch those guys work. In such a short time a massive amount of work is achieved. By the end of the day the block was smoothed over and ready for the new construction. No trace of the old building was to be seen.
It really brought home to me the importance of the dirt (size / frontage / position) in a property as it’s the only permanent thing. The house or construction / shed / whatever is only temporary if you have a long term view for the property.
Not having been part of the building industry, I gained alot of knowledge tearing a house apart bit by bit in the way that it’s put together. Good exercise too !! I reckon every Aussie bloke should do that at least once in their lives just to see what’s involved and have the experience.
Hi Fern,
It would be great if you could keep this thread going with an update once in a while. This sounds like a major project and we will all benefit from your “real life” experiences.
What was the approximate costs to remove the home and level the site in your state.
Dazzling – when I was a teenager I was working on one of these jobs knocking out bricks and stacking them. Trying to keep up with the “men” I swung a bit too hard on the sledge hammer, went straight through some lime mortared bricks onto my shin. I can still remember how that felt [bawl].
Don
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http://www.nzproperty.orgGreat story Fern and Dazzling. Keep the updates flowing.
Amanda
“It is better to be inconspicuously wealthy, than to be ostentatiously poor…”What a huge amount of work you did for your friend Dazzling. I hope he can repay you some day.
The young guys over the road desperately wanted the front windows from this place as they are doing a reno. I told them I would notify them asap when it was going down. Finally said yes they could take them, come early in the am. They finally arrived after 2pm, then decided the flooring was exactly what they needed too. Yes they could have that. Then they pulled up a few boards and found the floor joists were in perfect order could they have those as well. I finally went in there at about 5pm to say, just pull out the windows and call it quits, but they said they had got better windows elsewhere. You’ve never seen anything like it. They had pulled up all the carpet in one room and thrown it out the front, ripped up some floor boards, then moved to the next bedroom and cut around the outside of the floor boards and pulled up some, then moved to the next bedroom and pulled up more. The whole place looked like a bomb had hit it. At that stage I started to worry about one of them having an accident and suing me, so I said I’m sorry but you’ll have to call it quits. (I expected them to be cross as they had spent all a/noon and took nothing away, but they apologised and said they had got a late start)
The old weatherboard had rotted spouts, rotted boards and looked derelict, but I was surprised at the good quality of the floorboards etc. and it did make me wonder it I should have asked demo yards what they would have given for salvage.
The cheapest “other” quote I got was $5,000 but my son is in the industry so it ended up being cheaper than that.Fern
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