Demolition of buildings, etc.

For several decades buildings were demolished with a wrecking ball. But, with the advent of hydraulic excavators and explosives ("energetic felling"), one seldom sees wrecking ball action anymore.

For two or three story buildings, a regular excavator with a "thumb" added can do the job.

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(new window)  I mentioned to a truck driver that I was surprised that the excavator did not have a "thumb." He responded that this operator is proud of the fact that he doesn't need a thumb. But I think the second scoop would have gone faster if he had one.



This is the second "scrape" that I passed by on the way to the grocery store. After shopping, I grabbed my camera and tripod and went back to catch both operations.

(new window)  If you want to skip to the action, it is at 3:16. I thought about shortening the video, but you can move the slider if you want. I didn't shorten the video to show how much of his time is spent grooming the debris pile in the crawl space so that he can drive on it. I stopped when he stopped.


Another view of where he stopped.

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For metal intensive structures such as truss bridges, they replace the bucket with hydraulic shears. An excavator can also use a bigger version of the hydro-hammer attachment that is on this skid steer.

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I agree with the comments that this photo as been rotated 45 degrees. But it is still an example of a hydro-hammer attachment.

Rotated and Zoomed

Special long-boom crawlers are built that specialize in tearing down taller buildings. But the comments on the following posting indicate that a wrecking ball is still the "weapon of choice" for very tall structures such as smokestacks.

Steven Xzin posted

David Guarino commented on a posting
This ended the use of wrecking balls. You can still get an option to run most conventional cranes in free fall.

Transporting an extended reach excavator looks expensive.

John W. Coke posted

One of seventeen photos posted by Jeff Guisewite Inc.
Princeton up town building demo back in early 2019
Dennis DeBruler I would like to see a photo of the extended-reach excavator loaded up on a truck for transport. I'm curious about how oversized the load would be and what kind of permits are needed for it.

One of seventeen photos posted by Jeff Guisewite Inc.
Robinson IL demo done by noon today, been a long week but not bad for 4 1/2 days, couldn't have done it without our awesome team, love u guys Robert Lowery David Hicks Jeff Guisewite
[This is the most dramatic demonstration I've seen of building a debris pile to provide access to other parts of the building.]

They are using a big crane, a Mantowoc 21000 with Max-Er Wagon, to dismantle a smokestack at a power plant in Romeoville, IL using a worker basket. It has been going very slowly. They started this work last June. This is a sneak peek. I plan to write some notes on this later. But at the rate they are going, it will probably be a few months before I write them.

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