What demolition equipment will be required to demolish a steel-framed building?

You will often see it on most demolition contractors’ websites that the company will offer two distinct services: commercial and residential demolition.

The reason for this is that often; different demolition equipment is needed to demolish these two very different types of buildings.

For example, the demolition equipment used to demolish houses is different from what is used to demolish a steel building.
Within this article will explain what that equipment is used to demolish steel buildings.

Steel shears

Often, steel shears must be fitted at the end of a large excavator; then hydraulic hoses power this metal shear. This powers the opening and closing of a powerful shear, which is capable of cutting through steel beams. The power of the steel shears depends on the size of the excavator that its fitted to.

Commercial demolition

Therefore, you often need a large and powerful excavator or multiple excavators to demolish a commercial building.
Often on the larger sections of steel cutting gear, that’s powered by propane and oxygen is used to manually cut the larger sections of steel.

How are steel-framed buildings demolished?

First, a demolition excavator will take off the outer metal cladding

Often, the excavator removes the metal cladding that’s attached to a building’s outside. This is often called “box profile sheeting”.

The metal cladding is then torn off the building, using the excavator and steel sheets and the metal is loaded into an awaiting skip.

This exposes the skeleton of the steel-framed building, mainly the angle iron and upright steel RSJ’s are all that then holds the building upright. These are much stronger than the outer steel cladding and, therefore, need to be cut with a steel shear.

Steel RSJ’s and angle iron

The next stage is to cut the steel sections into manageable sections, often, a top-down approach is needed.

Depending on the size of the building will dictate what type of demolition excavator is needed. For example, a large building will need a high reach excavator to demolish the building.

For those that don’t know what a high reach excavator is, its an excavator with a large boom that can extend well into the sky.

Cutting the steel into manageable sections

Some demolition companies then have a large excavator fitted with a much shorter arm with a more larger shear; the capability of this machine is to cut large box section of steel and a large RSJ’s into much smaller sections.

Then, the machine can lift the steel sections and load them into an awaiting skip.

The excellent news is that steel-framed buildings can almost be 100% recycled.

Therefore, the great thing about demolishing a steel factory in Bristol or perhaps a building such a huge warehouse in the South-west of England that’s made of steel is that it can often be 100% recycled.

Often, the steel is loaded onto an awaiting ship and the steel is transported around the world and made into other items of steel, perhaps the steel that’s been demolished from a factory, will be made into a new car, a tin of Coke, or maybe it’s made into a new bicycle.

Does your business require the services of a local demolition company?

If your business needs a local demolition company in Bristol, then why not call us? We are highly experienced in demolishing factories, warehouses and other buildings.

We can therefore offer the following demolition and dismantling services:
– Factory demolition
– Steel demolition
– Metal recycling
– Factory clearance Bristol
– Commercial demolition
– Industrial demolition
– Steel cutting

Therefore, why not contact us today if you want the following structures demolished?

We can undertake all commercial demolition contracts, so call us today if you want a commercial building demolished.