If you need to have a house, commercial building, or other structure demolished or simply removed from your property, you should first learn some common demolition terms. This can help you better understand your choices for demolition and what's involved in the entire process.
Structural dismantlement
Structural dismantlement refers to the act of dismantling a building down to its structural parts. This means separating its walls, insulation, and flooring from the building's rafters, subfloor materials, concrete foundation, and the like.
Deconstruction
Deconstruction refers to separating and sorting the materials during a demolition. Deconstruction is often done along with structural dismantlement, as these two steps make it possible to harvest materials for reselling. Deconstruction and dismantlement may take much longer than many other types of demolition, as they're meant to salvage as many construction materials as possible. When these materials are resold or reused, this is referred to as C&D or construction and demolition recycling.
Industrial recovery
Industrial recovery refers to materials that are common in industrial buildings and not residential homes, including heavy-duty wiring, metal roofs, large ventilation fans, and so on. These demolished materials are often recycled or resold, to be used in new construction or for renovation work.
Implosion
An implosion refers to the use of blasting to help dismantle a building. Very few demolition projects use implosion, as this method can be unsafe and unpredictable, and the debris generated by the implosion still need to be removed from the jobsite. Implosion also damages materials that could otherwise be salvaged for reuse. Instead, demolition contractors typically use specialized equipment to manually tear down or dig up a structure, and to recover as much recyclable material as possible.
Rigging
Rigging refers to heavy-duty equipment that may be used to demolish a structure; this might include chains, pulleys, wrecking balls and the like. A demolition contractor will often need to inspect your property to note if the specialized rigging they use can easily access the structure to be demolished.
Partial demolition
A partial demolition refers to the removal of just part of a structure. As an example, you may want to have an unwanted sunroom or addition to your home removed, or a commercial property owner may want to have a production area removed to allow for new construction or renovation. This is important to understand, as a demolition contractor doesn't need to always remove an entire structure but can work with you to tear down or pull out just certain areas of a building that you want removed.
