Demo using excavator

[Welder Dave]

The DOT office building for the province. Built in the 50's I believe with substantial amounts of concrete. The gov't. figured it should have been a $500K+ job in the mid 80's. (Goverments do studies so they have an idea what demolition costs should be before they put them to tender) The court transcripts were on the net several years ago and I stumbled onto them. I knew it was ugly but reading through everything I'm surprised nobody got shot!

 

[Deere500a]

Past Friends single wide mobile home odd am belly fire burned under the floor length wise slow glow they got out safe,FD called & 2 hours after FD said it was cold/out left but some how fire crawled up inside the wall into free space of the ceiling & started again called FD & FD hosed it again after it was done & out,no rental equipment available we /friends helping hand demo b*****d was soild & next summer nextdoor burned but trailer park paid for 8 ton excavator to demo not having the reach or power & weight a backhoe would have been better- demo is an art

 

[Willie B]

"Past Friends single wide mobile home...."

A close older friend at around eighty owned a former ice cream plant on four acres. He had run a machine shop, but that too closed. His whole life he had been a pack rat, and several properties he owned gave him indoor space to conceal it. He had a bad interaction with prescription drugs, got eccentric. He bought things he had no reason to buy. He had a huge oil tank, half burried, he planned to build a huge steam boiler in. Among his treasures was a derelict mobile home.
He went off to a hospital, and sharks among the Town Planning Commission smelled blood in the water, fined his wife on a daily basis until it was cleaned up. She asked me to take on the clean up.
My son & I with a Case 580K backhoe, a Chevy C65 dump with 5' sideboards spent a week cleaning it up. We hauled several dozens of loads of trash 16 yards per load. Easiest was the mobile home. A single swing of the backhoe reduced the height by 8 feet. Thumb came in very handy crunching it up enough to fit in two truck loads. Only the frame needed to be cut up to go to a scrap yard.

He recovered from his mental issue, but bad knees then disabled him, he didn't live long after that.

 

[CM1995]

trailer park paid for 8 ton excavator to demo not having the reach or power & weight a backhoe would have been better- demo is an art

I'll take an 8 ton excavator over a backhoe any day on a residential demo.

Sold the 420D I bought new in '03 a couple of years ago and haven't missed it. A 308 and a 420 are very, very similar in capacity, at least for what we do.

Once demo'd a single wide in the woods with our 953C. Stripped it down, separated and wrapped up the frame then loaded it all out in 30's. Had 1 nice 30 of scrap from the frame and misc items like axles. Fun job.

 

[Willie B]

I favor a backhoe for a number of reasons:
It's what I have. I don't own a mini ex, or a skid steer.
It runs down the highway at 22 MPH, eliminating the need to waste time of loading it.
It moves the spoils dug out even more efficiently than a skid steer.
Most jobs here are on a side hill. I don't like that an excavator swings at the angle of the hill.
Up to a point, I can level a backhoe for a stable platform.
Excavators if 4-6 ton lack the reach of a backhoe with extend a hoe.
Very small excavators would tip over lifting a big rock, or propane tank.

I do NOT claim a backhoe is a faster digger, unless the mini excavator is very small. I do find the limited reach of a 4 ton makes it difficult to pile dirt from a 5' deep trench on one side of the ditch. This is a bigger problem backfilling.

It seems wrong that manufacturers rate backhoes by dig depth. Beyond 8 feet, I just don't care how deep it digs. I care more how far from the ditch I can reach for backfilling. I care how far I can be from debris falling from a house I might demolish. In an 8 ton machine, 23 feet is a lot of reach.

A 20-40 ton excavator is certainly best for demo.

 

[CM1995]

I favor a backhoe for a number of reasons:
It's what I have. I don't own a mini ex, or a skid steer.

Very solid reasoning. I'm a "run what you brung" guy myself.

It runs down the highway at 22 MPH, eliminating the need to waste time of loading it.
It moves the spoils dug out even more efficiently than a skid steer.

Backhoe beats a CTL on roading for sure but a 279D tracked machine will run circles around a backhoe moving and grading dirt. Not even a comparison.

 

[Welder Dave]

A 16 ton(3/4yd.) excavator will do a lot of demo. So will a 2yd. track loader about the same weight. That's what my former neighbour started out with. Took an old brick bank down including smashing the fault with a 3000lb. wrecking ball swung from the excavator. Cleaned the brick and palletized it for resale. 15 ton seems to be the size of machine to use starting off on larger demo than garages and sheds.

 

[CM1995]

15 ton seems to be the size of machine to use starting off on larger demo than garages and sheds.

Why have a 15 ton when you can have a 30 ton zero swing?

 

[terex herder]

Last one I did started with fire. Tried to salvage nails with an O/A torch and it got away from me. Honest.

 

[Welder Dave]

Why have a 15 ton when you can have a 30 ton zero swing?

A 30 ton zero swing would be nice but I was thinking of a good size machine to start out with that was capable of doing houses and medium size commercial buildings. A 15/16 ton is much easier to move too.

 

[pdeal]

I suggest if there are mobile homes in the area that mobile home demo is doable with a 4 ton excavator. I know this because i’ve had several demoed and most recently that’s the machine that was used. A very big piece of this though us haul off. It’s been my experience that unless you have your own means to haul off the debris you’ll probably be left hanging and will be giving someone else a big piece of the profit.

You also need to be able to cut up the frame as you go.

 

[CM1995]

A 30 ton zero swing would be nice but I was thinking of a good size machine to start out with that was capable of doing houses and medium size commercial buildings. A 15/16 ton is much easier to move too.

I was being tongue in cheek.

Thread started out talking about a 4 ton, then an 8 ton, then a 15 ton so why not a 30?

 

[Welder Dave]

I kind of thought so. 15 ton seems to be the transition fron utility machines to construction machines.