Some coworkers and I ate at a little cafe the other day and got to watch a show: The local gas mart had failed a year or two ago and a worker was taking it down — with a digger. Most at our table considered our lunch show annoying. I, of course, loved it.
It’s simply amazing, both how quickly the operator took the entire over hang and building down and what a neat little pile he made while doing it. Sure, the digger really wasn’t made for this sort of thing, but damn if I can tell why not. Inside twenty minutes after I took this shot, the digger was gone and so was the building.
Tools come in all sizes, both great and small, but the thing to remember is to try to bring the right tool to bear on the right project. I can’t help thinking these guys had this one pegged.
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7 Responses to It’s Just Cool: Gas Goes Up, Then Down Again
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These things are an absolute blast to work with. I tore down an old shed with one a few summers ago and I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun destroying things, which says a lot.
Demolition processors are awesome accessories for excavators, definitely interesting to watch an experienced operator take down a building with one. Rotary mulchers are also an experience not to be missed.
Our Daewoo was sitting idle in the yard for quite a while so we decided to sell it in favor of renting/leasing one if a big job reappeared. Never had a shredder for ours – but rented/fitted on a hammer from time to time to make short work of HD concrete
The right tool for the right project is only half the equation. I could pull a building down with one of those, but it wouldn’t be neat or quick and I’d probably bust a hydraulic line in the process. Skill from much practice is essential to fast, quality work.
Too bad it doesn’t have a reverse button that would put the building back up.
What else would you use to demolish a small structure, explosives? a crane and cut off saws? seems like the logical choice to me.
Doesn’t seem like the right tool for the job to me. The right tools would have been the same ones used when it was constructed, to take it apart so it could be rebuilt elsewhere.
While I too enjoy destroying things, it’s too accepted that buildings and structures are just completely destroyed and reduced to rubble, rather than even partially disassembled. Often it’s just from laziness, and it’s quicker in the short term to pay someone to knock it all down with a machine, and haul it off as trash, rather than have it taken apart and sold to whoever is building a new station somewhere else.