Description of the works
Demolition and site clearance of the former home appliance facility which was approximately 24,200m² in size including the demolition of the cast in-situ concrete framed office buildings and former factory out-let facility and the demolition of the lightweight portal framed warehouse structures.
Asbestos removal
D Hughes Demolition & Excavation Ltd have held a full license for the removal of asbestos since 1985 and during this time, we have gathered a wealth of experience in all asbestos removal techniques. Extensive areas of AIB were identified throughout the former factory and associated buildings. The Survey was broken down into 10 areas and each area was further broken down into numerous enclosures to accommodate the asbestos removal which took 5 months to complete.
Demolition
Reinforced concrete framed structures:
Demolition was executed top down by mechanical means in a piecemeal progressive manner carefully breaking/munching off small portions of the concrete / masonry starting at the highest point and allowing the debris to drop within the confines of the exclusion zone and the footprint of the building. A selection of excavators were utilised with various attachments.
Steel framed structures
The steel roof and sheet cladding was removed by use of a high reach demolition excavator fitted with a rotating grapple attachment. Removal of the steel sheets exposed the steel frame. The steel frame was divided into bays determined by any load bearing features of the structure and were undertaken by the high reach excavator fitted with the shear attachment.
The steel trusses were sheared through in sections one bay at a time; each released section was held securely in the jaw of the shear and lowered down and placed directly into the waste skip. The steel columns remained in-situ for as long as practicably possible while the steel roof trusses were removed to retain the structures stability. When the trusses of the bay had been removed, the side columns were sheared down and placed in the waste skip. The excavator then move on to the next bay and the process was repeated.