Sandpit

Well, I guess it comes down to just a sandpit after final demolition. I removed the drain and took out some of the fragments over the last two days. Even though it is sand, you see the soil holds up well.

The sand stone guy missed about twelve stones. Well hopefully only twelve.

Nearly gone

Graham got someone in to remove the last of the sandstone blocks. He came in with an excavator and dug them up and took them away in a truck. It took him a day and a bit. Now all that's left is a driveway and a bit of rubble.

Drains Away

Today I spent my time removing the rest of the brick footings, the rear and side path and some of the sewer drain. The drain is sure hard work as it is buried quite deep. Interestingly it was a bit clogged from the shower and laundry but clean from where the toilet on. It was not smelly at all.

South Side Path Gone

I finished collecting my stack of blocks today - yay! I also made a healthy start on removing the concrete paths. I've mostly removed the path along the south side and managed to remove some of the brick foundations as well. I was thinking I might need to hire the jack hammer again for the foundations, but fortunately I was able to break it up with the trusty rusty crow bar.

It is getting dark early now. I had to wrap it up at 5:30pm. The Kimbriki recycling guys put me on the weigh bridge this morning - $34 instead of $11 - ouch. I was carrying 1.49 tons - just over my official carrying capacity.

One of the things about not having side braces with the gantry is that it allows one to walk it around. It does not detract too much from the strength since the feet firmly burrow themselves firmly into the ground.

The gantry and the block grab will certainly become handing in building a stone wall. I'll me able to simply lower the blocks effortlessly onto a layer of mortar.

More Block Salvaging

My trolley effectively died today, but I managed to salvage it with a pine brace (cut with a pruning saw). I need to pull out my welder to complete the job - but the brace stays!

After effectively removing most of the back flat's foundations, I came to conclusion that I don't need all of the blocks and further more, I would run out of room to store them all. I have decided to keep only the outside ones. I think I have collected around half of the blocks I want to keep. Needless to say, some are really quite heavy.

Blocking

I started some serious block removal today... and I encountered a problem with my gantry. Too much load and it warps! I had to use the car to assist me in lifting one of the blocks - even though the pulley system was 1:6 ratio. The beam warped and it was impossible to move. Eventually after a few more really heavy blocks, the beam started to fail. I think this was more to do with the pressure on the stays after man handling the gantry around. This DIY block grab I made really seems to do it job. It is an easy way to move sand stone.


I put a brick on one of the stones to give an idea of how big these stones are.

I decided to build a simple tripod to replace my gantry - lift and place on trolley.

Unfortunately the really big ones cause the trolley to bend. I think I have decided to just leave the big one for the bobcat to move. You can also see todays progress - one of the rear rooms.

Gantry

Today I finally finished off removing the bricks - yay!

I also experimented with my block grab. Initially I tried it out with my crane. It worked well, but it was quite troublesome and it had it's short comings.

I decided that a gantry was the go. I built one out of the timber I salvaged. Quick calculations suggest I should not come close to the wood's rupture point.

Assuming a 1" x 8" beam that is 4m long, strength rating of S4, it should be able to handle 1 ton before breaking - yes well in theory.

I'll probably find the gantry more useful in stacking the stones. Here is my stack of stones...

Timber floor removed

I finally finished removing the rest of the timber floorboards, joists and bearers. I ran out of time, so I didn't get to try out my new stone grabs. I did find out they are not wide enough for the entire width of the foundation, but that should not be a problem as I will probably only use it for individual stones (half the with of the foundation).

The picture below also shows how close we are to the park.

Jaws

This week, in preparation for moving the sand stone blocks, I welded up a "block grab".

Initially I had heaps of problems with the mig welder wire getting jammed. I fixed the problem by re-seating the gun cord into the main unit and it all worked fine. I have one of those Lincon 180c mig welders. I really recommend it.

It is a very simple device made out of 2mm thick 50mm square section. It has been designed to lift around 200kg. You can't see it, but the pieces of wood are resting on a metal lip. I'm going to use it in conjunction with my 900kg rated crane. Almost as good as a Probst Block Grab TSZ Uni grab ;)

Luckily I don't need to get Workcover approval or any sort of engineering certificate for my $40 device. I'm sure people in the industry would shake their heads saying it should not be allowed.

Foundations Exposed

Yesterday and today was spent removing concrete, more bricks and floorboards. Floorboards are really time consuming buggers to remove. I estimate I've got another 8 hours of floorboard removal - arg. I did manage to remove all of the rear concrete slabs.

I'm pretty focused on removing the floorboards as I may bring someone else in to remove the foundations. Knowing me, I doubt it.

Jack Hammer

As an act of spontaneity, I took the day off today to work on the house. I've really being thinking all week about what is next. I considered that I will need to start breaking up the concrete soon and this is something I should not do during the weekend. Having said that, it obviously didn't annoy the hordes of people in the park. On week days, different local schools use the park as a play ground. Oh the din!

Anyway, I hired a 15kg jack hammer from Kennards and got to work. The front bathroom was the hardest so I did that first. It was a suspended slab re-enforced with star pickets and scrap metal. The rest was relatively quite weak and easy. The surrounding paths were too weak and all the hammer did was put holes in it.

Almost there

I have taken down the front wall. I suspect this was my last full day of wall demo. As Mike said, almost gone.

A lady came by and asked what was happening - apparently she remembers living in it in her childhood. She told me it was the end of an era. My mum might read this so I better say "How Sweet".

I have not had much time to spend on the house recently. Last weekend it was Liz's and Louka's birthday parties and the weekend before Dad came over for a lightning visit.

I guess I can now say home demo is not dangerous.

More Demo

I took the day off. Nothing interesting...Spot the difference.

I use a crowbar to demolish the bricks that have gaps in the mortar. It is probably quicker than a hammer and it does not generate much dust or mortar fragments.

A front end loader at the tip almost backed over me yesterday. I used my ninja skills and quickly accelerated away. The next time I came back, a tip guy spoke to me about the incident. I explained that I thought he had stopped to let me through. He recommend that if I see a loader, take a different path.

Park View

I did some more demo this morning. You can see from the park side, the house is almost gone. I took the cast iron bath to the tip - still heavy.

Cracked Driveway

Today I noticed that the driveway has begun to crack up. An obvious explanation is the ute. Hmm... more evidence I should not overload the vehicle.

Most of the floor boards survived being pounded by bricks. I did another 6 loads today.

The tip people have started asking questions about what I am doing. I suggested if they have any concerns, they should ring the "24-hour National Security Hotline" on 1800 123 400. Only joking, I told them that I am an owner builder demolishing my own house - sating frustrations.

I was a bit wary about telling people what I am doing. Most people don't think it is a good idea/very dangerous/work cover will be over me very quickly. But I have relaxed a bit since most of it is gone.

I removed the cast iron bath tub today - really heavy.

Wednesday Demo

I got more done than I expected today. I still only did 6 loads, but I have completely removed the bricks of most of the walls I knocked down on Monday. I even had to start the demo of the fire place to give me something to do on Saturday.

More morning demo

I did another two hours of demolition this morning. You can start to see right through the house now. Only the front two rooms are now fully intact. I broke my small hand mallet this morning. Despite the blue sky, it was raining pretty hard this morning. I also put Chris's hundred or so bricks out the front ready for him to collect.

11 Loads

I took today off to do some more brick work. I picked up 6 loads on Thursday. This includes most of the bricks I demolished on Monday. I took a picture of the brick pile at the recycling centre. They use the recycled bricks and concrete mainly as road base. A guy inspects each load to make sure it is of sufficient quality - ie no asbestos, organic matter or dirt.

I posted a question on a building forum regarding how much of a demolished building actually gets recycled. The answer is bugger all. The problem is is that during the demo, a 25 ton excavator mixes up the stuff too much so it becomes useless to anyone. The only difference between it and normal garbage is that it probably would not smell.

I loaded up 5 loads of bricks on Saturday. I spoke to the neighbour across the road (Chris) - he wanted 100 bricks for a path.

Morning demo

I'm working late tonight so I though I might whip over for some quick hammer work. It took me 1.45 hours and I managed to knock down a couple of interal walls ready for a few runs to the tip.

I'm just using a small 2lb hammer until I get off the ladder and I move to a 5kg sledge hammer. I'm not real good on swing a sledge hammer from a ladder. I also find that sometime the sledge hammer just makes a fair neat round hole in the bricks if I try to take too much down.

I still don't feel the inclination to use any power tools.

Demo Day

I took today off to calibrate my estimate. It didn't start off too well as I arrived at the site at 8:30 - 1.5 hours late! Anyway, I managed to cart 4 loads of bricks and fill up my ute for an early morning run to the tip. The next day I did 5 trips. I average around 300 bricks per load - 6sqm.

I estimate I am between 15% to 20% done which is good. It kind of tallies with my estimate.