House Demolition

PeteCollin said:

House Demolition by Hand

Hello All,

My wife and I bought the neighboring house. It was built in 1875, and had been abandoned for a year and a half. We wanted to expand our yard and use the building timbers to make other things with - new garage, lumber storage racks, bench swing, etc. It is quite an undertaking, and I am shooting videos of the process. Come have a tour of the place while it still stands!

Click to expand...

Coming from a commercial demolition guy …. good luck! If it were me demoing that house, I would cherry pick all the sheathing from the exterior and call in the big guns to finish it off. Busting up all that plaster and hauling it out is going to be a lotta work. If you can work the structure from the outside peeling away the siding you should find a lot more of that nice wide board lumber.

Fwiw - those boards will exhibit a lot of staining from the lath. It must be a different species thing that causes the staining.

Ill be following and rooting you on Pete.

Say it with me …. "NOW THATS HOW YA DEMO!"

PeteCollin said:

House Demolition by Hand

Hello All,

My wife and I bought the neighboring house. It was built in 1875, and had been abandoned for a year and a half. We wanted to expand our yard and use the building timbers to make other things with - new garage, lumber storage racks, bench swing, etc. It is quite an undertaking, and I am shooting videos of the process. Come have a tour of the place while it still stands!

Click to expand...

Chrisstef,

I have been on this project for a couple of months now. It has been brutal, dirty work. But it has been fun in its own way. And I pretty much knew what I was getting into, for the most part. It is now completely gutted from the inside, and will sit that way until spring. I don't want to be up on an icy roof, nor have all my lumber getting rained and snowed on. The assessor wants it to be a skeleton by March 1 (to get the house off my taxes), so mid-february I will bash the walls out from the inside. It has been interesting, learning how the old houses were made. The place could have stood another 100 years I bet.

PeteCollin said:

House Demolition by Hand

Hello All,

My wife and I bought the neighboring house. It was built in 1875, and had been abandoned for a year and a half. We wanted to expand our yard and use the building timbers to make other things with - new garage, lumber storage racks, bench swing, etc. It is quite an undertaking, and I am shooting videos of the process. Come have a tour of the place while it still stands!

Click to expand...

Good on you brother! Thats gettin it done.

An "easier" way to demo the roof, if youre not saving the roof decking, is to work it from the attic running a sawzall or electric chainsaw on either side of every joist. You can just push the pieces out and slide em off the roof. A lot safer that way too.

Stay warm. Stay safe. And kick a$$.

PeteCollin said:

House Demolition by Hand

Hello All,

My wife and I bought the neighboring house. It was built in 1875, and had been abandoned for a year and a half. We wanted to expand our yard and use the building timbers to make other things with - new garage, lumber storage racks, bench swing, etc. It is quite an undertaking, and I am shooting videos of the process. Come have a tour of the place while it still stands!

Click to expand...

That's an interesting technique. I will have to try it. Don't know yet if I will fit in the attic, but we'll see!

PeteCollin said:

House Demolition by Hand

Hello All,

My wife and I bought the neighboring house. It was built in 1875, and had been abandoned for a year and a half. We wanted to expand our yard and use the building timbers to make other things with - new garage, lumber storage racks, bench swing, etc. It is quite an undertaking, and I am shooting videos of the process. Come have a tour of the place while it still stands!

Click to expand...

Well now.. looking at the vid where you do some demo (in the cloud of white dust)..

If you can just keep up THAT PACE, this place will be down to the ground in about a week !

PeteCollin said:

House Demolition by Hand

Hello All,

My wife and I bought the neighboring house. It was built in 1875, and had been abandoned for a year and a half. We wanted to expand our yard and use the building timbers to make other things with - new garage, lumber storage racks, bench swing, etc. It is quite an undertaking, and I am shooting videos of the process. Come have a tour of the place while it still stands!

Click to expand...

Pete,
I too admire your efforts, what a project!!!
I think chrisstef makes some great points. Usually, guys that do it for a living know the best way to tackle the job. My only other point is be careful of the "lead nazi's". We all know lead is bad for you but some people want you to go overboard in protecting everything. IMO, I would kick up the respirators for all working up a notch from just the dust mask to something a little more protective. The lead is in the dust. By no means am I suggesting going overboard like tenting everything. I am just saying the 50 cent particle mask might not be enough.
Again, I am with you 110% on trying to salvage what is valuable.
Good Luck
Marty

PeteCollin said:

House Demolition by Hand

Hello All,

My wife and I bought the neighboring house. It was built in 1875, and had been abandoned for a year and a half. We wanted to expand our yard and use the building timbers to make other things with - new garage, lumber storage racks, bench swing, etc. It is quite an undertaking, and I am shooting videos of the process. Come have a tour of the place while it still stands!

Click to expand...

Marty,

After the first day of work with Todd, I bought two respirator masks. Lead or no lead, the plaster dust is just nasty. It was the sort of work that made you filthy 15 minutes into the job, so you were better off committing the day.

Tearing Down The House - Part 2

Here's a video showing my progress in demolishing the house next door by hand. I want to reclaim the old timbers to build other things with.

PeteCollin said:

Tearing Down The House - Part 2

Here's a video showing my progress in demolishing the house next door by hand. I want to reclaim the old timbers to build other things with.

Click to expand...

Better you than me!!!

Bashing out the walls

I made use of good February weather to take the walls out of the house I am tearing down. Here is a neat time-lapse film of the process:

PeteCollin said:

Bashing out the walls

I made use of good February weather to take the walls out of the house I am tearing down. Here is a neat time-lapse film of the process:

Click to expand...

One massive undertaking, definately more than I would care to do. Fun at first, but the cleanup is a killer. You are a more ambishious man than me Pete. Good luck.

Dropping the Awning

Hello All,

It's tee-shirt weather again. So I can resume my house demolition project. I gave my neighbor the columns and railings off the front porch. He came for them and left the awning propped up with boards. So i took my sledge hammer and had a little fun.

PeteCollin said:

Dropping the Awning

Hello All,

It's tee-shirt weather again. So I can resume my house demolition project. I gave my neighbor the columns and railings off the front porch. He came for them and left the awning propped up with boards. So i took my sledge hammer and had a little fun.

Click to expand...

Just like being a kid again, fun - fun - fun.

PeteCollin said:

Dropping the Awning

Hello All,

It's tee-shirt weather again. So I can resume my house demolition project. I gave my neighbor the columns and railings off the front porch. He came for them and left the awning propped up with boards. So i took my sledge hammer and had a little fun.

Click to expand...

I've been working on tearing down an old 100 year old house. I love the old 2×4's. I'm trying to salvage as much as I can. I made a nice "antique" shelf with one of the 1×10 pine siding boards. It turned out nice. Be careful and enjoy.

PeteCollin said:

Dropping the Awning

Hello All,

It's tee-shirt weather again. So I can resume my house demolition project. I gave my neighbor the columns and railings off the front porch. He came for them and left the awning propped up with boards. So i took my sledge hammer and had a little fun.

Click to expand...

Nice of your neighbor to call and check on you!

And it's smart to be "skittish" when doing a job like that. Gotta be ready for when it finally lets go, to make sure it isn't coming TOWARDS you when it does.