In today’s world with ageing cities and infrastructure, many municipalities and government bodies are putting historical restrictions on properties often prohibiting historical building demolition or requiring the original materials be reused in the new development. Eco Groundworks is capable of working with you from the outset and complete demolition both complete and selective. Many times, we are able to reuse original cobble stone blocks in new walk ways or features, we have also seen projects that reuse the existing brick in the design of features like fountains or archways.
To be successful in this a plan must be set out at the beginning, before the existing structure is touched to ensure our project management team sets out the right demolition plan to ensure the recovery of the historical materials required to rebuild the new development, some things to think about is how much of each particular product is needed in the new development, where the product is going to be stored after being removed and before it goes into the new structure. As many of these historical buildings are usually located in the down town core where space is limited there is typically an added cost of offsite storage, transport to and from the site must also be incorporated when determining the feasibility. There are many technologies in the demolition world from breakers, shears, jaws etc., but sadly when trying to recover the products for future use it typically must be done through more traditional ways of manual labour to ensure there is minimal damage, allowing the product to be reused. After the selective demolition is completed by hand typically the larger equipment such as excavators with shears jaws or breakers will come in as well as a bucket with a thumb and will sort all the mass demolition materials to send off the proper recycling facilities. Usually you will see all the metals, wood, masonry, concrete, glass, etc. removed many of these products can be reused in other places. For example, concrete is usually crushed and can many times be used on the same site for the base material of the roads, parking lots or concrete surfaces for the new development. By properly sorting demolition products costs to the client can be kept to a minimum as the recycled supplies often will generate a revenue for the demolition contractor.
Incorporating the historically significant items into the new developments landscape is often overlooked but being outside this is the area most people will see the products, it is important to engage the landscape architect or the landscape contractors in house design or project management team at any early stage to ensure flow with the remaining aspect of the job, popular items to reuse would be stone for walkways, borders, features like fountains etc. Metal railings and old antique site furnishings such as benches can also often be restored and reused. Historical items such as trees can often be protected or relocated on site with success to not lose the mature look. Eco Groundworks loves working on challenging projects like these, from demolition concept through to final landscape restoration.