Complete Overview of High Reach Demolition

Implosion. Selective demolition. Interior demolition. Mechanical demolition. Manual demolition.

There are many different types of demolition, and depending on the building and developer requirements, any one of them can be deployed on a particular development. One of the best types of demolition, especially when it comes to tearing down parts or the entirety of multi-story buildings , is high reach demolition. This demolition involves using equipment or attachments with extended boom lengths to reach the top of multi-story developments. In this post, we’ll share what you need to know about this type of demolition, from describing what exactly it is to the equipment that’s commonly used to the benefits of this type of process. Here’s a closer look:

What is High Reach Demolition?

As we noted in the intro, high-reach demolition uses high-reach excavators, rigs, sticks, booms, and/or other equipment to take down a building or parts of a building at elevated heights. We’ll get into more of the benefits of high reach demolition in a forthcoming section in this post, but this form of demolition tends to be safer and faster than more conventional methods. It’s best utilized to raze multi-story developments that need to be deconstructed in a piece-by-piece fashion or that are in the vicinity of other buildings that need to be safeguarded during demolition.

“High reach” demolition tends to refer to using equipment with an extended reach or long booms. This helps enable such equipment to adequately reach higher floors on a development. It also ensures that equipment is able to stay far enough away from a development to avoid potential damage from falling debris or other byproducts of demolition.

While building implosions make for great videos and receive a lot of public attention and admiration, they’re not always the best way to take down a multi-story development or skyscraper. That’s where high reach demolition, a more methodical type of demolition, can come in handy. Read on to learn more about the equipment and attachments used in this demolition, as well as some of the benefits of this practice in the forthcoming sections.

Equipment Used in High Reach Demolition?

The most common piece of equipment used is a high reach excavator. Many can support boom attachments that can reach 160 feet or higher, giving such equipment the ability to take down multi-story buildings with ease. Other attachments that are frequently used may include concrete processors, hydraulic hammers, hydraulic thumbs, shears, and fixed mechanical thumbs.

Why High Reach Demolition?

As we noted in the opening, there are several key benefits to performing high reach demolition on a multi-story site. The two biggest benefits are safety and speed. Here’s a closer look at those benefits as well as others that can be realized:

High reach demolition tends to be much safer than using explosives to take down a multi-story building, which is perhaps the other most popular method of demolition for these types of structures. Essentially, a safety zone is created for the crane operator as a professional is performing the task due to the extended reach of the equipment. This can make for a much safer demolition, as other professionals are outside of the designated safety zone and any equipment and equipment operators are far enough away from any falling debris or other injuries from above.

High reach demolition is also an efficient means of demolition. And while you may think that it’s not as fast as using explosives to take down a building, you also have to consider the significant amount of time spent in the planning phase when using any type of explosive. While planning is also crucial in high reach demolition, it tends to be less laborious, meaning that workers can get to the demolition part of the job faster. High reach equipment is versatile and can often be paired with multiple types of attachments to make this process much more efficient and precise than manual demolition or the conventional use of a wrecking ball. It’s a far more efficient process than using a conventional crane and wrecking ball to take down a taller building, not to mention more precise, which we will cover later on in this post.

Another nice thing about high reach demolition compared to other methods is that it has a greater recycling potential. Many buildings are full of scrap metals that can be upcycled into new materials, but they can be difficult to extract when explosives are used to take down a development. The use of high reach attachments does a better job of pulling out or extracting metal from developments that can be recycled.

Finally, high reach demolition can be very precise. With the right equipment and the right expertise, contractors can work excavator attachments so that they only take out certain parts of the building or clear out certain floors of the building for renovations or fit-outs. This can make an ideal option if partial demolition is in order. It is also ideal for taking down buildings in confined spaces, like downtown areas. Because the excavators and boom lifts are able to be controlled so precisely and extend so far, they can be very intricately situated so that they’re only taking down the building that’s to be razed and not impacting any of the other buildings in the vicinity.

Contact Us Today

For more information, contact us today. We specialize in thoroughly assessing developments to determine the best course of action for demolition – and we do it with a focus on quality, efficiency, and safety. Contact us today to learn more, have the property properly assessed, and to get an estimate on your next project.