Going Up?

Controlled demolition by means of ultra-high reach equipment is making believers out of some of the most unlikely converts. Preston Tutt, who along with his brother Tony, manages the demolition services for Grovetown, Ga.-based J&B Construction and Services Inc., is himself an experienced crane operator and was an exclusive user of the wrecking ball. But when space restrictions pushed him to explore ultra-high reach equipment on a job in early 2007, it convinced him to hang up the ball and crane. (See "Sweet Success," in the May/June 2007 issue of Construction & Demolition Recycling.)

The building Tutt was responsible for demolishing was located on a busy downtown Augusta, Ga., street, and a mere 18 feet away from the curb, which meant a wrecking ball was out of the question if the team wanted to keep its city client happy by keeping the street open for business. "We had to look for better options," Tutt recalls. He was more than impressed with the results. "It changed the way we tear buildings down now," he says. "We’ve torn down our last building with a wrecking ball."

Tutt and contractors like him are on the cusp of a technological revolution that is changing the way people think about demolition. The change has been gradual, but it’s gaining ground.

"Technology is enabling companies to go about their business differently than they did years ago," says Mark Ramun, national sales and marketing manager for Jewell Attachments, Portland, Ore., which specializes in ultra-high reach fronts.

Michael R. Taylor, executive director of the National Demolition Association, also sees a technological shift pushing the popularity of controlled demolition. "What’s happening is the industry over the last 50 years has been participating in the hydraulic revolution—more powerful excavators, loaders and the attachments that go with them, replacing the beloved wrecking ball and crane," he says. "The wrecking ball is a good tool, and it’s still used a lot, but it’s probably a 19th century technology that’s not going to make it all that deep into the 21st century."

Ultra-high reach demolition equipment (UHD) typically consists of a base excavator fitted with an ultra-high reach boom and a set of processing attachments. Instead of traditional demolition with a wrecking ball, UHDs take a building down piece by piece, with an emphasis on control and salvaging materials for recycling.

Contractors who’ve used the method cite its speed, productivity and additional safety as advantages over the more traditional wrecking ball. "More and more people are veering away from [wrecking balls]," according to Steve Pece of Orlando-based Pece of Mind Demolition, who owns a Kobelco UHD machine in addition to a wrecking ball and crane. "You are swinging at a building and it’s going to hit whatever it hits. Even the best operators will admit there’s a little bit of luck involved with a wrecking ball," he says. "There’s definitely a skill set and talent, but you can’t do it in restricted spaces."

UHDs have also impressed demolition contractors with their productivity, Pece adds. "In essence, you’d think it’d be slower, but it’s amazing how fast these machines are," he says.

The hydraulic attachments also offer contractors levels of precision far superior to those of traditional wrecking balls. "It’s like surgery," says Pece. "Like using a scalpel, the machine is literally an extension of your hand."

Space restrictions, like those Tutt encountered, are one of the main driving forces behind the controlled demolition trend, according to Mike Schulz of Kuhn Equipment Sales, Summerville, S.C., which sells and rents construction and recycling equipment, including ultra-high reach machines. He says contractors are seeing tighter and tighter working conditions, particularly those bidding on jobs in urban areas.

The rising cost of explosives and increasing regulations governing their use also dictate a more controlled approach, according to Rich Elliott, hydraulic applications manager for Atlas Copco Construction Tools LLC, West Springfield, Mass.

Proximity to infrastructure is also driving the popularity of controlled demolition, according to Ramun. "In a lot of cases, there are things very close by that cannot be damaged," he says. In addition to working around infrastructure like electrical services, utility lines and underground transit systems in urban settings, some jobs might also call for preservation of a certain part of a building during a renovation, another niche where controlled demolition is the preferred method, says Ramun.

There’s a certain degree of green motivation fueling the movement toward controlled demolition, but not necessarily the environmental kind. While it’s certainly true that an increasing number of contractors recognize and respect the environmental benefits of getting involved in the green building movement and recycling C&D debris, it’s the color of money that primarily drives this aspect of the business.

"It’s a money-driven thing—all these commodities are worth money, and people are much more in-tune to that," says Schulz.

"The management of the industry’s waste stream is a big deal for us," agrees Taylor. "The EPA estimates that we generate 115 to 120 million tons of demolition debris in this country. We recycle about 70 percent of that and we want to increase that. There’s money in the commodities that the industry produces."

Scrap metal prices are higher than ever, which pushes contractors to focus their efforts on recovering this material to prepare it for sale to a scrap yard or mill. Taylor adds that depending on the region, aggregate material can also be in high demand. "Where there’s high aggregate demand, like in California, or low [natural] aggregate quality, like in Florida, any concrete you have is worth its weight in gold," he says. "Being able to source separate the commodities on the jobsite using high tech equipment is very important."

The precision required for such separation is where the technology of UHDs really shine, according to Schulz.

EQUIPPED FOR SUCCESS

Excavators serve as the base tool in the ultra-high reach demo machine. "Excavators are No. 1," says Schulz. "Excavators are proving to be the most efficient way to get [the building] down."

Starting with the excavator as a base, a contractor then has to answer two questions, according to Pece. "How high do you want to go and what are you cutting at that height? Once you have those two pieces of information, you can determine the processor size," he says.

Pece’s Kolbelco machine has a reach of 85 feet and can carry a 5,000-pound attachment at that maximum height. He has put it to work on seven projects so far, from a four-story parking lot to an eight-story hotel.

The machines currently offered at Kuhn top out at about 100 feet, says Schulz, although a unit with a maximum reach of 135 to 140 feet with the capability of supporting an 8,000-pound attachment is in the works. "There are ones that go higher, but they are limited to a 5,000-pound shear," he says. "We’re pressing the limits and going higher. We stayed at 100 feet right now for ease of mobility. Once you get over 100 feet, it requires a lot more money and more effort to assemble and mobilize."

Schulz adds that most units have a quick-attach system where "you can put that high reach boom in a stand and use a regular boom to do your work on the ground," adding flexibility to the machine.

The arsenal of attachments available round out the ultra-high reach unit and add the element of versatility to the benefit of reach, says Taylor. "I’ve seen a huge improvement in the quality of equipment and the diversity of it, especially of highly specialized attachments," he says.

Shears, concrete pulverizers, grapples, buckets and particularly universal processors are all popular attachments used with high reach equipment, says Schulz. Universal processors are especially well-suited to the application because they give the contractor the ability to cut steel and crush concrete with virtually the same tool, he adds.

Having a choice of attachments and booms gives a contractor an incredible amount of flexibility, Schulz says. "You can really do most facets of the job with one machine," he says, using what he calls a "Swiss-army-knife approach" with ultra-high reach equipment. "It’s key when making such a large capital investment," Schulz says. "These machines are a huge capital investment, so you have to show [customers] multiple ways they can use them to make profit."

While controlled demolition and ultra-high reach equipment bring a variety of benefits and advantages to the industry, the method and tools also come with their own unique set of challenges.

"There is a learning curve," says Schulz. "You’re looking that far up in the air, working that far from where you’re actually at, so more extensive training is required."

The fact that this is new equipment to many also presents some challenges, he adds. "Most of these companies have never seen let alone run a UHD, so to just ship it to them and hope it works out is a recipe for disaster," he says.

The issue of operators brings up two different points in the discussion of the controlled demo movement. On one hand, the shrinking number of skilled crane operators like the Tutt brothers is one of the key factors driving the industry toward alternative methods of demolition. "Expertise to operate a crane successfully is fading out," says Taylor. "Most training programs just don’t train that anymore."

Pece has had first-hand experience confronting this problem. "Old style crane operators are almost a thing of the past, especially ones with demolition experience—they’re harder and harder to find," he says. "I needed a crane operator last year, and it took us six months to find him. We’ve got guys that can run it just to pick things up, but to demo with it, I had to do ads across the country to find somebody."

"It’s a very skilled trade, and there are not a lot of young people learning how to do that," says Ramun of crane operation. "The knowledge didn’t transcend from one generation to the next."

While UHD equipment is based on the hydraulics more young workers are familiar with, it is still a rather specialized skill, Taylor points out. "It does require a specialized skill set," he says. "These guys are operating a multi-million dollar piece of equipment."

While a basic knowledge of hydraulics makes the learning curve a little gentler, ultra-high reach equipment does require a skilled operator. Finding and then keeping such highly trained employees can be easier said than done, says Taylor. "It can be pretty complex, so a really good equipment operator is essential, and getting and keeping good people is hard," he says. "It’s the biggest challenge facing our industry."

There’s also a learning curve associated with getting the machine from place to place, says Pece. "When it’s fully assembled, just the base machine weighs about 90,000 pounds," Pece says of the Kobelco UHD machine. "It’s challenging logistically to move it around." However, he is quick to point out that practice makes perfect. "The first couple times, it was challenging," he says. "You can do it right and do it efficiently. We’re putting it together now in four hours—it took longer at first."

The practitioners of controlled demolition and UHD equipment speak highly of the method’s productivity and safety and suggest that the advantages this alternative method of demolition bring to the market outweigh the challenges.

According to Taylor, the trend is just in its early stages. "I think you’ll see a lot more of this," he says of UHD equipment. "I think the year of the wrecking ball is probably fading away. There’s still a role for it, there are still guys who know how to do it. While cranes are still an important part of the industry, it’s more likely that excavators are the future."

Tutt says he absolutely sees the industry headed in the direction of controlled demo with UHD machines. In addition to his own experience convincing him that controlled was the way to go, he says throughout the UHD job in Augusta, Ga., he had local contractors stop at the jobsite and ask questions about the machine and method at work.

On the equipment sale and rental side, Schulz says UHDs are generating more and more interest among his customers. "Contractors are seeing what [UHDs] are used for, the applications, and seeing that they’re being productive and saying, ‘I need to have one of these if I’m going to be in the demo business,’" he says. "It’s becoming mainstream in demolition."