Tearing down garage - tips wanted

[David Starr]

My son & I will be tearing down his garage Sunday so it can be replaced. The garage leans badly to one side, and to the front. There's room to drop it toward the side it leaning to. I'm looking for tips on the safest way to do this. It has a flat roof that's too badly rotted to climb on, and the bach wall is almost totally gone.

I'm thinking of getting a rope around the top of a couple of studs on the side where we want it to fall,then cutting some of the studs on that side & trying to pull it over.

Any good advice will be greatly appreciated.

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[Chris Lewis]

According to David Starr :

I don't like the idea of cutting studs on the "fall down" side. You're in the way if it decides to go abruptly. Don't be featured on America's funniest home videos...

If the thing is in as bad shape as it sounds (especially with the back wall "almost totally gone"), you may be able to pull it over as-is with a come-along with a rope looped around the walls near the roof line. Or pull (gently, gently!) on the rope with a pickup truck or similar vehicle. (Don't break the rope!)

Make sure all doors are open (or even off their hinges if safe.).

Wear a construction helmet and eye protection... Things will fly. Steel soled boots would be a good idea too. Try not to breathe any of the dust that gets thrown up - fungus, mold etc. If it's as bad as I suspect, dust masks will be absolutely necessary.

If it's reluctant to go, I think the best way to handle it is to snug up the come-along in the direction you want it to go (sideways, or a bit towards the front). Then, with great caution, rip any remaining siding/sheathing off the back wall. Once you've broken the shear strength of the back wall sheathing, it should come down - the come-along ensures it's mostly _away_ from you.

[Assuming there isn't much wall on the front side either.]

This is more-or-less what we do with cutting down "difficult" trees. Tether it, and cut only so far as is necessary to allow you to _pull_ the tree over in exactly the direction you want.

[Susan (CobbersMom)]

Any good advice will be greatly appreciated.

Make sure you're not inside when it comes down ;) Sue Northern Wisconsin Invision Whirled Peas

[HA HA Budys Here]

Where can I git me a pair of dem?

[Nick Hull]

If you have a lot of room around the garage try putting a 16 oz propane tank in the middle and shoot a bullet thru the tank followed by a flaming arrow. A long range arrow.

[PrecisionMachinisT]

Call someone who owns an excavator and has a dump truck ???

[zxcvbob]

Run into it a couple of time (gently!) with a pickup truck or a tractor until the roof collapses. Then you can more safely cut it up with a Sawzall.

Or rent a Bobcat and have some fun.

Or call the fire department and let them burn it down for practice.

Bob

[xrongor]

you gotta film this!!

randy

[Enm]

badly to one side...the back wall is almost >totally gone.

Never mind cutting any studs. Second, work on that back wall: remove the boards or plywood that is giving the building what little diagonal strength it has. If it suddenly collapses while you're working on it, at least the movement will be to one side, not towards you. If its still standing when you've got all the sheathing off, a little pull on the rope with your vehicle will be enough to make the whole thing fold up very neatly.

abandoned houses in an old coal mining area. He would hang a half stick of dynamite about half way between the living room ceiling and the floor, then light the fuse. He said that it would make just enough of an explosion that the wall's nail heads would pop out just enough that he could get a wrecking bar onto them. A full stick breaks the lumber too much.

[Fran]

I've done that in the past and it works great. Once the sheathing is off on the studs on the front and back wall, the studs just collapse into parallelograms as the building comes down.

[William Morris]

My father in law was an ATF agent for most of his career. He said that they were always interested in houses they could have an "arson" fire in to help train investigators - they'd set up an arson scenario, burn the building, the conduct an "investigation". You might call the local office and see if they'd like to do a controlled burn. Volunteer fire departments are another option.

- Wm

[David Starr]

Facing the garage, it leans to the right, which is the direction I want it to go. BTW, it's 18 ft front to back & 20 ft wide, with the door on the left. The back is pretty well shot on the left side where someone built an "extension" to allow for longer vehicles & DIDN'T do any reinforcing! They just cut the studs & built a 'box' onto the back. So, if I remove the sheathing from what's left of the back, and from the front, we should be able to pull the garage to the right, correct?

BTW, it WILL be video taped. Hopefully not for funniest home videos or disasters caught on tape. :-)

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[Joe Bobst]

Have you rented your Dumpster yet? A small one can hold most of the debris from a small garage. Be aware of the fact that neighbors sometimes will need serious trash disposal and may share the cost. Have fun.

Joe

[Harry K]

Any place selling boots. I assume that he meant the steel (or whatever metal it is) inserts and they usually come with metal over the toes too.

Harry K

[Tim]

As someone above mentioned, put some tension on the direction you want the building to fall, you can then start cutting across the back wall with a Sawzall or some other sort of reciprocating saw. Buy some extra blades as you will bend and break some of them from time to time. Once you get the building to start falling over, work from the backside ( away from the pull )and keep cutting the pieces that are holding it up until everything is down. Then start cutting the pieces up in to manageable chunks to haul off to the dump, or salvage some of it, or whatever.

- Tim

[Chris Lewis]

According to Harry K :

Perhaps more often called "steel toed construction boots", or "safety boots". GREB Kodiak (Canadian) is the brand I'm most familiar with.

Health and safety here requires that people on job-sites wear them, much as they do construction helmets.

They usually have both a steel toe cap and a steel sole plate to protect you from heavy things dropping on your foot, and stepping on nails respectively. Heavy leather, usually waterproof.

I suggested it not so much from the perspective of something falling on your foot, but to deal with all the nails this project is going to leave lying around.

Home page: The "work boots" are the classic high ankle type and are _very_ similar to army boots. Most of the rest of the industrial footwear is CSA class 1 puncture rated too.

Apparently Kodiak has switched over to chain mail or non-metallic guards these days.

I'm sure there are US-equivalents.

Even the older ones with metal inserts are pretty comfortable once you've broken them in. They last forever...

Great dancing shoes too - _noone_ gets in your way a second time ;-)