Complete demolition, partial demolition, and deconstruction
Demolition is the act of knocking down or demolishing, defining it as the act of destroying or ruining a building or any other man-made structure.
Accordingly, demolitions can be classified into the two following groups:
| COMPLETE/TOTAL DEMOLITION | PARTIAL DEMOLITION |
| Complete demolition involves the removal of all traces of the building or construction above ground. | In partial demolition projects, only a part of the building or construction that has been defined in advance is demolished. |
| It can be achieved by various methods. Basically, the ones below: · Mechanical demolition: It uses specialized mechanical equipment and tools, which demolishes the construction element by element. · Implosion: It is a highly specialized type of demolition that employs the use of explosives to bring down high structures by undermining structural supports so that it collapses. · Crane and Wrecking Ball: is a heavy steel ball, usually hung from a crawler crane, that is used for demolishing large buildings. | As these types of demolitions need to be planned and executed in a much more precise way than total demolitions, mechanical demolition methods are the ones chosen for these projects.
Accordingly, demolition robots are increasingly used for this type of jobs. |
| Regarding the waste generated in this type of demolition, they are usually of a very varied nature and in large quantities, so the best way to manage them, in order to achieve a circular economy, thinking about its subsequent reuse and recycling, is to separate it in situ. | In these types of demolitions, due to the restriction of the space available and because the volume of materials destined for recovery usually is reduced, generally separation on site is not exhaustively done. To promote a circular economy, it would be interesting to develop and encourage working methods that include the separation on-site to promote proper management of these volumes of waste, although they are small. |
Furthermore, there is a special type of demolition, deconstruction, or dismantling, which can be either, partial or complete, and its specific characteristics are due to de fact that the jobs are carefully executed to preserve components for reuse, recycling, or refurbishment.
That is to say, deconstruction is the selective dismantlement of construction components, specifically for reuse, repurposing, recycling, and waste management. It differs from traditional demolition where a site is cleared of its building by the most expedient means. Deconstruction has also been defined as “construction in reverse”.
Accordingly, deconstruction requires a substantially higher degree of hands-on labour than traditional demolition.
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