Commercial Property

The term real estate investing likely brings a number of things to mind (like hard money). If you are already familiar with real estate investing you may think of short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing or you may think of it in terms of real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans. You may also wonder what type of role these things can play in your life as a real estate investor in different types of economy.

You can learn a lot about real estate investing. To get the most out of real estate investing education, be familiar with basic information ahead of time. No matter whether you are interested in short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or just enhancing your knowledge as a real estate investor, knowing some real estate investing basics will help you succeed. Here are three real estate investing basics that even some experts do not really know:

1. Real estate investing education is a true investment that always has a positive yield. Every real estate deal has the potential to create thousands of dollars in potential wealth. The knowledge of how to get that wealth is the key to your success. Learning as much as possible about real estate will increase your odds of success whenever you do a real estate deal. A small investment in your education can yield big results when you implement your learning.

2. You can succeed in real estate investing regardless of the state of the economy. Many people think that you can only succeed in real estate when the economy is booming. In fact a bad economy is not a bad economy for real estate investors. Likely you will be able to find properties at deep discounts. You might also find deals that simply would not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can turn based on active real estate investing. When the economy is not so good, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate are great. You will be able to save yourself and others from serious financial difficulties if you know how to do these deals.

3. You do not need a lot of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can be a success in real estate investing no matter how much money you have on your own. Many types of deals enable you to use other people’s money to do them. If you appear to be a solid investment you may be able to use a private lender’s money. An investor who is a good investment knows as much as they can when it comes to real estate investing. This will help you represent yourself as a good investment to private lenders who do not know how to make money in real estate investing.

You can generate lots of wealth by real estate investing. You can create an income in any economy. You can create success for yourself using knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate. You will be helped to succeed as a real estate investor by knowing real estate investing basics.

The term real estate investing likely brings a number of things to mind. You may think of real estate investing as real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans, or you might focus on short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You may also consider what roles these things play in your life as a real estate investor in different economies.

There is a great deal to know about real estate investing. The best way to get the most out of your real estate investing education is to be familiar with some basic information ahead of time. Whether your target is short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or improving real estate investor abilities, you need to know some real estate investing basics. You should review these three real estate investing basics to learn things even some experts do not know:

1. You will always end up with a positive yield when you invest in real estate investing education. Every good real estate deal represents thousands of dollars in potential wealth. Getting the wealth is the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. A small investment in your education can yield big results when you implement your learning.

2. Real estate investing success is possible in any economy. Often people think that you can only be a success in real estate when the economy is good. In reality, poor economies are great for real estate investors. You can often buy properties at deep discounts. Also, you might find deals that simply could not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can have the tide turned based on real estate investing. When the economy is not thriving, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate can all thrive. You can save yourself from financial difficulty along with others by knowing how to do these deals.

3. You do not need a lot of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can make a success of real estate investing no matter how much or little money you have. There are many deals that will let you use other people’s money to do them. Private lenders will lend you their money if they think you are a good investment. The best way to be a good investment is to know as much as possible about real estate investing. This will help you show private lenders that you are a good investment if they do not know about real estate investing themselves.

Real estate investing is a good way to generate a great deal of wealth. You can create income regardless of the economy. By using a base of knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate you can create success for yourself. Knowing real estate investing basics will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

A number of things likely come to mind when you think of real estate investing (like hard money). You might immediately leap to real estate investing being real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans or you may think instead of short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You probably also wonder how these things play out in real estate investors’ life in the current economy.

You will need to know a lot about real estate investing. The best way to get the most out of your real estate investing education is to be familiar with some basic information ahead of time. Whether your target is short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or improving real estate investor abilities, you need to know some real estate investing basics. Check out these three real estate investing tenets that many experts do not fully know:

1. Real estate investing education is a true investment that always has a positive yield. Every real estate deal has the potential to create thousands of dollars in potential wealth. Knowing how to get that wealth is the key to success. When you know about real estate your odds of success increase with each real estate deal. A small investment in your education can yield big results when you implement your learning.

2. You have the ability to succeed in real estate investing in any economy. Many people think that you can only succeed in real estate when the economy is booming. In reality, poor economies are great for real estate investors. You can often buy properties at deep discounts. Also, you might find deals that simply could not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can turn based on active real estate investing. When the economy is not so good, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate are great. Knowing how to do these deals can create wealth for you and save others from major financial difficulties.

3. You will not need lots of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can make real estate investing a success regardless of how much money you have. There are lots of types of deals that you can perform with the money of other people. If you appear to be a solid investment you may be able to use a private lender’s money. An investor who is a good investment knows as much as they can when it comes to real estate investing. This will help you show private lenders that you are a good investment if they do not know about real estate investing themselves.

A good deal of wealth can be generated with real estate investing. You will be able to create an income no matter what the economy. You can create success for yourself using knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate. Knowing some real estate investing basics and applying them will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

The term real estate investing likely brings a number of things to mind (like short sales). Depending on how familiar you are with real estate investing already, you might think of real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans, or you might focus on short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You likely also are wondering how these things factor into real estate investors’ roles in the current economy.

There is a great deal to know about real estate investing. The best way to optimize your real estate investing education is to know the basics ahead of time. Whether your target is short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or improving real estate investor abilities, you need to know some real estate investing basics. Here are three real estate investing basics that even some experts do not really know:

1. You will always get a positive yield with real estate investing education. In any real estate deal, there will be thousands of dollars in potential wealth. Knowing about getting that wealth is the key in the end to your success. Learning as much as possible about real estate will increase your odds of success whenever you do a real estate deal. A small investment in education has the ability to yield big results when it is implemented.

2. Real estate investing success is possible in any economy. Many people are under the misconception that success is possible in real estate only when the economy is good. In reality, a bad economic situation is not bad for real estate investors. Likely you will be able to find properties at deep discounts. You might also find deals that simply would not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can turn based on active real estate investing. Short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate all thrive when the economy is less than thriving. You can save yourself from financial difficulty along with others by knowing how to do these deals.

3. You do not need to have a great deal of money if you want to be a successful real estate investor. You can be a success in real estate investing no matter how much money you have on your own. There are lots of types of deals that you can perform with the money of other people. Private lenders will let you use their money if they know that you are a good investment. A person who is a solid investment knows as much as possible about real estate investing. This will help you represent yourself as a good investment to private lenders who do not know how to make money in real estate investing.

Real estate investing is a great way to generate wealth. You can create a good income no matter what the state of the economy. You can create your own success using your knowledge of short sales, real estate investing, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate. You will be helped to succeed as a real estate investor by knowing real estate investing basics.

It is likely that you think of a number of things when you hear the words real estate investing (like short sales). You might immediately leap to real estate investing being real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans or you may think instead of short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You likely also are wondering how these things factor into real estate investors’ roles in the current economy.

There is a lot of information out there on real estate investing. To get the most out of real estate investing education, be familiar with basic information ahead of time. Whether your target is short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or improving real estate investor abilities, you need to know some real estate investing basics. Here are three real estate investing basics that even some experts do not really know:

1. You will always end up with a positive yield when you invest in real estate investing education. Each real estate deal can represent thousands of dollars in potential wealth. Getting the wealth is the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. A small investment in education has the ability to yield big results when it is implemented.

2. Any economy allows for success in real estate investing. Many people think that you can only succeed in real estate when the economy is booming. You should remember that a bad economic situation is not usually bad for real estate investors. You frequently can get properties at deep discounts. Also, you might find deals that simply could not exist in a booming economy. Real estate investing often is what turns the tide for poor economies. When the economy is not so good, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate are great. You will be able to save yourself and others from serious financial difficulties if you know how to do these deals.

3. You do not need to have a great deal of money if you want to be a successful real estate investor. You can make a success of real estate investing no matter how much or little money you have. There are lots of deals that you can use other people’s money to do. If you are a good investment private lenders may let you use their money. The best way to be a good investment is to know as much as possible about real estate investing. This will enable you to show people who have money for real estate investing but may not know how to use it that you are a good investment.

Real estate investing is a great way to generate wealth. You can create an income in any economy. You can create success for yourself using knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate. Real estate investing basic knowledge will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

A number of things likely come to mind when you think of real estate investing (like hard money). Depending on how familiar you are with real estate investing already, you might think of real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans, or you might focus on short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You may also consider what roles these things play in your life as a real estate investor in different economies.

You will need to know a lot about real estate investing. Knowing the basics of real estate investing education is a good way to get the most out of every lesson. Whether your target is short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or improving real estate investor abilities, you need to know some real estate investing basics. Here are three real estate investing basics that even some experts do not really know:

1. Real estate investing education always yields positive. Every good real estate deal represents thousands of dollars in potential wealth. The knowledge of how to get that wealth is the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. Small investments in education yield big results upon implementation.

2. Real estate investing success is possible in any economy. Many people are under the misconception that success is possible in real estate only when the economy is good. In reality, poor economies are great for real estate investors. You can often buy properties at deep discounts. You could also locate deals that would not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can have the tide turned based on real estate investing. When the economy is not thriving, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate can all thrive. You will be able to save yourself and others from serious financial difficulties if you know how to do these deals.

3. You will not need lots of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can succeed in the real estate investing arena no matter how much money you are working with. There are lots of deals that you can use other people’s money to do. Private lenders will let you use their money if they know that you are a good investment. An investor who is a good investment knows as much as they can when it comes to real estate investing. This will help you show people that you are a good investment if they have the money to help you with real estate investing but they do not know how to use it.

You can generate lots of wealth by real estate investing. You can create income regardless of the economy. You can create success for yourself using knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate. Knowing real estate investing basics will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

A number of things likely come to mind when you think of real estate investing. You may think of real estate investing as real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans, or you might focus on short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You may also consider what roles these things play in your life as a real estate investor in different economies.

There is a lot of information out there on real estate investing. The best way to optimize your real estate investing education is to know the basics ahead of time. Whether you are interested in short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or just improving your abilities as a real estate investor, you need to know some real estate investing basics in order to succeed. Review these three real estate investing basics that even some experts don’t yet know:

1. You will always end up with a positive yield when you invest in real estate investing education. In any real estate deal, there will be thousands of dollars in potential wealth. The knowledge of how to get that wealth is the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. Small investments in education yield big results upon implementation.

2. You can succeed in real estate investing in any economy. Lots of people believe that real estate success is only possible in a booming economy. You should remember that a bad economic situation is not usually bad for real estate investors. Likely you will be able to find properties at deep discounts. You could also locate deals that would not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can turn based on active real estate investing. Short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate all can thrive when the economy is not. Knowing how to do these deals can create wealth for you and save others from major financial difficulties.

3. You do not need a lot of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can make a success of real estate investing no matter how much or little money you have. There are a lot of deals that you can do with other people’s money. Private lenders will let you use their money if they know that you are a good investment. An investor who is a good investment knows as much as they can when it comes to real estate investing. This will help you show private lenders that you are a good investment if they do not know about real estate investing themselves.

Real estate investing is a great way to generate wealth. You can create income regardless of the economy. You can create your own success using your knowledge of short sales, real estate investing, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate. You will be helped to succeed as a real estate investor by knowing real estate investing basics.

Introduction

When I decided I needed a website for my business I had no idea of the planning involved. Like most people, I thought web design meant deciding on the graphics and the look of the pages and then by some magic it would all happen.
I have a friend who is in the business of web design and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so I approached him for a quote. As a complete novice who is computer literate up to a point, I was amazed at the depth of initial questioning required to find out exactly what I wanted to achieve.

I had no idea about the various aspects and the structure of the site and I found it mind blowing when I learned about the amount of work involved. So I thought other people would be interested to know more about this complicated process and I have asked my friend to supply the technical information for this article.

Stages in the Process

Target Audience

Before building a website there are important questions to consider. I was asked who would be my potential audience. Who are my customers likely to be? Would they be children, businesses, home owners, sales people, parents or teenagers and so on?

The Objective of the Website

Then I was asked, what was the purpose of my website? Did I want to sell products on line or use it to market my business and get more leads for possible customers? Maybe I would want to use it as an online brochure to showcase products. Another possibility was to use the website to foster a community so that I was in contact with other like-minded people, with chat rooms, online discussion and being supported by advertising on the site.

I hadn’t quite realised the scope of a website but as I was asked these questions it became clear that a lot of careful thought went into the preparation before building a website.

How to be Found on the Web

One of the first questions I was asked was, ‘Do you want it to be found by Google the main search engine?’ If I did then there was a whole process of establishing Keywords. So finding the best keywords are vital if you want to be found in Google. Generally most users only look at the first page of results so you will also want to promote your website to get on this page for your chosen keywords. By using a keyword research tool you can find the single most popular keyword for your industry.

Your Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is often quite a problem because every name you initially come up with will almost certainly have been taken. Domain names ending in .com are by far the most popular and internationally recognised; the snag is that it’s very popularity means that the majority of the shorter names have already been registered.
By reviewing potential domain names with different endings, such as .net; .co.uk or .info may be able to provide you with the domain name you are after.

One thing our business does is perform an asbestos survey prior to demolition of a building of office block so we were fortunate enough to get good advice about registering our domain name a good few years ago before they were very popular.

When choosing your domain name it is very important to include one or more of your keywords if possible as this can apparently help with search engine rankings. So although the name of your business is the obvious choice for a domain name, it is not necessarily the only option.

Creating a Site Map

As with any project you must have a plan, the better the plan the better the project turns out. A site map for a web site is part of the plan for the site. The importance of creating a site map is to get it clear in your mind of all the pages you will have on your website so you can prepare the content for each page and begin to design the flow through the website, such as when a user adds a product to their basket, then enters their delivery and billing address and makes the credit card payment in the correct order.

The aim is to make the site as user friendly as possible so that there are no barriers to getting into the website. For that reason often user name and passwordz are set for the customer so that they are not put off making a purchase by having to register.
For a non e-commerce site things are simpler with a contact form which allows you to receive enquiries by email without publishing your email address on the website, thus avoiding spam.Web forms can also validate the information before you receive it, so ensuring that the phone number provided does not contain words, and that the email address is in the correct format, for example. These things may sound very technical to us lay-folk but I assure you everything has to be decided in advance before starting on the construction of the site.

Copy

The next stage is preparing the content. This is not the design of your website – just the words and visuals you want to have one each of the pages.Having gathered all the above information you will need to decide what imagery you want to use within the website content. As we all know, a picture speaks a thousand words and remains in people’s memory far longer than just words.For each image you could also have a caption, as the caption of an image is the next ‘most read’ words on the page after the page title. Images and their captions need to be clickable. When you click on a picture it should take you to the next stage of the process such as the sale page or placing an enquiry if your website is for lead generation.

Navigation

Another important aspect when building a website is how you want your navigation to work. You can have links within the content of your website, in the text, so there are not just links from the menu. You will need to decide whether the links will open into a new window, retaining your original page open. Next time you go online, you will realise how much thought has gone into the way in which a website works.

Website Design

Finally we come to the design of your website. Obviously everyone is different and what we like differs from person to person, web design is no exception to this rule and so when it comes to designing websites for SEO it is hard to please all the people all the time, unless you are an exceptionally talented designer.

What one person might like, another person might not like. If you are setting up a website for yourself alone then you will probably have some idea of what you want to see on the site. But if, as so often happens, the website is for a large corporation there will be inputs from many people or departments and you can be sure that they will never all agree!

There are a number of ways to approach website design but ultimately you need to create a design brief for the designer(s) to work from. Look at other websites and your competitor’s websites to find out what you like or dislike. The design brief should give reference to the logo, any existing brand guidelines or schemes and fonts and colour schemes, and should also detail which pages of the website that the designer is being tasked with creating visuals for.

The very best results will be achieved by using a graphic designer, and beware – not all graphic designers are the same. A graphic designer who designs specifically for print is working in a different discipline than a graphic designer who designs for screen and specifically the web. So choose your designer carefully, look at other work that person has done and determine whether or not you like their style.

If you are working in the big time and budget allows, use multiple graphic designers who have all been given the same design brief and request three concept designs from each designer. If the client themselves also do a graphic design, even if it’s a back of the envelope scribble, you will then have 10 concept designs. The next step is to get them all together and select the preferred elements from each design. Then give the work to the preferred graphic designer to work up as the final artwork.

The artwork should be finalised and agreed on by everybody before development of the site begins.

Production

Finally the preparation has been done and the site is ready to be constructed. Now for the more technical stuff! You will need to have decided which programming language to use to build the website. There are two main types for developing a website, one is Unix based, and the other is Windows based. Each one has advantages and disadvantages. If you are starting from scratch then it probably won’t matter, so you can go with the preference of your professional doing the work. My website is built on the Unix platform (apparently!) which is the same as many of the more well known websites such as Ebay, Facebook, Google and Amazon. Also your website hosting must be compatible with the development language with which your website is built.

Accessibility and Compliance

The website has to meet the current standards for website coding and doing so insures that disabled users, such as the visually impaired, can still access the entire website if they are using a screen reader.

Website Development

The best way to develop a website is on the web Server where the site is going to live. This way, those involved in reviewing the work can see work in progress and provide comments throughout the development.

Unforeseen items

There are always some things that arise in any project which you suddenly realise you have forgotten, so no matter how well the web designer prepares and asks the right questions, there will always be a last minute change or addition. The main aim is to minimise the number of glitches that might arise because they aren’t calculated in and they could cause extra costs and delays on the date of the site going live.

Going live

The moment of excitement comes when your site finally goes live and you see the results of all the thought that has gone into the whole process. Although the web agency made building my demolitions contractor website as easy for us as possible it was still a fair amount of work on our side and so a great feeling of achievement to finally see it go live.

Reporting and Monitoring

Once your website is up and running, you will want to know how many people visit your website and from that number how many actually buy the products or place an enquiry. From these statistics you can work out the ratio of visits to sales and gradually make changes to improve the ratios. There are some reliable statistics packages such as Google Analytics or Web-Stat.com which allow you to collect and review website visitor data in near real time. All you need to do this is to have a small block of code inserted into each web page on your site.

Another useful service that Web-stat.com provides is to monitor the website and warn you by email or text message if the site is not reachable. Google Analytics doesn’t yet provide a comparable uptime monitoring service, maybe they just decided it was too much of a headache as it is an intensive service checking a website every 5 minutes to make sure it is still responding and indeed web-stat do promote this difference as one of their unique selling points but it is pretty hard to compete with free. In fact Google Analytics is not quite free, which makes it an even better marketing decision for Google because sometimes it is harder to give things away for free than it is to sell them! Google Analytics is a free service available to Google AdWords advertisers, you don’t actually have to have any AdWords campaigns running but it will cost you a one-time activation fee of £5 (or similar in your local currency) to open your AdWords account, but once you have done that you can go on to use Google Analytics for as many websites as you like.

Marketing

Once the website is live there are lots of things you can do to market your product or service. The first step is to submit it to the search engines and at the same time write articles, and press releases. Getting links to the site from forums, blogs and other social networking spaces are other options. For more on this subject ask your developer about SEO

Conclusion

Wheww. What an amazing amount of work! I hadn’t realised when I started the process of getting a website up and running, how complicated it all is and how many factors you have to consider before even designing the website. The word web design is really a misnomer, as people often think it’s just about the graphic design on the home page, and the branding of the product. Unless you are a computer buff, most people have no idea how much goes into designing and building a website and the systems that support the work you want it to do. I hope that this article will give readers an understanding and insight into the whole process of website development from start to finish.

 

The importance of insurance is taught to us at a pretty young age and you will come across it many times in your life. Pretty much everyone has insurance cover of some form for either themselves or their possessions. There are more types of insurance than you could possibly conceive, and each is very important in its own right. It is just as important to have office insurance if you are working in such an environment and here are three of the top reasons why this is the case.

Cover Your Employees. Every one of your employees or colleges needs to be covered by your office insurance cover. You will be lumbered with the medical costs should any accidents take place that involve injury, which they frequently do.Additionally, it is not the most attractive thing for potential new staff to learn that you do not have them covered.

Loss and damage. Most offices have a lot of expensive equipment in them and also lots of data that could be worth quite bit. If you are insured then you will be able to continue trading and will have financial back-up if things get damaged or stolen. Further to this, having cover means that you do not need to be constantly worrying about what will happen in the worst case scenario.

Credibility. Quite often, being able to say that you are fully covered by even small business insurance, shows your clients and other businesses that you are responsible and professional.In fact for the cost of insurance, you’ll likely make a greater amount of money just because of the increased trust that clients and acquaintances will have in you. Consider wither you would get involved with a company who was not insured, you probably would not?

Introduction

Taking down old buildings and replacing them with new is a process that has been going on for thousands of years. The destruction of buildings might have occurred during battles or attacks on communities; or due to natural disturbances such as earthquakes or volcanic activity. The resultant ruins would need to be removed and rebuilt. So the idea of demolition would have come about where a population wished to re-inhabit a specific area or site. (One famous example is the Holy Temple in Jerusalem which was deliberately destroyed by the Assyrians around 586 BCE. After 50 years of occupation the Jews returned to Jerusalem and began the re-construction of the second temple which took seventy years to complete.)

However the actual word to demolish only came into being in 1570, and was used from then on to mean the deliberate taking down or destroying of a building or structure.

Preserving the past – preparing the future.

In a country like Britain with very dense populations per square mile, there is a limited amount of land available for building. The land between built up areas of the villages and towns is known as Green Belt and is protected from development to preserve the agricultural and natural heritage which is vital to the economy of the country.

The outcome of this policy is that there is a constant shortage of land for housing and industry, so the developers have to be more creative when providing structures for the population. One of the ways of doing this is to find places where the buildings are no longer commercially viable or have been abandoned, and re-use the area for different purposes. These areas are known as brownfield, or greyfield sites. In some cities, particularly Leeds and Manchester, the old warehouses or factories have been converted into apartments, retaining the original shell and reconfiguring the internal dimensions into valuable living accommodation.

Brownfield sites are disused industrial and commercial facilities where the land may be contaminated with hazardous waste or pollution. They are potentially valuable for significant redevelopment once they have been cleaned up. Greyfield sites are urban properties that have been underutilised or abandoned, but do not have the environmental issues of brownfield sites. They were termed greyfield sites because of large areas of asphalt that covered the land. These sites are valuable because they already have the infrastructure such as water, sewage, electricity and gas in place and do not need remedial work to utilise the site.

When a structure is to be removed there are different ways of approaching the task. The size and construction of the building, the new use of the site and whether there are valuable elements suitable for re-use, will all determine how it is to be demolished.

Traditional Demolition

Traditionally, once all the services were disconnected, the machinery and men would go in and just knock down the walls which caused the roof to collapse and then drag all the wreckage away. Any concrete hard standing would be broken up ready for removal. The traditionalist style of site clearance removed site rubbish straight to landfill sites. However modern demolition practices are very controlled and are subject to strict planning, safety and monitoring regulations.

Small structures such as two or three storey houses can be dismantled quite easily with hydraulic excavators and bulldozers using a process of undermining. The walls are undermined at the base to topple the structure and at the same time the manner and direction of the fall is controlled. Clean-up and safety issues are also taken into account when deciding how the building will be undermined and demolished.

Larger buildings such as tower blocks and chimneys require more specialist techniques, and are outlined below.

Deconstruction

A new approach to demolishing buildings is deconstruction – a green approach. The aim is to diminish the amount of waste going to landfill sites by carefully preserving valuable materials for reuse. The work may be a painstaking task of dismantling by hand – brick by brick – or beam by beam. The reclaimed materials are then recycled or re-used for future buildings. The results of deconstruction can save in excess of 90% waste from going to a landfill site. When the farmer opposite to my house sold his farm yard with barns for housing, the builder demolished the barns, cleaned up the bricks and reused them for the perimeter wall of the farmhouse. At the time I was looking for some rubble as a base for a path and the builder let me take several barrow loads off his pile.

Recycling

Historically when old buildings were ruined from disuse or war damage the local people would gradually remove the stone and use it to build their new structures such as houses or barns. Hadrian’s wall between Carlisle and Newcastle has mostly gone because after the Romans left, the local population made off with the beautifully dressed stone the Roman craftsmen had used in the building of the wall. So even in those days people understood the value of recycling because it was much cheaper than having to quarry and dress the stone themselves.

At one time the rubble resulting from a demolished building would be taken to a landfill site for disposal. Now however concrete can be broken up rapidly with new guillotine machinery and the resultant rubble can be crushed and used as sub-base material for the foundation of the new building which is to replace the old, or sent to other building projects. These days this crushed rubble is called 6f2 crushed stone or 6f2 crushed material.

Modern machinery and techniques allows the demolition companies to efficiently segregate waste types on or off-site. Wherever possible construction materials are recycled and re-used in the new structure. Recycling of waste contributes to a considerable savings in project costs and is good for the environment.

When we renovated our bungalow 20 years ago the builder, who was a bell ringer, found an old beam from a bell tower that was being renovated, and after carefully treating it, installed it in the kitchen. It gave the room some badly needed character and has never needed any further treatment.

Copper pipes, wiring, roof tiles or slates, floor tiles and doors, and wood panelling are some of the valuable items that are saved for recycling and re-use. There are specialist yards in many towns where reclaimed old or antique artefacts are available for purchase.

Tall Buildings

In some cases a wrecking ball on a crane may be used to demolish the top part of a tall building until it is down to a manageable height. However this process is rarely used by professional demolition companies today due to the uncontrollable factor of the swinging ball and the proximity of other buildings.

Other methods of demolition of tall buildings are by implosion using explosives, controlled collapse and piecemeal. Also ‘High Reach’ demolition excavators are used where explosives are not appropriate. Once the building is down to a more manageable height demolition continues in the usual way.

The steeplejack Fred Dibnah became famous in the late 1970′s for his work on demolishing tall chimneys without the need for explosives. He would cut an ingress at the base of the chimney, use wooden props to support the brickwork and then burn the props so that the chimney would fall in the right direction.

The tallest building to be lawfully demolished was the Singer Building of New York in 1967/8. More recently the collapse of the World Trade Centre after the 9/11 attack in 2001 shows the terrible devastation that could occur if the demolition is not controlled and very carefully contained.

In the demolishing of tall buildings and large structures water hoses and spray equipment is used to control the dust and would is termed a wet demolition.

Explosions

What comes to mind for many people when they think about demolition would be the dramatic collapse of a tall building using explosives. However it is usually the process of implosion, using explosives, that brings down a tall building so that it does as little damage as possible to the surrounding environment. Implosion is essential for dense urban areas and is very fast, the collapse taking only seconds, with the building dropping inwards into its own footprint.

Using explosives is specialist work and is a very skilled process and getting it wrong can be catastrophic. If an implosion is not prepared correctly the danger may be damage to neighbouring structures or even killing onlookers from flying debris. Even more dangerous is a partial collapse of a building where the remaining structure is unstable and there are still primed explosives that failed to go off. Workers are in great danger if or when continuing the demolition.

Other dangers of working with explosives occurs when the atmospheric pressure from low cloud above the implosion site will cause the shockwave to spread outwards instead of upwards. The wave of energy created will break windows and cause other structural damage to the surrounding buildings.

Because of the dangers of working with explosives, implosion will only be used when other methods are too costly or impractical.

Health and Safety

Demolition of any building is highly dangerous and is a much more complicated and technical process than most people would realise. Experienced and skilled operators are very important to ensure safety for both workers and public alike. The stability of any structure is reliant on the interdependence of its component parts, so an incorrect sequence of dismantling could result in a premature collapse.

Health and safety is paramount in demolition work so personnel working in the industry have to be thoroughly trained. It is advisable for operatives to have gained a Certificate of Competence in Demolition to ensure they have the necessary skills and safety awareness. All demolition work is regulated by the Construction, Design and Management Regulations.

Sequence of Demolition

There has to be a sequence of actions before any demolition can take place. Each area council will have their own specific list for planning approval, but a typical order would be as follows:-

 

·  Provision of Information
The demolition company must provide information on the building to be demolished, its previous uses and the demolition method to be applied including the propossed disposal method of hazardous substances.

 

 

·  Survey of Demolition
Identification of any structural problems as well as risks associated with hazardous or flammable substances such as asbestos removal requiring thorough asbestos surveys of the site.Where petrol has been stored, in a disused garage for example, precautions need to be taken to prevent a fire hazard.

 

 

·  Preferred and Safe Method of Work
A reputable company involved in demolition will be able to select the appropriate method of disposal. Planning and outlining the dismantling process is necessary for meticulous monitoring. A detailed statement outlining the safety process needs to be agreed by all parties involved before any demolition can take place.

 

 

·  Preparation and Planning
A large amount of preparation is required before starting work on demolishing a building. Issues such as asbestos abatement, disconnecting utilities, rodent baiting, dealing with hazardous substances and making safe any electric, gas or other services have to be resolved.

 

 

·  Protection of the Public
Where demolition is carried out in heavily populated areas the protection of the public is paramount. Safety is the biggest factor. Temporary services may need to be arranged, health hazards assessed and people inconvenienced will need to be informed.

 

Conclusion

The word ‘demolish’ is interpreted as the deliberate and controlled collapse of a structure. Demolition work is a very dangerous business and demolishing any building is a complex and skilled process. The aim in demolition is to remove an unwanted building as safely and quickly as possible, recycle or re-use most of the old material, and clear the site ready for the subsequent use.

In the centre of Nottingham over the last few years there has been a major reconstruction of what was an old car park into a brand new shopping centre. While this was going on the public were only really aware of the boarding around the area, a change in traffic direction and maybe some big lorries going in and out of the site.

So the next time you see houses being demolished to make way for the new, give a thought to the company involved who’s team are daily working in a dangerous environment, adhering to all of the regulations and carefully and meticulously carrying out the project to bring us the modern conveniences we have come to expect and clearing the way for the future.