Demo debris recycling

[chuey]

With the high rates of landfill dumping is anybody doing much recycling of demo debris to keep your cost & bids down? Mainly referring to more commercial structure than residential. I know there is descent money in scraping steel & the copper wire if its still there but what about all the concrete & such? I know there is a lot of rebar in concrete structures but can this still be ran through a crusher? & is it much more cost effective to crush on site if you have the available room? Can this crushed concrete then be sold even if it was painted concrete?

 

[powerjoke]

We recycle what we can but be careful our law states that it has to be done ONSITE, basically ya can't haul it to the shop for sorting later.

MO has also applied a reg where the same applies to trees firewood......can't log up a tree haul it to the shop and cut it up later but more than likely they'll never enforce that one hopefully

Pj

 

[lumberjack]

Any idea on the theory behind that law?

 

[dirty4fun]

I tore down a corn crib three weeks ago and salvaged 19 Douglas fir 3" x 12" x 14' joist. They came out easy and were just to good to pass up. I try to sort the metal out of a even a house demo. Getting paid for it instead of paying to have it hauled away makes sense to me.

 

[CM1995]

Getting paid for it instead of paying to have it hauled away makes sense to me.

I agree. Just finished up 27K SF demo of a shopping center. All in all I got 40K lbs + of steel/tin out of it. Also was able to salvage some rough sawn pine beams that were used for roof rafters in an older section of the center.

The concrete slabs were unreinforced so all the slabs plus the CMU went to an inert fill spot, the rest went to the landfill.

That's about as much as one can recycle in my area. There are no concrete recycling centers since we are blessed with limestone in abundance. Landfill gate rates are cheap, less than $20 a ton if you haul enough, so there is little incentive to sort and recycle the remaining debris.

 

[chuey]

Well our plan was to crush on site to save on trucking. With clean concrete we can fill ravines & that kind of thing but painted concrete they really frown upon so was trying to figure out a way to not take it to the landfill. Landfill costs here are $32/ton plus the land fill is nearly a 2.5 hour round trip once loaded, unloaded, & travel so it gets pricey fast. Did you account for some of that steel scraping on your bid? Amount of steel cash you can get could be tricky to estimate so I was curious.

 

[CM1995]

Did you account for some of that steel scraping on your bid? Amount of steel cash you can get could be tricky to estimate so I was curious.

No I didn't. I knew there was going to be some scrap, I figured 2 or 3 40's weighing 3-4K lb a piece. I got a pleasant surprise when there was 4 layers of tin under the build up roof and 90% of one buildings roof was steel bar joist and metal decking. I estimated that all the roof structures were wood so it was a pleasant surprise.

 

[chuey]

Just trying to figure out if I can take some off our bids when we know there's a fair amount of steel & if all the wiring is still in the structure the copper.

 

[CM1995]

To be honest, I usually don't estimate the amount of steel in a demo. I treat it as an "extra" and have an extra can just for metal to throw it all in. It's difficult in res. and small commercial demo to estimate the metal amount because it's usually an abandoned structure and the meth/crack heads have gotten all the easy stuff. It might be there the day you do a walk thru and gone the day you start.

We are fortunate in our area to have many steel using plants close by, mainly cast iron pipe producers, so it's easy to find a buyer and a short distance to the scrap yard.

We got a pleasant surprise when taking up the slabs yesterday, a bundle of copper refrigeration lines running under the slab. They had been cut off at the slab by the addicts and we didn't know they were there. $680 worth of copper.

 

[chuey]

Have you ever used a multi processor on your excavator? I was just curious on how well they worked on separating the rebar from the concrete. If I can get the rebar & most of the wwf out of the concrete I can do something with it besides just taking to the landfill which is why I thought a crusher might be the way to go. Don't need government agencies on my ass about not hauling to the landfill.

 

[CM1995]

Have you ever used a multi processor on your excavator?

I have thought about a concrete processor for an excavator, the non-hydraulic kind. I could see where it could pay for itself relatively quickly, taking into account the amount of rebar/mesh going to the scrap yard and "contaminated" concrete not going to a C&D landfill.

Anyone running a concrete processor?

Like this one - http://www.solesbeesequipment.com/excavator_concrete_crusher.php

 

[450smrider]

Sorry to bring up old thread have a mechanical pulverizer on a 325 works great and created another way to put a lil cash in your pocket, makes sorting rebar out of concrete a breeze

 

[Wolf]

I see you're in Sandy Hook

were you involved in the school demo there

you got any pictures of that?

 

[450smrider]

No and i live a stones through up the rd....no one was aloud in had security couldnt get close enough for them to smell you fart....bestech did they demo..i will snap some pics of the demo they are doing in town at fairfield hills this is my current demo right now

 

[Wolf]

Sweet looking demo!