The Art of Demolition in Construction: A Sustainable and Regenerative Approach

The modern construction industry focuses more on the sustainable and regenerative approach to demolition. Nowadays, customers and construction contractors are aware of the importance of sustainability. They prefer to conduct construction and demolition without impacting the environment. Are you unsure how to demolish an old building without harming the environment? Or, are you confused about how to approach the contractor to follow a sustainable and regenerative approach in demolition? Scroll down the article to learn more about the sustainable demolition process. In this article, you shall learn the value of soft strip demolition, construction waste management, and sustainable demolition's impact on UK society.

What is sustainable demolition in construction?

Sustainable demolition in the construction industry involves carefully demolishing buildings while protecting old resources. Contractors carefully demolish an old building to ensure that old resources can be reused in future construction. But why do you need to demolish a building? All buildings have a set lifespan of approximately 90-100 years. A building naturally wears out when it reaches that age, so there is no other way than demolishing it. However, you can also refurbish the old building, which can save you demolition and construction costs. You can also adopt a soft strip demolition approach to maintain a sustainable and regenerative approach.

Why is soft strip demolition essential to maintaining sustainability?

Soft strip demolition is the process of carefully stripping out unnecessary parts of a building. It involves removing non-structural elements of a building, such as ceilings, fittings, and fixtures, partitioning walls, and electrical wiring. The benefit of soft-strip demolition is that you can demolish a part of the damaged old building. You don’t need to demolish the entire building. It also helps to reduce the cost of construction and demolition. Demolishing or stripping out only the necessary parts of the building will also reduce construction waste. Hence, your act of destroying the damaged part of the building will decrease the impact on the environment.

How can you reduce the impact on the environment during the demolition process?

Selective demolition of old buildings is one way to reduce environmental impact. It reduces waste generation, meaning less debris will end up in landfills. In the UK, approximately 60% of the waste is generated by construction, excavation, and demolition. If you reduce waste generation during the demolition process, you can reduce the negative impact of demolition on the environment. The best way to minimize demolition and construction waste is to plan for demolition. If you can reuse the trash, you will also require fewer resources, which is a more sustainable approach.

Circular economy for waste management: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

One of the trending concepts of waste management nowadays is the circular economy. It focuses on your consumption and reusing resources for their ultimate utilisation. It involves three approaches: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Reduce

Your approach during the demolition process should be to reduce waste. It would be best to communicate with a contractor to focus on reducing waste materials. This will reduce waste management and carrying costs, and most importantly, waste materials will not end up in landfills. Reducing waste materials will also reduce the chance of contaminating the nearest waterbody.

Reuse

You can also use solid bricks in good condition for future construction processes. This will reduce the need for new bricks and, therefore, the construction cost.

Recycle

You can recycle construction waste materials. For example, you can crush concrete and reuse it in the driveway to make a solid base, then use reinforced concrete slabs.

Social impact of demolition in the UK

If you adopt a sustainable approach to demolition, it will impact the UK society on a great scale. A sustainable and regenerative approach will help protect the environment. If you are a commercial entity, a sustainable demolition approach will help to improve your value in society. Besides, the sustainable approach to demolition will increase awareness among others in society to adopt a similar approach.

Concluding remark

You can adopt a sustainable approach in the demolition process while demolishing an old building. The circular economy approach in this context is becoming popular in construction nowadays. You can adapt the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle approach to demolition. This will reduce demolition costs, environmental impact, and the requirement for new construction resources. Your sustainable approach to demolition will also impact your neighbours to adopt a similar approach. If you plan to demolish or soft strip out your old property, contact Demolition Contractor London today! Our contractors are skilled in following a sustainable approach to demolition.