How To Demolish a Skyscraper
How do you demolish a sky skyscraper?
Often large buildings are brought down with explosives by individuals with the coolest job title in the world, blasters.
This starts with taking out non load bearing walls and the weaker support columns. Dynamite is then bored into concrete columns with RDX explosives used to cut through steel beams, although in one occasion jet fuel was used.
The surrounding area is then cleared, sirens blare and the explosives are strategically set off. They usually start with lower support columns guiding the fall using gravity so that they implode, causing minimal collateral damage.
The tallest building and only official skyscraper taken down with explosives was 165m tall in Abu Dhabi.
Instead the majority of skyscrapers are demolished via deconstruction. This is basically the construction of the building in reverse. You start by taking out possibly hazardous material followed by soft stripping, taking out the likes of the windows and doors.
You’ll also fully or mostly enclose the building in scaffolding for noise and safety reasons, using shoots, hoists and cranes to dispose of the waste material.
When only the structural materials remain, you’ll use excavators and cranes to disassemble and break up the concrete and steel floor by floor going from the top down until nothing remains.
This is more costly than demolition via explosives but is often the only real option for tall skyscrapers.