Asbestos Demolition

Notification of demolition must be submitted in writing by the owner/operator to DHEC’s (department of health and environmental control) asbestos division before any demolition of any structure, whether asbestos is present or not. Because asbestos demolition is tremendously hazardous to workers and anyone in the area of removal, laws have been instated for the removal or demolition of any structure. Prior to asbestos demolition, renovation, and any construction proceeds building owners are required to have their buildings inspected for any presence of asbestos. In addition a written asbestos report must be acquired from the buildings owner or the owners agent. The construction contractor must attain this report before any construction or bidding is done. However for homeowners performing asbestos demolition, the above laws do not apply. There are several ways of demolition, burning of a structure is one of them. Again for this to be performed an inspection must be done, if asbestos is shown to be present it must be removed prior to burning, a burn permit is also required.

There are several other methods of asbestos demolition used on structures including but not limited to the use of heavy machinery, such as bulldozers, and cranes. This machinery is used not only for asbestos demolition, but also for post-demolition uses. Explosion and implosion devices are a less common method of demolition due to the large amount of dust, which is created from an explosion, the direction and enormity is also hard to determine which is a high cause for alarm. The demolition process can also be done by hand, which refers to the operation of motorized and non-motorized tools, which can be operated by hand and are not used for transportation. Regarding all of the above methods the removal of any asbestos must be done prior to demolition, or construction.

Lastly and possibly most importantly is the disposal of demolition remains. In order to save and make as much money as possible, contractors’ resale and recycle material, the remaining debris is normally transported off site for discarding.