Status: complete. Client: Buildcorp Group, through Buildcorp Asset Solutions. Location: industrial unit, Rydalmere NSW. Scope: strip out and demolition of a fire damaged warehouse and office unit, including the full roof, the roof framing and primary structural beams, redundant plant and access walkways, and a fire damaged section of the precast intertenancy wall.
A fire had gone through the unit. The roof was burnt out, the walls were soot blackened and one section of the precast wall between this tenancy and the next had to come out. The rest of the estate was trading, with neighbouring tenants working either side of the party wall, so everything had to come down in a controlled way from inside the unit.
What the job involved
- Full removal of the warehouse roof, about 685 square metres, including sheeting, sarking, insulation and mesh
- Removal of the secondary roof framing, purlins and bracing, and of the primary structural beams identified on the drawings
- Temporary propping to the retained roof beams to the engineer's design, installed before anything was cut and kept in place until the new structure went in
- Removal of redundant services, the plant platform and the plant and equipment on it, all disconnected by others beforehand
- Removal of the existing access walkway
- Internal strip out of the fire damaged office areas: linings, ceilings, ductwork and services taken back to frame and structure
- Demolition of the fire damaged section of the precast concrete intertenancy wall, about 22 metres, and make good to the structural engineer's detail, with the new blockwork by others
- Return mobilisation later in the year to take out the temporary wall once the new blockwork and roof structure were up
- Segregation of material at the face, steel to the recycler, the rest into skip bins and out on hook lift trucks
What made it hard
A fire damaged roof is not a normal roof. The sheeting, the purlins and the beams had all been through the fire, so nothing could be assumed to be carrying what it used to. The sequence had to take the load off in the right order: sheets first, then purlins and bracing, then the beams propped and taken out later in the programme. The propping was designed by the engineer for vertical load and uplift and went in before the first cut.
The unit shares a precast intertenancy wall with the tenancy next door, and that neighbour kept trading. Cutting a fire damaged section out of a shared wall means the neighbour has to stay safe and dry on the other side of it the whole time, so that part of the work was staged around the temporary wall and the new blockwork rather than done in one hit.
Access was the third one. The unit sits in a busy estate with other tenants using the driveway, so plant, skip bins and trucks all came through the same access point, and the work zone inside was barriered off with the exclusion zone reset every shift.
How it was run
The roof came off manually from scissor lifts and a boom lift, not by machine from below. The roof was divided into three sections between the beams and each section went in the same order: sheets first, cut down into manageable pieces with reciprocating saws and grinders, then the purlins and bracing cut with the grinder and oxy kit or unbolted at the connections. Wheel stops kept the lifts clear of the props.
Material was segregated as it came down and loaded progressively into skip bins so the floor never filled up, then carted off by hook lift truck to a licensed facility, with the steel going to a recycler. Work ran standard hours, Monday to Friday, and the site was walked and checked every morning before anyone started.
The precast wall section was cut out and made good to the engineer's detail, with a temporary wall keeping the neighbouring tenancy closed off. We came back on a second mobilisation once the new blockwork and roof structure were up to take that temporary wall out, so the builder had one contractor across both ends of the job.
How it went
Roof, framing and the burnt structural steel out. Plant platform, walkway and redundant services out. The damaged section of the intertenancy wall cut out and made good, with the neighbour trading through it. Unit handed back cleared, propped and ready for the new roof structure, then handed back a second time once the temporary wall came out.
If you have something similar
Fire damage strip outs, roof demolition and structural removal on occupied industrial and commercial sites are what Perfect Strip Out and Demolition does across Sydney. Have a look at our demolition, commercial strip out, structural propping and make good and defit pages, or just get in touch and tell us what you are dealing with.
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