Demolishing outbuilding with concrete roof

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Hi,

This is my first official post to the forum - but I hope to be an active contributor moving forward.

I recently purchased a house(semi-detached); in the rear of the house there is a concrete roof that houses a few small cupboards/sheds(including a toilet); the mirror image of this is also on my neighbours side. As part of a future planned extension I would like to remove this to make room for a cleaner single story rear extension. I have attached a few pictures.

The part that makes me a little nervous is that there is a thick concrete roof(thickest nearest the house, then thinning out slightly as it gets further away). Other houses down the street have a similar design.

I would ideally like to cut this apart from my neighbours and demolish my side.

Here are a couple of questions that I'm trying to answer before I go any further:

1) From prior experience is it likely that this is solid concrete or could it be hollow?

2) What's the best tool to use to 'cut' the concrete block?

3) Is it best just to make one cut and let the roof fall away(feels like the answer to this is probably no) or make multiple cuts to cut small sections at a time?

Thanks in advance.

Mark
 
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I had the same thing on my house. The 4 inch solid concrete roof was joined to a mirror image on the neighbours side. I put supports under the roof, then used a petrol stihl saw to cut my roof away from the neighbours as close to the party wall as possible. Then cut the rest of the roof away a bit at a time and slid it off the edge.
The main thing is to do it in a controlled way and not just try and push the thing over. Experienced builders (sometimes !) know when you can get away with being a bit more heavy handed.
 
Biggish job really and potentially dangerous. Biggest problem is that it's joined to the neighbours.

You'll need to cut it at the boundary (ask the neighbour first :) ) At least a 100mm deep cut.

The concrete will defo be solid with metal reinforcing bars embedded.

I would work from above standing on planks straddling the walls and use a heavy jackhammer to break it up.
 
That has the potential to be fatal and I would not say it is a diy job. I have seen some clips somewhere either on you tube or worlds craziest fools were people have come unstuck badly be careful.
 
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I am not an expert ...
Also, consider if removing it will affect anything you might want to be doing - are you using permitted development or planning ? As it stands, it's part of the house and you can probably "convert" or extend it, but once you take it down, you can't put it back without either planning or PD.
 
+1 with catlad. Cutting through the roof could weaken it enough for the slab to move, pushing the walls out and the whole lot to come crashing down taking anything on/under/alongside with it...... Not a DIY job, and even the pro's can come unstuck sometimes with demolition - I have seen it happen, and only by sheer fortune was nobody hurt..... :eek:
 
best way to deal with it is to look and see if its tied to the other roof and get a micro with a pecker or wrecker then nibble away at it working your way into the roof this way the walls are still holding its weight all your doing is liting the load then push over walls job done.

or if you want to go and do it by hand the get acro props on it then work at it from a ally tower and kango nice and slow onve you get to a prop just tack it out last 6" of roof just cut away with stihl for clean finish BUT BUT BUT
use water when cutting and or using a pecker have a lab with a hose on the dust we have taken down much bigger concrete roofs that this with both ways if said and they have worked really well for us.
PM me if you need any more info of numbers of firms that have micros and peckers etc
 
a good way to pall it out in one go if its got good access is to prop it in place then cut away jointing roof core out 4 holes one each corner jerry rig a small crane lift then take the strain know out the last course of brick then lower to safety but we only do this on demo sites as we can swing a crane about lol

Id go with the digger and pecker that way you have means of taking it down and moving the gear after and yes a micro will fit throw a normal door se they can track in your front door and out the back and have to power o do the job
Just dont hire a jcb micro there ****
 
Wow - thanks everyone for the helpful advice.

I'm still a few months away from doing anything so will consult some experts to get their opinion and understand the costs of doing this.

I'll post back when I've made some progress and let everyone know the approach I took.
 
I'm obviously aware this is a really old thread but I'm wondering if you ever took the job on and got the roof off??

I've got mine to do but it's free standing, I'm just wondering what worked for yourself and do you have any pointers for me taking mine off ???

Thanks
Josh
 
Again I know it’s an old thread but how did you get on? I also have a free standing outhouse that we want to take the internal walls down but need to take the reinforced concrete roof off first. I will be getting builders in to do this but wanted to know how you got on?
 

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