How to demolish a bomb shelter

[Robertspaw]

I have a bomb shelter in my garden which is made from breeze block and walls are a good 50m thick (2 breeze blocks side by side). It also has a fairly chunky roof on top, which I'm not sure if its reinforced or not.

I was thinking of hiring a Demolition Hammer

http://www.hss.com/g/2131/Demolition-Hammer-10kg-110v.html

to take it down but I've nerver done anything like this before so would appreciate some guidance on whether this is the right thing to use and any other tips that might come in handy!

Thanks

 

[breezer]

 

[xerxes]

If it is built from breeze block, that hammer should deal with it very effectively. In fact you could try knocking it down with a sledgehammer.

Let the machine do the work. Try to work downwards as much as you can: holding a demolition hammer up in the air gets very tiring. Don't get the steel (the chisel) stuck in the material by burying it too deeply.

 

[breezer]

would the ceiling not be the best place to start? (the way you have wriiten it it looks like you mean to start with the walls)

 

[JohnD]

If it is a genuine bomb shelter, it will not be made of breeze. The walls and roof will be reinforced. Usually the roof (and sometimes the floor) will be concrete reinforced with welded steel mesh. The walls if made of brick or concrete block will usually be reinforced with steel rod laid into the mortar joints.

They were designed and built to be difficult to demolish. You may like to keep a disk grinder or cutter handy to deal with the steel.

Can you post a photo?

Do you think it was built for a private house, or for a school or public use?

 

[Robertspaw]

Thanks for your replies. I'm not sure whether it was built as a bomb shelter or just a coal shed, but it is a sturdy building. It was just built for a house though - all the houses round here have them but mine seems to be the biggest! I was thinking, to limit the work I have to do, of taking down 2 of the walls, leaving the other 2 up and making it into a pagoda kind of thing. I figured this would reduce the amount of rubble I'd have to remove which is going to be a nightmare as live in a terrace with no way out but through the house!

 

[xerxes]

I was thinking, to limit the work I have to do, of taking down 2 of the walls, leaving the other 2 up and making it into a pagoda kind of thing.

On your own head be it.

 

[Symptoms]

Robert - I'm with JohnD on this one ... you don't have a "bomb" or an air-raid shelter. Pukka shelters (masonary ones) were generally built as communal shelters, others such as Anderson Shelters (corrugated iron type) could be found in folks' gardens ... of course the exception to this was that those who could afford it (the bosses and the upper-middle class) would have their own brick & concrete roof jobbies*. Clearly, as you live in a terrace and as most houses have them they're likely to be for coal or outside toilet & coal-house combo. Here ends the history lesson

Demolition, if it's not a "bomb" shelter, should be straightforward as others have suggested.

*There's an old brick/concrete shelter at the bottom of my garden into which I attempted to fit a window years ago ... it took the best part of 3 days to get through the brickwork (lump hammer & chisel method) cos it was about a foot thick and the mortar was harder than anything I've ever seen ... fantastic quality brickwork. The concrete pad on the roof is nearly a foot thick and the whole thing sits on a monster concrete slab. Mrs Symptoms wanted it taken down ... no way ... so I 'trained' ivy to grow over it and it looks brill and is good for wildlife. Mr Fox can be seen sleeping on the roof in the Summer, the birds nest in it and eat the berries. So, consider leaving the structure up and grow something over it.

 

[mattylad]

Who knows, if it is a bomb shelter it could come in handy one day

Any photo's ?

 

[Robertspaw]

On closer inspection its concrete blocks rather than breeze block. I've tried to chip away at it using mallet and chisel and not really made a mark on it, so do you think a small demoliton hammer would do the job?

 

[Deleted member 105431]

Have you got access to C4?

 

[Symptoms]

dangermouse - expect the 4 o'clock knock from Special Branch. The computers at the Government's listening post (GCHQ), & the Yankie one, will have been moritoring net traffic and picked-up on your use of the seefour expression. You will disappear into the American's 'fair questioning suites' somewhere in the Caribbean ... you will talk

 

[muggles]

A potassium perchlorate and aluminium powder mix might also work well, maybe used as a secondary reaction to a gas explosion...

 

[twgas]

a customer of mine once had a bomb shelter, he chalenged many men to demolish it, after much wielding of sledgehammers, chisels and any other heavy objects to hand, the winner of the challenge, so I am told, filled it with wood, lit it, when the fire was out it had weakened the structure so much it was brought down quite easily with a sledge hammer.

 

[kevindgas]

a customer of mine once had a bomb shelter, he chalenged many men to demolish it, after much wielding of sledgehammers, chisels and any other heavy objects to hand, the winner of the challenge, so I am told, filled it with wood, lit it, when the fire was out it had weakened the structure so much it was brought down quite easily with a sledge hammer.

apart from the obvious blowing it up jokes this suggestion is the best so far IMHO the excessive heat will weaken the structural integrity of the concrete don't be suprised if your local firebrigade attend!!