Real on a grain bin. Nearly meaningless on a house. Worth understanding before somebody quotes you a free teardown.
Steel and tin pulled out of a demolition go to a scrap yard rather than a landfill. Instead of paying by the ton to dispose of that material, it comes off the job at a scale ticket. On the right building that is a real reduction in disposal cost, and it is why a grain bin and a house of the same size are not the same job.
Grain bins, hopper bins, steel legs and augers, all-steel and oxygen-limiting silos, pole barns with steel roofing and wall tin, machine sheds, livestock penning, feeders and waterers, and old farm equipment sitting in the way. The heavier and cleaner the steel, the better it pays.
A house. There is some metal in a house — ductwork, a furnace, wiring, some flashing — but it is scattered through material that is mostly not metal, and picking it out of mixed debris costs more labor than the steel returns. A frame house with a full basement is a disposal job, not a scrap job, and anyone implying otherwise is selling you something.
Scrap offsets part of the disposal. It does not pay for the machine, the operator, the trucks, the fuel, the concrete break-out or the grading. Every so often somebody gets told a building will come down for nothing because of the steel in it. On a really heavy all-steel structure that is a serious offset; it is still not the whole job, and a quote built on that promise usually finds a way to come back for the difference.
Separate it on site as the building comes apart. Steel goes to scrap, clean concrete goes to a fill site where it qualifies, and only true trash pays landfill rates. That is not us being tidy — it is the difference between three loads at landfill rates and one.
On a heavy all-steel structure it is a real offset against disposal. It does not cover the machine, the operator, the trucks, the concrete break-out or the grading, and on a house the metal is scattered through mixed debris and picking it out costs more than it returns. Anyone promising a free teardown because of the steel has left something out of the number.
Grain bins, hopper bins, steel legs and augers, all-steel silos, pole barns with roofing and wall tin, machine sheds, and livestock penning and feeders. The heavier and cleaner the steel, the better it pays.
It is accounted for in the number you get, which is why we itemize. You should be able to see the disposal side of your job and what is reducing it, rather than getting one figure with no shape to it.
Free, itemized, on-site estimates across central Illinois. Here is what to photograph, or see the rest of the plain-English glossary.