Autumn 2012 Newsletter
SIZE MATTERS! Founded in 2000, the Kent Demolition Company may not be one of the largest or oldest demolition and recycling companies in the UK. So what! KD is highly effective, and cost efficient, as recent major projects have proved. Pitching against far larger companies, we have won contracts not just on cost but project planning that involves everything from H&S and safe asbestos removal, to minimising vehicle movements and material reclamation. Long gone is the dated image of wrecking balls and sledgehammer welding navvies. Demolition today is totally automated, with sites carefully surveyed and soft stripped to reclaim as much material as possible prior to demolition. Demolition is undertaken to minimise pollution and nuisance through dust and noise, with as close as possible to 100% of the demolition waste being processed and recycled. KD know how to do things right, how to do them to a budget and how to keep within deadlines. We may not be one of the biggest (yet) - but we’ve always been one of the best!
Next Issue The Watford Project
CRAWLEY How to dig yourself out of a hole! Plans are examined, architects consulted, utilities disconnected, asbestos removed and the building soft stripped. So now work can begin in earnest, except someone has forgotten to tell you about an extremely large subterranean tank under the site. Kent Demolition company took it all in their stride on a recent project in Crawley. Prior to the building of the new Mercedes showroom in Crawley, The Kent Demolition Company were called in to strip out the existing building for refit. The company were then tasked to break out all the site ground slabs and footings, then to crush all the risings down to Type 1 as a sub base for the pilling mats and hard standing areas. A fairly straightforward job, until during the early stages of the works, we discovered an unmarked underground tank, a mere 7 metres wide, a 16 metres long and 5 metres in depth - deep enough to lose an excavator in (see inset photo!) The fibre glass tank was completely
surrounded by 1.5 metres of concrete and 30mm reinforcing bar. A 21 ton excavator equipped with a hammer initially broke out the concrete, this was replaced by a pulveriser to separate the concrete from the rebar, which was finally dismantled with cutters. The entire operation took 14 days, including crushing the risings using an a Hartl 1050 mobile crushing plant on site.
Wrotham School’s Out
Demolition projects come in all sizes. And Kent Demolition are always happy to tackle the smaller jobs with the same care and attention as the multi-million pound ones. A recent example was the partal demolition of obsolete single storey, concrete framed school buildings in Wrotham, to allow builders to construct much needed new classrooms. Care had to be taken not to
damage adjoining buildings which were still to remain in use. When the new classrooms are completed, hopefully during February 2013, Kent Demolition will move back onto the site and demolish three of the very buildings we were careful not to damage on the earlier half of the job! Because of the high risk to the schoolchildren using the site, all the material was very carefully cleared and locally recycled.
Meet the staff Ellen Padgett has grown used to the ‘make us a cuppa love ‘ greeting by most of the male visitors on site. It is only when she politely informs them she is one of the company’s managers that she sees a change in attitude. ‘I know that ladies are few and far between in the demolition industry but hopefully that is beginning to change. It is a business I find fascinating and full of ever changing challenges. Demolition has changed beyond recognition to a highly automated and skilled technical profession, certainly one where woman should feel able to use their talent.’
Contact Details
MGI House, Monson Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1LH Tel: 07778 377 919 · Fax: 01474 854 150 · Email: enquiries@kentdemo.co.uk · www.kentdemo.co.uk Linked in: www.linkedin.com/pub/dave-padgett/10/576/aa3 · Tweet: twitter.com/TeamKentDemo