Demolition has Started!
We got to the property in the early this afternoon to find half the house demolished! Woohooo!
The machine made me think of a big mechanical dinosaur with crushing jaws of steel tearing into the house like it was freshly caught dinner. The wood and metal would make this bone-crunching sound as the jaws clenched shut around it. Every once in a while some bits would get stuck on its "chin" and lower teeth that it couldn't shake loose, and the machine dude would have to get out and pick them out :-)
In the picture above you can almost see it grinning, the saliva dripping from its metal teeth in anticipation, as it stares at the pile of scrap and thinks "Mmmm mmmm... tasty. Here I come for another bite!"
Or maybe I just need to have some lunch :-)
Anyway, here's a little video. At the end you can hear Tim saying "That'd be that George Forman Grill", referring to the round thing dangling from the mouth of the machine.
The tenant who had lived there and paid us rent (I still shudder to think we let him pay us to live there!) didn't have enough space and/or money to put all of his stuff in storage when he moved out, so he left quite a bit behind. We salvaged what was usable and in working condition - which amounted to a television and barbecue -and gave it away. The rest of it - George Forman Grill included - got dumped in the bin (see the Note on Recycling below).
George (Piano, our builder; not Forman, the Grill Maker) thinks that the whole thing'll be down by EOD tomorrow. Tim's going out there tomorrow to meet him and Rob, our architect, to go over the house positioning.
Yup - it's really begun!
Here are some more pictures of "Demolition - Day 1" including the traditional and obligatory "Throwing rocks at the windows" shots :-).
Tim's also got more pictures and commentary on crappymusic including some cool "before" and "after" pictures!
A Note on Recycling
We were able to get away with dumping everything into a single bin (as opposed to separate bins for recyclable and non-recyclable materials) and not having to do the sorting on-site, because Waste Managment Seattle accepts "mixed CDL" (CDL stands for Construction, Demolition and Landclearing materials generated at job-sites; "mixed or comingled CDL" means CDL waste containing both recyclable and non-recyclable materials that have not been separated). All of the material at the job-site is put into a single bin, and then taken to a Waste Management Seattle sorting facility where materials are separated for recycling.
You can get more information on CDL recycling programs in King County at the following web sites:
King County Construction Recycling and Waste Management
Seattle/King county Construction Recycling Guide and Directory (pdf file)