Silo Demolition

This man must have 9 lives. Hal
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Nope just God!

Fall down just like a tree ehh. Don't think so. The accent lends me to believe Minnesota Wisconsin.ehh gobble

How do you people recommend taking one down??No way is there a good way to do it.

We've had 3 taken down. One was poured - Grandpa had it dynamited. I was in school, and didn't get to see that one. The other two were stave. A silo building crew came in with their round scaffold and started at the top. They'd loosen the bands, lift the staves out, and drop them onto a big pile of sawdust. Probably 80%+ of the staves were able to be reused.

(quoted from post at 07:48:41 03/28/13) How do you people recommend taking one down??No way is there a good way to do it.

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Thats where you HIRE a professional demo company to do it! They should be bonded and insured so it they do drop it on another building their insurance covers it and they will or should know how to do it without killing someone.

Rick

After watching a couple of the videos, I think I would knock a couple of holes in the bottom, leaving a few blocks in between the holes. Then attach a LONG cable to those blocks and pulling them out at an angle. It would still be very dangerous, unless you know how many blocks are enough support that it will not collapse unexpectedly.
SDE

Taking them down from the top works on a GOOD silo,but those crews won't touch a rotten stave silo.We have moved several but any we have seen in the last 10yrs.or so have come down from the bottom, sledge or cable cutting them into.Even the A.O.Smiths are being cut down and falling over.And for Oldtanker,the Pros.take them down with Sledges.

Worked with a fella from North Dakota. Told me they took down 3 brick silos by sledging some of the bottom blocks out, then shooting the rest until it fell over. First one was at their farm, then two neighbors had them do theirs.

He just missed an opportunity to be a Darwin award candidate!

That's how I would of done it!


....until today! Thanks for sharing! :wink:

We used a CAT tele-handler to take mine down. Extended the forks to push the sides in starting at the top. It was fast, easy, and safe. Most of the staves broke, but the silo sat next to a barn that had burned (very hot fire) so they were probably bad anyway.

I watched my neighbor take one down with that same technique,pretty scarey stuff. Don't think his dropped quite as fast and it layed out farther with an extra second to get away from it.

Holy cow!! I liked the part..."haf you efver dunn this before??? Oh Nooo" Who would have guessed that! Especially when he turned is back to it. Wow.

Back when I was young and dumb I took one down as a member of the volunteer fire department. We had a training/controlled fire in one of the township barns that had fallen into disrepair. There were two silos at the front of block construction that were integral components to the barn (or so we thought). Before the fire we knocked out the block on the bottom of both silos in the area the barn was supporting them -- thinking that once the barn burned they would fall. The barn burned but the silos remained standing. One by one we sledged out the remaining blocks around the bottom. . . I had given it my last swing before I was about to step out and let another fella take over when I heard a "craaack" and I watched as the silo started falling like a giant tree.
The block silo fell a lot slower and did not collapse at the bottom like the one in the video did. Somewhere I have pictures in a series (this was before anyone ever took videos with their phones) of me running away as the silo fell. . . I was out of the last picture before it hit the ground.
We decided to not to use the same technique on the second one. . . brought in an excavator to do the job.
It was quite an adrenaline rush. . . but I dont think you could pay me to do it again today!

If I were him, I would not have said a word afterwards. I would have walked to my truck, taken out a bottle of Jack Daniels and a can of beer, taken a guzzle then shot the beer. After a long belch, I would have said "Point me to the next one after I get right back". Then I would have gone around to the other side of the barn and fainted while cleaning out my shorts in private.

Life can be boring, or not.

Mark

Farm I help out at was taking a 24x70 down and had the company that was building their new free stall do it. I guess they have taken down tons of them. They put a guy in a skidsteer with a hair hammer and put a cable hooked to the top pulled by a excavator, seemed like a good plan until the silo twisted and corkscrewed. Not sure how the guy in the skidsteer got through but he did. I think he had some full pants. A feed bunk and some gates didn"t fare so well. A sight to see for sure, especially since no one was hurt.

This is about as safe as the people that will use about a half of a can of either to seat a large tire.

I have taken down 2 over the years. Like one said, it is like cutting a tree. Remove the bands and start knocking out the staves. They were smaller, 12' X 40'. This one was pretty large and he took the staves out straight up instead of tappering them like a tree wedge. That was why it come straight down before falling out like him wanted. Atleast it missed the shed. I also used to blow up tires with ether but this new ether won't work. Iuse a 5 gallon tank with a big valve.