Destroy & Rebuild

[Supreme]

I recently inherited land with 6 mobile homes. Problem is, these homes are old and unsafe to live in. I want to remove the mobile homes but they are not road worthy and will cost a pretty penny moving them. I thought about tearing each one down by hand and taking the steel underframe to a local scrap yard. Is this a good idea and how/who do I need to talk to to get the ball rolling?

[David Oxhandler]

Demolition of any structure can be very dangerous. The resulting trash will contain bulky remains that would have to be re-handled perhaps several times to bring it down to transportable size. Most local dumps or haulers charge by the pound. The cost to transport and dump the remains of several homes will not be inexpensive. If your thinking about doing this your self... The volume of remains form a single home would take a dozen or more pick up loads to remove.

In the 90's I had a contract with Uncle Sam to round up the repoed homes that belonged to bankrupted Savings & Loan Banks. Most of the homes were recovered, renovated and resold. There were several that were just not worth renovating.

We were able to make a deal with the local volunteer fire department to use the homes for practice sessions. We dug a huge hole in the middle of five acres and hauled one home at a time into the hole. When the fire department was finished we were able to bury the ashes and other remains and sell the frames.

This option is no longer available here due to a huge population boom and environmental concerns. If you are in a very rural area that might be a solution. If not you would be well advised to hire a demolition pro to handle the job safely and legally.

[Supreme]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I do stay in a rural area and was considering using a large dumpster from the local waste industy to get rid of a lot of the bulk. I have several teenagers volunteering to help with the demolition. I don't want to put them in any danger so I will take heed to your advice and seek some professional help instead. I just feel like I'm missing something. Again, thank you for your time.

[David Oxhandler]

The best demo crew I have seen arrived on site with a big dumpster, a bulldozer and front-end loader. They removed all of the reusable windows and literally smashed and compacted the home to sizes that could be picked up by the loader and placed in the dumpster. Within three hours they were raking up the tiny pieces of rubble and hauling the frame and dumpster away.

The cost, time and risks were considerable less then bringing my renovators in to "un-assemble" the home, handle and carry each piece to the dumpster.

[Supreme]

Very sound advice. Thank you David Oxhandler.