Building implosion
In the controlled demolition industry, building implosion is the strategic placing of explosive material and timing of its detonation so that a structure collapses on itself in a matter of seconds, minimizing the physical damage to its immediate surroundings. Despite its terminology, building implosion also includes the controlled demolition of other structures, like bridges, smokestacks, towers, and tunnels. This is typically done to save time and money of what would otherwise be an extensive demolition process with construction equipment, as well as to reduce construction workers exposure to infrastructure that is in severe disrepair.
Building implosion, which reduces to seconds a process which could take months or years to achieve by other methods, typically occurs in urban areas[citation needed] and often involves large landmark structures.
The actual use of the term "implosion" to refer to the destruction of a building is a misnomer. This had been stated of the destruction of 1515 Tower in West Palm Beach, Florida. "What happens is, you use explosive materials in critical structural connections to allow gravity to bring it down.
The term "implosion" was coined by my grandmother back in, I guess, the '60s. It's a more descriptive way to explain what we do than "explosion". There are a series of small explosions, but the building itself isn't erupting outward. It's actually being pulled in on top of itself. What we're really doing is removing specific support columns within the structure and then cajoling the building in one direction or another, or straight down.
- βStacy Loizeaux, NOVA, December 1996
Building implosion techniques do not rely on the difference between internal and external pressure to collapse a structure. Instead, the goal is to induce a progressive collapse by weakening or removing critical supports; therefore, the building can no longer withstand gravity loads and will fail under its own weight
Numerous small explosives, strategically placed within the structure, are used to catalyze the collapse. Nitroglycerin, dynamite, or other explosives are used to shatter reinforced concrete supports. Linear shaped charges are used to sever steel supports. These explosives are progressively detonated on supports throughout the structure. Then, explosives on the lower floors initiate the controlled collapse.
A simple structure like a chimney can be prepared for demolition in less than a day. Larger or more complex structures can take up to six months of preparation to remove internal walls and wrap columns with fabric and fencing before firing the explosives.
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my sibling has lost their goddamn mind. we are both in our 40s, they are a year older.
my parents bought this person a house in the city they want to live in. they currently live with my parents in a giant mcmansion with landscaping and cleaning services in a gated community across the country. to be clear, i never lived in that house. i grew up in something more modest, but once i moved out suddenly the family became like really fancy people who i understand less and less every year. my sibling drives a hybrid given to them by my parents. they have lived there for 10+ years, never contributing to any utilities or anything. they went to grad school during that cush situation and when they got out, they got a job making more than me even though i also had a grad degree and a decade's experience. so they make bank, and they spend it on sweet vacations, and have 3 months off every year.
i was always told i needed to self reliant and shoo'd away in my mid 20s. i changed careers, left the state, started at social network zero, and ended up learning a lot of skills associated with being handy, because i couldn't afford to pay people to fix my cheap broken shit. and sometimes that's the only work i could find, was being able to move things and do basic construction. after living in illegal housing and wandering the earth like some kind of broke bozo, i ultimately finished my bachelor's, then worked and got an employer to cover my grad school tuition so long as i worked full time, saved up to buy a tiny little home, and then ended up getting a job where my sibling wants to live.
i am allowed to live in this empty house, so long as i pay all utilities, half the property taxes/insurance. i get to play unpaid general contractor for the constant comings and goings of multiple simultaneous renovations and am expected to find people to do these renovations using my personal connections, inspect their work and send photos, and generally orchestrate everything, including cutting these various people checks for overages because my sibling isn't really good at figuring out money, like writing checks, etc. so i have to find out when payments are due, get them to transfer the money to me with enough lead time so that i can cut live checks to pay people. it's like dealing with a child.
anyway, i was basically OK with this arrangement because hell at least i'm not paying rent. what i do pay to live here is remarkably less than a rental in the area would be, while i am meant to be finding a place up here to buy with the equity in my old place far away. not that i have the spare executive function for all that, with all this b.s. of working full time and being the caretaker for this place that is getting two bathrooms renovated, a major HVAC overhaul that required a big electrical panel upgrade. the house is +110 years old, which is significant in the US. i've fixed lots of little things out of my own pocket because who cares. i'm handy, it's not a big deal. i upgrade a faucet because now i can wash dishes easier, etc.
anyway, i get a message today saying that my cat scratched a soon to be installed bathroom vanity that has been sitting in the living room for a month and they want to replace it. $350. i look at it, doesn't look like a cat did it, but we're talking some of the grey painted particle board exterior is scuffed. maybe 2" x 1". totally the kind of thing that could be painted and never noticed. i gave that as my assessment but said i would pay for a new one if that's what they wanted. their response? "an apology is common in these situations."
i didn't blow my top in response, but holy fucking shit. OK, your majesty. i don't think my cat even did this shit, i think it was the kinda not exactly professional clowns sibling chose for the bathroom reno because they were like $20k cheaper. i think they probably bumped it against a wall and are doing some CYA about it, or maybe it happened in transit because yeah sometimes heavy shit shows up on my doorstep, and i'm expected to shimmy it into the house because they "saved" money by buying online and got "free shipping". so yeah, my cat scratched up some of the delivery box during that month, but if we're being real, i am like 99% sure a cat didn't do this "damage" to the vanity inside the box. it's a smooth surface scuff, not a scratch. but also, like this is a $12 touch up job on particle board, and you want me to pay for a whole new vanity?
anyway, i apologized for the damage but gave my honest assessment of what i could do to fix it while reiterating if sibling wanted me to buy a new one i would. but you're damn straight i am keeping the "old" one, touching it up, and selling it on the local marketplace, because this whole thing reads like the shady contractor trying to sell an entire vanity twice. also, i might tell sibling that when nephew actively scuffed the living shit out of the pristinely surfaced and stained table i personally built and finished over the course of weeks two years ago right in front of sibling, that i want sibling to pay for that and it costs exactly what a new vanity does, so we're even. and that $400 i saved sibling last week by catching some double billing between two contractors doing overlapping work and having them sort it out/adjust the invoices? that's mine now. and i will no longer be looking for those savings. and i want a 10% fee to continue being the general contractor, because our parents did put my name on the deed too so sibling can't legally pretend to be my landlord and evict me. all this "it's your house, i just live here" gentleman's agreement will be over.
like i know i'm in a sweetheart deal compared to most, but i just can't take sibling's precious b.s. about this. shit happens, things get scuffed, this is life. i don't live in a museum, i live in a house, and this place is not in great shape. lots of work needs doing, both functionally and just generally. the bathroom is the room where people shit and wash their asscracks. touch up paint, spackle, orbital sanders all exist to make things nice when life happens. you don't throw things away and insist on all new pristine because life happened to some little part and you don't treat people like they're your serfs, even though you've been playing lord of the manner for a decade having other people stock your fridge, clean your room, and mow your lawn for over 10 years.
anyway, sorry for the novel, but i'm heated. i feel like my family have become complete aliens in the last 20 years, and i find them generally unrelatable about shit like this, just so wasteful and precious about everything.
Godam what a shitshow. Sorry you have to deal with that. Reminds me of my own family relationship in some ways.
thanks for saying so. i get so riled up when i am being chided like i am a child by someone who is so wildly immature.
like i could go on forever about how fucked my family is. it took more than a decade of being mostly apart from them, making new friends, figuring out the world and how to be, to see how insular and toxic they are.
It really is a long uphill battle