Final Demolition

Ok, so the day has finally come.  We have joked about it, but due to the escalating costs of renovation and a few more things we would like to correct on the home that are going to be very hard with the home as-is, we have decided to just tear the home down and start over.  The major cost savings we will realize are as follows:

1)  Lead and asbestos testing and certification: $1500

2)  City mandated Structural Engineering Fees: $500 or more, 

3) 2" Foam Insulation (due to 2 x 4 exterior walls: $700

4) Salvaged lumber from roof and walls: $200-$300

In addition to the specific line items above, there are some considerable labor savings due to the efficiency of framing a new home as compared to retrofitting an existing structure.  For example, we were planning on adding an overhang to the eaves which would have probably taken an entire day for two men to accomplish.  The new roof will be designed with an overhang already and will probably still only require two man-days to frame. The time spent re-framing wall openings to match the new floor plan will be about as long as it will take to frame new walls from scratch.  The main cost we were trying to avoid was the cost of demolition and garbage removal of the old home.  We realized after removing exterior siding that it would fall down much easier than we thought.

Most of the studs cut out in the final moments before the home is dropped

With the stout tug of a couple ropes the home fell into the front yard exactly as planned

You can see here the major weakness in the roof framing where the roof rafters are just toe-nailed together rather than being tied together by a ridge beam, connecting plates, or collar ties as would be done by modern code standards.  

You can see the sag in the ridge line here.  Granted, the home stood fine for 70 years, but it is very likely that had this home experienced a major event such as a tornado (very rare in this area but not unheard of) or earthquake, it would have had major structural failures.  Some would say that it was obviously built just fine;  we assert that it merely dodged the bullet.  We will now build a home that, should a major natural catastrophe occur, will be the only home standing on the street.