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Tools for demolition

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Demolition is easy to start and hard to stop, which is why the checks come before the tools. Asbestos in anything built before 2000, live services in every wall, and the question of whether the wall is holding something up all have to be answered first. All 38 tools here are grouped by what they take apart, after the section on what has to happen before any of them come out.

27 are marked essential. The survey and the isolation are not tools and they come first regardless.

Part of the full construction tools list, 102 tools in 10 groups.

Before you start 8

The items that decide whether the job is safe. None of them break anything.

  • Asbestos test kit: An asbestos sampling test kit box with a sealed sample bag and glovesEssential

    Asbestos test kit

    A sample sent to an accredited lab. Cheap, and it answers the one question that has to be answered before a tool is picked up in an older building.

  • A handheld cable and pipe detector with an LCD displayEssential

    Cable and pipe detector

    Finds live cable, metal pipe and studs behind a surface. Used before every cut rather than once at the start, since services do not run in straight lines.

  • Lock off kit: A red electrical lock off device with a padlock and a warning tagEssential

    Lock off kit

    A padlock and tag on the isolated breaker, so nobody restores the circuit while you are inside the wall. Detection is not protection.

  • Two adjustable steel acrow props with pin holes and base platesEssential

    Acrow props

    Adjustable steel props taking the load before anything structural is cut, spread over sole plates. Set up as the engineer's scheme specifies, not by eye.

  • Strongboy supports: A metal strongboy masonry support bracket that fits onto a prop head

    Strongboy supports

    A bracket on an Acrow prop that supports masonry above an opening while the wall below is removed. The tool that makes a beam insertion possible.

  • Needles: Two short steel I beam needle sections

    Needles

    Steel beams passed through a wall to carry the load on props both sides. Used where a strongboy cannot reach or the load is beyond it.

  • A rechargeable LED inspection light with a hook and a magnetic baseEssential

    Inspection light

    For looking into a cavity, a ceiling void or an opened wall before committing. Most surprises in demolition were visible if anyone had looked.

  • Inspection camera

    Inspection camera

    A camera on a flexible probe through a small hole, showing what is in a cavity before it is opened. Cheaper than finding out with a breaker.

Hand demolition tools 9

Controlled removal, which is almost always better than collapse. No power and no dust cloud.

  • A long steel wrecking bar with a hooked claw at one end and a chisel at the otherEssential

    Wrecking bar

    A long steel bar with a hooked claw and a chisel end. The most useful demolition tool there is, because leverage takes things apart without breaking them.

  • A long handled sledgehammer with a heavy double faced steel headEssential

    Sledgehammer

    Two hands and a long handle for breaking masonry and knocking studwork apart. Accuracy is limited by design, so keep everything clear of the arc.

  • A steel club hammer with a heavy square head and a short wooden handleEssential

    Club hammer

    Short handled and heavy, the partner for every masonry chisel. Used one handed close to the work where a sledge would be uncontrollable.

  • Bolster chisel: A wide bolster masonry chisel with a broad flat blade and a rubber hand guardEssential

    Bolster chisel

    A wide flat blade for splitting brick and block along a line and lifting tiles. The width spreads the blow so it breaks where you marked it.

  • A flat steel pry bar with a nail slot at each endEssential

    Pry bar

    Shorter than a wrecking bar with a flatter foot, for lifting boards and skirting without crushing them. Where salvage matters, this rather than a hammer.

  • A steel cat's paw nail puller with a sharpened curved claw at each end

    Nail puller

    A sharpened claw driven under a nail head that is already flush. Pulling nails as you go is what stops a stack of timber becoming a hazard.

  • A pick axe with a pointed end, a flat blade and a wooden handle

    Pick axe

    A point and a blade for breaking up hardcore, screed and compacted ground. Slower than a breaker and it needs no power and produces less dust.

  • A square mouth steel shovel with a wooden handle and a D gripEssential

    Shovel

    A square mouth shovel for clearing debris, which is most of the actual time in a demolition. Debris underfoot causes the injuries.

  • A pair of long handled bolt cutters with hardened jaws

    Bolt cutters

    Long handled shears for reinforcement, mesh, bolts and padlocks. Quieter, dust free and safer than a disc cutter where the material is thin enough.

Power demolition tools 9

Fast and indiscriminate, so services and structure must both be settled before these come out.

  • A large electric demolition breaker hammer with a pointed chisel and a handleEssential

    Demolition breaker

    A heavy electric hammer that only chisels, with far more impact energy than an SDS drill. What actually breaks concrete and lifts screed.

  • An SDS rotary hammer drill with a flat chisel fittedEssential

    SDS rotary hammer

    Drills and chisels at a smaller scale, for chases, openings and lifting tile. Not a breaker substitute on concrete, where it will take hours and then fail.

  • A cordless reciprocating saw with a demolition blade fitted and a shoeEssential

    Reciprocating saw

    Cuts timber with nails in it, pipe, plasterboard and light steel without complaint. That tolerance for embedded metal is the reason it exists.

  • Several long bimetal reciprocating saw demolition bladesEssential

    Demolition blades

    Bimetal blades with coarse teeth and a thick body that survive hitting a nail. A wood blade in a nailed stud is finished on the first contact.

  • A petrol disc cutter saw with a large abrasive cutting disc and a guard

    Disc cutter

    A petrol or electric saw with an abrasive or diamond disc for concrete, reinforcement and steel. The highest dust and highest risk tool here.

  • Angle grinder: A guard and a battery

    Angle grinder

    Cuts reinforcement, bolts and light steel section at close quarters. Needs a guard, and the disc must be rated for the speed of the machine.

  • SDS chisels: A set of SDS Plus hammer drill chisels with flat pointed and spade tipsEssential

    SDS chisels

    Point for starting into concrete, flat for chasing and spade for lifting tile. Dressed on a grinder when the tip mushrooms, since that spalls.

  • A pressurised water suppression bottle with a hose and a lanceEssential

    Water suppression

    A pressurised bottle feeding water to a cutting disc, so the silica never becomes airborne. Required alongside extraction rather than instead of it.

  • M class extraction: An M class construction dust extraction vacuum with a hose and a filterEssential

    M class extraction

    A vacuum rated for construction dust connected to the tool. A domestic vacuum passes fine silica straight through and back into the room.

Clearing, protecting and containing 12

Most of the time and most of the injuries. Debris handling is the unglamorous half of demolition.

  • Several woven polypropylene rubble sacks, one partly filledEssential

    Rubble sacks

    Woven sacks that survive brick and rubble, filled to a weight a person can lift rather than to the top. An overfilled sack is a back injury.

  • A metal builder's wheelbarrow with a pneumatic tyreEssential

    Wheelbarrow

    A builder's barrow with a pneumatic tyre for moving rubble over rough ground. A solid tyre fights every threshold and every bit of debris.

  • Two interlocking plastic debris chute sections

    Debris chute

    Linked sections dropping rubble from height into a skip, which is the alternative to carrying it down or throwing it. Contains dust as well.

  • Dust screens: A plastic dust screen sheet with a zip door fitted in a doorwayEssential

    Dust screens

    Zipped sheeting sealing a doorway so dust stays in the work area. Without it a room's demolition puts dust through the whole house.

  • A roll of corrugated floor protection board partly unrolled

    Floor protection

    Hardboard or corrugated protection over floors that stay. Dropped rubble on a finished floor is the damage that costs more than the demolition.

  • A white FFP3 respirator dust mask with two straps and a nose clipEssential

    FFP3 respirator

    The minimum for silica dust, and only effective if it seals. Face fit tested, because a leaking mask offers the protection of no mask.

  • A pair of sealed clear safety goggles with a headbandEssential

    Goggles

    Sealed rather than glasses, since breaking masonry sends fragments in every direction including upward from a chisel.

  • A white safety helmet with a chinstrap and an adjustable harnessEssential

    Safety helmet

    Demolition means material coming down, sometimes when you did not expect it. With a chinstrap, since looking up is most of the work.

  • Impact gloves: A pair of black impact resistant work gloves with padded knucklesEssential

    Impact gloves

    Padded across the back of the hand as well as the palm, because demolition injuries are knuckles against masonry more than cuts.

  • Safety boots: A pair of brown leather safety work boots with steel toecapsEssential

    Safety boots

    Toe protection and a penetration resistant midsole, because a nail through a sole is the single commonest demolition injury there is.

  • A pair of over ear protective ear defenders with a padded headbandEssential

    Ear defenders

    A breaker is far above the level at which hearing damage accumulates, and the damage does not recover. Worn for the whole time, not the loud bits.

  • Magnetic sweeper: A rolling magnetic nail sweeper with a long handle and wheels

    Magnetic sweeper

    Collects nails and screws from the floor at the end, which is what stops a tidy site producing a punctured foot or tyre a week later.

Choosing demolition tools

The list above is what exists. This is how to decide which of it you actually need, what separates a tool worth keeping from one that ends up at the back of a drawer.

Asbestos, before anything else

Asbestos was used in UK construction until 1999 and banned in 1999, so any building from before 2000 may contain it. It is in artex, floor tiles, cement sheet, insulation board, pipe lagging, textured coatings, soffits, garage roofs and toilet cisterns.

Disturbing it releases fibres that cause mesothelioma decades later, and there is no safe exposure level. Some materials may only be removed by a licensed contractor. If a building predates 2000, get a survey before breaking anything, not after.

Pre 2000 means survey
Not maybe. Artex, floor tiles, cement sheet, lagging, soffits, cisterns are all candidates.
No safe exposure
The disease appears decades later, which is why people take the risk casually.
Some needs a licence
Insulation board and lagging are licensed work. Cement sheet is not, and still needs care.
Do not sand or break it
Intact asbestos is not the hazard. Fibres released by disturbing it are.

Is the wall holding something up

A load bearing wall carries floor or roof load, and removing one without support brings down what it was carrying. Thickness is a hint and not an answer: a single skin blockwork wall can be structural and a thick stud wall may not be.

The reliable indicators are joists running into it, a wall directly above it on the next floor, and its position relative to the span of the building. Where there is any doubt, a structural engineer costs a fraction of the repair, and the work needs building control approval.

Thickness proves nothing
A single skin block wall can be structural. A thick stud wall may carry nothing.
Look above and at the joists
Joists bearing into it, or a wall stacked above it, both mean load.
Engineer plus building control
Removing a structural wall is notifiable work with a calculated beam and support.
Prop before cutting
Acrow props and needles take the load first. Cutting first is how ceilings come down.

What is in the wall

Cables, water pipes, gas pipes and waste pipes all run through walls, and rarely where the regulations say they should in older houses. A cable detector before every cut is a two second habit that prevents the two commonest demolition injuries.

Isolation is separate from detection. Turn off and lock off the circuit, turn off the water at the stopcock and drain down, and have gas work done by a Gas Safe engineer. Detecting a live cable and then cutting near it is not a plan.

Detect before every cut
Not once at the start. Two seconds, and it covers the commonest injury here.
Isolate, do not just detect
Circuit off and locked off, water off and drained. Detection is not protection.
Gas is not DIY
Any gas pipe is a Gas Safe job to move or cap. This one has no exceptions.
Old houses are not compliant
Cables run diagonally and shallowly in houses built before the current rules.

Working top down and in order

Soft strip first: fittings, linings, doors, floor coverings, anything not structural. That reveals what is actually there and reduces the weight before anything structural is touched. Then work downward, so nothing is being removed from beneath a load.

Controlled removal beats collapse in every case. A wall taken down course by course produces manageable debris and no surprise, where a wall pushed over produces both a dust cloud and an unpredictable fall direction.

Soft strip first
Non structural removal reveals what is there and reduces weight before the real work.
Top down
Never remove something that is supporting what you are standing under or on.
Course by course
Controlled removal produces manageable debris. Pushing a wall over does not.
Clear as you go
Debris underfoot is the trip hazard that causes injuries around a live breaker.

Dust and vibration

Breaking concrete, brick and block releases silica, which causes silicosis and lung cancer and kills more construction workers than falls do. Water suppression, extraction and an FFP3 respirator together, not one of the three.

Vibration is the other cumulative injury. Hand arm vibration syndrome is permanent numbness and pain from breakers and grinders, and the exposure limits are measured in minutes per day for the worst tools. Rotating the task between people is the practical control.

Silica needs all three controls
Water, extraction and FFP3. Any one alone is not adequate for masonry.
Vibration is permanent
Numbness and pain that does not recover. Exposure limits are minutes for a breaker.
Rotate the task
Sharing breaker time between people is the only realistic vibration control.
Damp down before sweeping
Sweeping dry silica dust puts it all back into the air you just cleared.

Frequently asked questions

What tools do I need for demolition?
A wrecking bar, a sledgehammer, a club hammer and bolster, a reciprocating saw and an SDS breaker cover most internal work. Add a disc cutter for reinforcement and steel. The survey, the isolation and the propping all come before any of them.
Do I need an asbestos survey before demolition?
For any UK building predating 2000, yes. Asbestos is in artex, floor tiles, cement sheet, insulation board, pipe lagging, soffits and cisterns, and there is no safe exposure level. Some materials may only be removed by a licensed contractor.
How do I know if a wall is load bearing?
Thickness proves nothing. Look for joists bearing into it, a wall stacked directly above it on the next floor, and its position relative to the building's span. Where there is any doubt, a structural engineer costs a fraction of what the repair would.
What should I do before knocking down an internal wall?
Get an asbestos survey if the building predates 2000, confirm whether it is load bearing and get an engineer's design and building control approval if it is, detect and isolate all services, prop the load above it, and soft strip the surrounding area first.
What is the difference between an SDS drill and a demolition breaker?
An SDS rotary hammer drills and chisels, and it is sized for holes and small chases. A demolition breaker only chisels, with far more impact energy, and it is what actually breaks up concrete and lifts screed. A drill used as a breaker takes hours and then fails.
How do you cut through a wall with nails and pipes in it?
A reciprocating saw with a bimetal or demolition blade, which cuts timber, nails and light steel without complaint. That tolerance is the whole reason the tool exists. Detect and isolate services first, since a saw will cut a live cable just as readily.
Is demolition dust dangerous?
Yes. Breaking concrete, brick and block releases silica, which causes silicosis and lung cancer and kills more construction workers than falls do. Use water suppression, on tool extraction and an FFP3 respirator together rather than relying on any one of them.
How long can I use a breaker for in a day?
Less than most people assume. Hand arm vibration exposure limits are measured in minutes per day for high vibration tools, and the resulting nerve damage is permanent. The tool's declared vibration figure sets the limit, and rotating the task is the practical control.