1. Engineering first
Before anything else, the structural engineer confirms what can come out, in what sequence, and what temporary works are needed. For a basement slab that might be nothing; for a new void through a suspended slab it will mean propping and a defined cutting sequence. Get the drawings, get the sign-off, and get it in writing. The demolition contractor works to that design, not around it.
2. Find the services
Basements are where the building’s services live: hydraulics, electrical mains, fire services, comms, sometimes the substation. Scan the slab and walls, mark what’s in and behind the concrete, and isolate what needs isolating. A breaker through a live conduit is expensive and dangerous; a breaker through a fire main is expensive and very wet.
3. Walk the access route
How does a 780 mm-wide machine get from the loading dock to the work area? Down the car-park ramp? In the goods lift (check the rated load)? Through a fire door and along a corridor? Walk it, measure the tight spots, note the floor protection you’ll need, and confirm the machine can get back out at the end of each shift if the space needs to be clear.
4. Sort power and water
Electric demolition robots run on three-phase power. Find the nearest outlet or arrange a temporary supply; otherwise a generator sits outside and a lead runs in. A water connection for dust suppression needs to reach the work area. Both are ten-minute jobs when they’re planned and an hour lost when they aren’t.
5. Plan the dust
Water-mist suppression at the tool is the baseline. In an occupied building, add screening around the work area, seal the return-air paths, and consider negative-pressure extraction if the work is near tenanted space. Confirm with the building manager how the HVAC will be handled so dust doesn’t travel through the ducts.
6. Set the noise plan
A hydraulic breaker is loud in any hands. The two tools you have are the working hours and the attachment. Many occupied-building jobs run nights and weekends. Where breaking has to happen in business hours, a concrete crusher is far quieter than a breaker and may make daytime work acceptable. Agree the plan with the building manager and tell the tenants.
7. Manage vibration
Tenants feel vibration long before it troubles the structure, and sensitive equipment (labs, data centres, imaging) can be affected at very low levels. Robotic breaking is far more controlled than an excavator hammer, and a crusher lowers vibration further. On sensitive sites, monitor it and agree trigger levels with the engineer and the tenant in advance.
8. Design the waste route
Every tonne of concrete you break has to leave the building. Where do the bins go? How does rubble get from the work area to the bins? Who’s moving it? Is the lift protected? This affects productivity more than the breaking itself; a crusher attachment that leaves smaller rubble can make the handling much easier.
9. Draw the exclusion zone
The operator stands outside the exclusion zone; so does everyone else. Mark it, barrier it, put a spotter on it if other trades are nearby, and make sure the building’s fire egress isn’t compromised. The zone can be surprisingly compact with a robot because nobody needs to be near the work.
10. Agree the hours and the handover
Agree the working window, what “clean and clear” means at the end of each shift, and who signs off. In many buildings the machine tracks out to the dock at knock-off and the area is swept and screened so the day shift never sees it.
11. Tell the tenants
A short notice with dates, hours, what to expect and who to call does more for a job than any amount of dust screening. People tolerate noise they were told about; they complain about noise they weren’t.
12. Paperwork
SWMS specific to the site and the machine, inductions booked, permits in place (confined space if applicable, isolation, hot work if shearing), insurances confirmed. All of it done before the truck arrives.
Why a robot makes this easier: no exhaust, so it can work in the basement without ventilation heroics; dust captured at source with nobody standing in it; a crusher for quiet hours; a small set-up footprint; and a machine that can leave the space clean at the end of each shift. Most of the items above get simpler when the method is robotic.
If you’re planning a basement, plant-room or lift-pit job in a live building, send us the drawings. We’ll walk the site with you and run through this list before we quote. Our basement and confined-space demolition page has more on how the machines get in and what they can do once there.