24/60 Foot poured cement silo removal

I have a 24 foot diameter and 60 foot high poured cement silo that I would like to tear down. Has anyone had any experience in doing this? It has steel rods in the cement for strength. Any dos or don’t in tearing it down would be appreciated. Or any suggestion in tearing it down is welcomed. Thanks.

had a 18x70 poured silo and it was next to the barn. got a blaster out and he put a stick in the ground and said thats where it's going to land and he dropped it right on the mark no damage to anything other then the silo and 2 hr later it was all cleaned up used a cut off saw to cut the rod and i have a 8 yard wheel loader and my own dump trucks so the clean up was just a little time and the blaster charged 300 or 400 don't recall when they hit the ground they bust up real well. we have taken them down buy busting out the bottom with sludge hammers but thats a lot of work we have also used a big cable on stave silos and just pull the stave's out also seen guys use long reach excavators to pull them down but poured one blasting works the best

This may not be super helpful, but might prove inspirational. One of the highlights of the summer of 2006, for me, was watching the demolition of the Trojan nuclear plant cooling tower from the pilot's seat of my airplane. A professional demolition team used 2950 pounds of carefully placed dynamite to topple this 459 foot tall structure. From the air, it looked like it turned into liquid and just melted down into a heap. I attached a pointer to a video of what this looked like from the ground.

If the amount of explosive needed were proportional to the height, you'd need 514 pounds of dynamite to do the same thing to your silo. But the Trojan tower had much thicker walls, so your silo will need less.

One product that might work for you is "Dexpan". It basically cracks concrete through slow motion chemical expansion, like ice cracks the block of an old tractor. Do a google search for it.
Video of cooling tower demolition

Being a 24 footer its going to have walls over 4 inches thick, and at the bottom may be closer to 6. Best way to take it down is with explosives, so you are no way near it when it comes down. You can take them down with a tractor or dozer with chains thru several spots in the sidewall that you drill thru it. But to be any type of safe you need to be over a hundred feet away. So the best way is to stand behind a big tree a quarter mile away and bring it down with a boom.

check out you tube, there are some videos of guys taking silos down, heres one with track hoe
click here

Read somewhere that a couple made apartments out of one. Maybe a source of income. :->

Helped take a smaller one down by beating out the concrete with sledge hammers. After we got 1/2 way around, we would run up, take a whack, step back, look, decide it wasn't falling over, and do it again. It finally fell over after we were well over 2/3 of the way around and close to 3/4. We had a hole dug to drop it into. Needless to say we missed. Of course, I was much younger back then and could swing a hammer pretty good.

I agree with the dynamite way.
If you want to make it cost effective hire a professional demo company that does it with explosives. Then sell off raffel tickets to see who gets to "push the plunger".
You might break even.

Hire a pro to use explosives. You may be able to sell a few raffle tickets that's been suggested and let the winner flip the switch. You will be safer too. Hal

I've taken down quite a few, most were stave, or tile.

I had some troubles a time or two, but as a youngster I learned from watching my dad. He once had a small one, notched it like normal, and all was well till it started down. It was a tile silo, and the farmer always threw manure up on the side of it in the summer months till he could get a full spreader load. That made it rotten, and it went sideways as the tile crumbled. The story has a happy ending as no one got hurt.

Another time I had a real short stubby silo, again tile. It was notched real well, but when it started down, it wasn't top heavy enough so it dropped into the pit at about a 45 degree angle and stoped. We had a seven there, but when we hooked to the silo ladder, it just kept pulling out the ladder rungs. We ended up taking a cable clear around and then pulled with the seven. It actualy took a prety good tug.

I would not think twice about yours, if you get tired of swinging, just go at it again another day. I would make the notch like felling a tree, but the notch should be at least three ft upward. The high notch will make breaking out the rest simpler. I always went from the notch clockwise for the first half, then counter clockwise for the second half. I did this because I swing right handed, and it was better for me to get away faster. (just a preferance).

With a poured concrete, you may want to take a cement saw and cut your intended notch, and around both sides. The remaining 2" will keep it upright, then you only have to bust the remaining two inches with your sledge hammer. You will be already through the rebar probably because the rebar are outward of the center. Most handheld saws will cut 4" with a 14 inch blade.

Make certian you make your notch at waist high so it is comfortable swinging. You have a real big four hrs at least with two good armed guys I would guess.

However I have only taken down a few poured ones. There is no need to cut the rebar other than for busting out ease. The weight will shove them downward real fast. I have never had the oppertunity to use the big bang method as there are usualy other buildings in the wrong area.

If you are going tooooo clean up the mess, make sure you level off the landing strip before you drop it. That will make clean up simpler, and not have to move as much dirt to get under the concrete pile.

At one project with a poured silo, we piled some concrete that had been jackhamered out of another building. This will help bust up your silo when it lands on the pile. That of course is not neded with a stave or tile unit.

Most important is to have a clutter free escape for the road runners path, and hopefuly there will not be a dark shadow above that path when it drops.

And for darn sure, this is not the place for hollering wolf. The spotter must be a trustworthy person that will give undivided attention, avoid cloudy days when the clouds make it appear as if it is moving. Keep the wife in the house as you need not listen to the constant screams to distract you, and make sure it is not windy so you can listen to any noise. It will talk to you as it starts to drop.

My inlaws hired a track hoe to come in and take down 3 concrete block silos all in a row. The local gun club was putting in a new bridge over a creek by their club quarters. They took and paid for the hauling of the scrap concrete so my inlaws only had to pay for the track hoe.

Inlaws also got $500 worth of scrap steel out of it. But that's when the price was high.

Check with your local road commissioner and see if they need any fill that the ole silo can be used for. Or check with any local concrete companies, or contractors that haul scrap concrete for recrushing.

If you do it your self with sledge hammers I would think hard what you are worth to your family versus the price of letting a professional tear it down.

Good luck and be careful!!

Well would be nice but I need to make room for a fenceline feed bunk for heifers and the silo has been out of service for 24 years

I have an excavator and heavy equipment to get the job done in handling the cement, just looking for some input or experience

Rough language warning! There"s always the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgNjWEZgxWs&feature=related"> rednecks, beer, explosives, and guns method.

you can do it safely by knocking a hole in it and shoring it up with wood blocks. You keep removing wall and shoring it up until there is enough material removed that it is being held up only by the shoring. Build a big fire around the shored part,set it alight and wait for the shoring to burn out. Old fashioned way of demolishing chimneys. Probably easier on them as taller and thicker construction.

Regards, RAB

I dont know much about taking one down, but was at a Hospitol one night when the wheeled a guy in who was hit by a block falling off of one they were taking down. I dont believe he survived.

You couldnt pay me enough to fall one like a tree.

Be carefull.

Understood, just being a little light hearted I stayed at the old Quaker Oats mill hotel where they converted their old grain storage silos to hotel rooms best night sleep I ever had no noise but was a little eerie building codes probably wouldn't allow that now. Would like progress pictures whatever you decide to do. Good Luck CT