Abstract:
Demolition is an important part of construction projects. Because the building must be demolished or needs to be re-built. In Thailand, labor is the main resource for demolition because machine-based demolition cannot be used in high buildings and narrow areas. The problems of laborbased demolition of reinforced concrete building are the lack of theoretical knowledge for demolition and safety, which can be hazardous for working processes. The purpose of this research is to study the guidelines of reinforced concrete buildings demolition by labor, including problems of labor-based demolition process. The 9 building components were selected to study, e.g., slabs, beams, columns, staircases, interior walls, ceiling, roof structures, and roofing materials. Construction-site observation and interview were applied to study the demolition methods, problems of demolition and factors related to the selection of demolition methods. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to investigate the appropriated demolition methods. Then, the methods and risks of demolition were validated by the experts in structural engineering. The results of this research present 8 factors related to the selection of demolition methods, e.g., dangerous of demolition process, engineering knowledge, side-effects, convenience of demolition processess, tendency of accidents from demolition processess, cost of protection for demolition, duration of demolition, and number of workers. Furthermore, this research also presents the demolition methods of 9 components of reinforced concrete building from both of the workers and the experts' perspectives. The results of this study can be applied as guidelines for building demolition using labor and can be applied for other types of building-component demolition.