General

Demolition and construction companies claim that their workers are their greatest asset. So explain this. A company will spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on a new excavator. Over the next few years, they will lavish that machine with the finest fuels and lubricants money can buy. The machine might only be in the fleet…Read moreRead more

We live in an age where it’s easier to demolish a tower block than to navigate the regulatory minefield leading up to it. I’ve been around this game over thirty years, and if you think the walls are what stand in the way, think again. It’s the wall of red tape. And it’s getting thicker…Read moreRead more

I have no heart, yet I’ve felt every beat of yours. I have no voice, yet I’ve roared in your name. I have no memory, and yet I remember it all. You needed strength. Unflinching, uninterrupted power. The moment you summoned me all those years ago, I answered. I’ve coursed through the arteries of your…Read moreRead more

Site accidents and fatalities. A mental health crisis in which the industry has a suicide rate almost four times the national average. A gender and racial imbalance that persists despite years of “awareness campaigns” and hollow promises. Cut-throat competition that forces contractors to underbid, underdeliver, and undervalue the very workers who make their businesses possible….Read moreRead more

Progress and innovation do not move in a straight line. They don’t travel neatly from point A to point B. They are not linear. In fact, it often appears that progress is random; leaping forward in one area while stagnating or even regressing in another. Humankind has evolved sufficiently to send men and women into…Read moreRead more

Deconstruct has been given the green light on the demolition of Grenfell Tower. The company is the right choice for many reasons. This article is for Demolition Insider subscribers only.

Evolution is not optional. You might choose to disembark from the progress train, but that train is going to continue its journey, with or without you. Now, admittedly, I am not the best person to deliver this not-very-surprising news. The most-listened-to album on my iPhone was released 43 years ago. I firmly believe that men…Read moreRead more

Ever since I returned to the Substack platform as a home for my long-form writing, I’ve found myself increasingly drawn to the subject of US politics: not just as a spectator; but as a student of dysfunction. It’s not the drama or the spectacle that grabs my attention. It’s the patterns. The eerie, creeping sense…Read moreRead more

She was fifteen when she said it aloud for the first time. It wasn’t a joke, or a dare, or a moment of adolescent rebellion. It was just a simple truth: “I want to work in demolition.” Her classmates froze. Then came the laughter. A ripple at first. Then full-throated howls. Like she’d announced plans…Read moreRead more