One bite at a time

August 13, 2025 Long Form

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

It’s an old joke. Not a great one. But, if you think about it, it’s not really a joke at all. It’s a survival guide disguised as humour. Because when you’re standing in front of something so big, so complex, so completely unmanageable that you can’t even get your head around it, you’ve only got two choices: you can throw up your hands and walk away; or you can take that first bite.

Our industry — demolition, construction, all of it — is an elephant. A big one. And, truth be told, not a particularly friendly one. We’ve got accidents that shouldn’t happen but still do. We’ve got men and women who never make it home because something went wrong. We’ve got a skills gap you could drive a dump truck through. We’ve got sites where women and minorities are still treated like they’ve wandered into the wrong party. We’ve got conditions that would make an office worker faint before lunch. We’ve got workloads that swing from famine to feast in the space of a week. We’ve got margins so thin you can see through them. And we’ve got a mental health crisis that is costing lives on an almost daily basis.

That’s a lot of elephant.

This article continues on Demolition Insider. Please use the link below to access this article FOR FREE.

The Break Fast Show #978

August 13, 2025 Video

In today’s show: Boosting your profitability with Hitachi Construction Machinery; on the road with Takeuchi; prepping your Liebherr telehandler for a day of work; and John Deere keeps the wheels – and the tracks – turning.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: One bite at a time.

Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.

If it’s broke, don’t fix it

August 12, 2025 Long Form

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Setting aside the poor grammar, that is a phrase we have all heard and most of us have probably used.

Here in the field of demolition and construction, we have a slightly different take on that phrase. “If it’s broke, don’t fix it unless there’s money to be made”. In short, failure is often more profitable than the solution.

Think about all the big issues facing the UK demolition and construction sector: accidents and fatalities; an insurmountable skills shortage; a deepening mental health crisis; an ongoing gender and racial imbalance; questionable working conditions.

None of these factors and challenges are new. In fact, accidents and fatalities, the skills shortage and sketchy working conditions have been a part of the industry furniture for as long as I or anyone else can remember.

No-one can claim a lack of awareness of any of these issues. They are discussed at length within companies, industries and trade bodies up and down the country. Some of them are the subject of regular campaigns and initiatives. Some even get their own dedicated day or week of recognition. But the problems underpinning those campaigns and initiatives remain because tolerating these issues is considerably cheaper than actually addressing them.

This article continues on Demolition Insider. Please use the link below to access this article FOR FREE.

The Break Fast Show #977

August 12, 2025 Video

In today’s show: Rammer – Born in the hardest rock; Bethell Group takes to Takeuchi; you only live twice with Liebherr; and Volvo’s electric efficiency

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: It’s broke, but don’t fix it.

Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.

Demo fleet under the hammer

August 11, 2025 General

The complete fleet of demolition plant, equipment and commercial vehicles previously operated by East Midlands Demolition Ltd is now available for sale via online auction. The assets are being sold on behalf of the liquidators and a major finance company, with the sale managed by BPI Asset Advisory.

The asset disposal features over 300 lots and includes a wide range of high-value and sought-after machinery such as a 2017 McCloskey J40 V2 tracked jaw crusher; a 2020 JCB 100C-2 compact tracked excavator, a 2002 Volvo A25D articulated dump truck, and a 2015 JCB 535-140 telescopic handler. Additional lots include scissor and boom lifts, tipping trailers, bucket attachments, a 2011 Scania R440 tractor unit, and a selection of commercial vans from Citroen, Ford, Mercedes, and Vauxhall.

The sale is expected to attract interest from demolition and construction companies, plant hire businesses, contractors, and other operators looking to acquire quality, well-maintained assets at auction value.

The assets are located in Derby (DE21), with viewing available by appointment only on Tuesday 2nd September.

Interested parties are invited to contact Carol Allen at carol.allen@bpiaa.com to arrange a booking.

The online auction will close on Wednesday 3rd September.

I am a diggerholic

August 11, 2025 Long Form

I have a condition. It’s an obsession, an addiction, and a compulsion, all rolled into one. Thankfully, my condition is not life-threatening. But it is life-altering. My condition is entirely self-diagnosed; but based upon the overwhelming evidence, I feel that a medical diagnosis would be purely academic.

It is time for me to come clean about my issue. So this is my confession. My name is Mark, and I am a diggerholic.

Now admittedly, I have been writing about demolition and construction equipment for three and a half decades, so it is not surprising that I have a fondness for the subject.

So how do I know that my fondness has grown into an obsession? Allow me to give you a few very recent examples.

This article continues on Demolition Insider. Please use the link below to access this article FOR FREE.

The Break Fast Show #976

August 11, 2025 Video

In today’s show: Volvo unveils its next generation of wheel loaders; Develon shows off its latest materials handler; Kemroc rips rock; and Komatsu Smart Construction gets smarter still.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: I am a diggerholic. And you might be too.

After a two-week absence, Mark Anthony returns LIVE with The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.

Transatlantic explosive demolition alliance

August 11, 2025 Video

The recent European Demolition Association convention in Venice brought the demolition world together.

Even though it was billed as a European event, delegates travelled from as far afield as Argentina and Japan, Canada and the United States to attend.

But that coming together was not limited purely to the wider industry.

The event marked the amalgamation of Dykon Demolition, Precision Blasting Services and Academy Blasting under a single banner, known as DetX.

At the same time, DetX announced the formation of a Transatlantic joint venture with Alford Technologies here in the UK.

In an exclusive interview, Demolition News caught up with Dr Anthony Konya and Ron Gilbert of DetX, and Roland Alford of Alford Technologies to find out more.

Industry-wide facade retention

July 25, 2025 General

I was talking to an industry friend yesterday about the process of facade retention within the field of demolition. For those of you that don’t know, the process is precisely as the name suggests. It is a demolition and construction technique in which the external walls or “façade” of a building are preserved while the rest of the structure – usually the interior and sometimes the roof – is demolished and rebuilt.

It is a process I have encountered many times over the years; and it is one that I find endlessly fascinating, because it truly tests the ingenuity and engineering skill of the demolition contractor.

Which is why it struck me as odd that this thought had never occurred to me before. That facade retention is, in many ways, the perfect metaphor for the demolition industry of today. And the more I thought about it, the more similarities I found.

This article continues on Demolition Insider. Please use the link below to access this article FOR FREE.

The Break Fast Show #975

July 25, 2025 Video

In today’s show: Priestly Demolition has plenty of energy; the Evolution of the CASE backhoe continues; Demi Lition returns to talk about black carbon in London – And construction is to blame; and we’re heading to South Africa for CASE equipment and leaping motorcycles.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: An industry-wide façade retention.

Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.