The Break Fast Show #958

June 27, 2025 Video

In today’s show: Caterpillar’s 330UHD demolition rig reaches out; Ward Demolition tackles post-quake clean-up; we’re with Rock N Dirt in the US; and we’re taking a tour of the Laurini factory, where the machinery maverick makes the impossible possible.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: The Great Divide between what a government says, and what it actually does.

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.

Longing for the past

June 26, 2025 General

When you reach a certain age, it dawns upon you that you have more life behind you than you do ahead. So perhaps it is natural to long for the past and to mourn its passing.

I look back at those I have lost personally. Family and friends. I look back at those we have lost professionally. People we worked with, people we admired and looked up to. Colleagues and co-workers; industry pioneers and industry leaders.

Even though most would agree that modern demolition and construction equipment is better in every conceivable way than the machines of yesteryear, we still long for those names from the past: Aveling Barford, Benford, Broyt, Drott, Hymac, O&K, Poclain, Priestman, Smalley. All those great names either swallowed up or gone forever.

Yet there is something I miss almost as much as the people we have lost; and perhaps more than the machines. It is hard to describe; impossible to define; intangible. It is not so much a thing as a feeling. But this industry used to feel different. Better.

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

The Break Fast Show #957

June 26, 2025 Video

In today’s show: We’re meeting the new face of Caterpillar’s commitment to the demolition industry, Jean-Christophe Etienne;; Liberty Industry demonstrates its environmental credentials; runway resurfacing at Reagan Airport with Wirtgen; and Kemroc might have the world’s first excavator attachment for those getting divorced.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: Longing for the past.

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.

When ambition outpaces reality

June 25, 2025 Long Form

In our pursuit of environmental targets, are we in danger of putting the cart before the horse?

As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the UK once reshaped the world through steam engines and coal.

Today, we’re trying to reshape it again; this time in the name of sustainability. We’ve shut down major coal power plants, set aggressive targets to stop petrol and diesel car sales, and now we’re extending that ambition to large-scale demolition and construction equipment.

But what happens when policy ambition leaps ahead of viable technology and infrastructure? That question should concern every operator, contractor, and fleet manager who struggles with equipment that simply isn’t ready to switch.

And, frankly, it’s a question that should have been addressed already; before these ambitious environmental targets were even set.

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

The Break Fast Show #956

June 25, 2025 Video

In today’s show: We have the World Premiere of our film of the new SETTANTA high reach excavator from maverick manufacturer, Laurini; there’s a new film featuring my personal pick as the best machine at Bauma 2025 – The Komatsu PC220LCi-12; we’re taking a spin in the latest ADT from Powerplus; and LiuGong goes electric.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: When ambition outpaces reality

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.

Up close with the SETTANTA

June 24, 2025 Video

During the European Demolition Association’s Study Tour of Italy, one of the most hotly-anticipated visits was to the headquarters of high reach modifier and machinery maverick, Laurini.

The company is currently celebrating its 70th anniversary; and it is doing so in style with the launch of the custom-built SETTANTA high reach excavator.

At 11am on Wednesday 25 June 2025, we will bring you the WORLD PREMIERE of our film of this incredible new machine.

You won’t want to miss this.

Forewarned is forearmed

June 24, 2025 Long Form

Knowledge is power, they say. And in the Internet age, knowledge about anything and everything is available everywhere, all at once.

Back in the day, if you needed a dentist, a plumber, or a car mechanic, you’d consult the Yellow Pages, take your pick and take your chances. The unspoken rule of thumb was to choose a company whose ad was not too big because they were probably too expensive; or too small, because they were probably not very good.

Today, however, we can be a little more scientific about our research. We can check sites like TrustPilot, Yell or Google Reviews that each provide a more detailed glimpse behind the curtain. These website sites collate reviews from previous customers; which is great if those customers have bothered to leave a review.

But even then, the insights are not always useful. People tend to leave reviews only if they are deeply satisfied or deeply unsatisfied with the service they received. Those reviews will, therefore, highlight the very good and the very bad; but they will shed very little light on the fair to middling; the solid and steady; the average.

But even that is better than the information available to those about to work FOR rather than WITH a company.

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

The Break Fast Show #955

June 24, 2025 Video

In today’s truly international show: Everything is all-white as Cardem carries out some French demolition; we’re heading Down Under to look at Thiess Mining’s asset services; then there’s a double shot of Italian. We’re checking out the latest from Venieri; and we’re back on the EDA Study Tour, this time with demolition giant Despe.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: Changing the demolition and construction sector, one employee hire 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.

This is NOT normal

June 23, 2025 Long Form

At the height of the COVID-19 crisis, a new phrase crept into the English language.

The wearing of face masks, social distancing and checking the TV each night to find out how many of our fellow countrymen had died that day was, we were told, “the new normal”…even though there was nothing even remotely normal about any of t.

This is what normalisation looks like. Ideas, behaviours, or conditions that once felt unacceptable or dangerous gradually come to be seen as routine, normal, or no longer worth questioning.

And that normalisation is not exclusive to pandemics, politics and TV news reports. It is very much alive and unwell in the demolition and construction sector too.

You stand on a demolition or construction site in Britain; and what’s become routine here is nothing short of shocking.

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

Firm fined over worker fall

June 23, 2025 Accident, General

Industry news portal The Construction Index is reporting that a demolition company has been fined more than £40,000 after a worker was injured on a site in Aberdeen in 2023.

Lawrie (Demolition) Limited – a member of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors – admitted breaching safety regulations when working as principal contractor on the demolition of a vacant warehouse in Aberdeen.

On 25th May 2023, 42-year-old Sylwester Zdunczyk was working with a team on the warehouse roof, removing aluminium over-sheeting. The sheets were being carried to pre-cut holes in the roof from where they were dropped to the ground floor. While helping to carry a sheet backwards near one of the holes, Zdunczyk lost his footing. The weight of the sheet and his own bodyweight caused the unattached barriers to shift, exposing the edge of the opening and creating a gap. He fell approximately six metres to the concrete floor below.

Zdunczyk sustained a fractured pelvis and two broken ribs. He was unable to work for six months after being discharged from hospital and has not fully recovered.

An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that Lawrie (Demolition) Limited had failed to properly plan, supervise, and carry out the work at height safely. Workers were sent onto the roof without sufficient instruction, training or supervision. The company also failed to put adequate fall protection measures in place.

Read the full story here.