School demolition uncovers important historic documents and artifacts.

Workers demolishing an old school building in Leicester have discovered priceless documents about its history under its original foundation stone.

Demolition of the old Taylor Road Primary School building, started three weeks ago and earlier this week workers discovered a sealed glass bottle containing newspapers, including a 1930 copy of the Leicester Mercury, council minutes and coins. The stone was laid by Alderman Richard Hallam on December 1, 1930.

Head teacher Chris Hassall said the council documents filled in a lot of the history of the building.

He said: “Our old school opened in 1932 and the minutes of the education committee show that it was originally a shoe factory owned by Messrs. Toone and Wells. The council purchased it for £10,000.”

Who gets to press the button at the Texas Stadium?

Dallas Cowboys fans – and haters – who want the honor of imploding Irving’s iconic Texas Stadium could face a lot of competition. A well-known food company has expressed interest in sponsoring next year’s implosion. The company also wants to conduct a nationwide contest to decide who gets to push the plunger that destroys the former home of America’s Team.

City leaders revealed the company’s interest Friday but declined to name the entity. But Irving officials said the company would bring a lot of attention to the event – and Irving – through a national advertising campaign centered on its proposed contest.

Read the full details here.

There are some buildings that just should NOT face demolition.

Amidst the worst recession in recent memory, I guess, any demolition workload should be greeted like the prodigal son returned from his travels to distant lands. And yet there just seems something plain wrong about the demolition of a village pub. Even setting aside the demolition industry’s long love affair with alcohol in all its glorious forms, the demolition of a pub is akin to ripping the heart out of a community.

Personally, I blame the town planners, brow-beaten do-gooders to a man: the type that will go to a pub and order tea; and who probably see the demolition of such an establishment as a way of curing the UK nation of its binge-drinking excesses.

So, for all the town planners out there, Demolition News brings you this unique and easy-to-use Good Demolition/Bad Demolition guide:

Bad Demolition
Demolition of pubs, clubs, breweries, vineyards and distilleries
Demolition of live music venues
Demolition of football (soccer) stadia (unless they belong to Arsenal, Millwall or Spurs, in which case sudden, overnight demolition without prior warning is actively encouraged)
Demolition of restaurants unless they sell Greek food, in which case, please refer to Good Demolition (below)
Demolition of anything that will make way for a new tax office, call centre or Government “think-tank” – refer to Good Demolition (below)

Good Demolition
Demolition of 70s tower blocks held together only by graffiti
Demolition of any building that has the word “Tax” in its title
Demolition of double-glazing company headquarters
Demolition of call centres
Demolition of buildings owned by companies that claim to “do a bit of demolition”

If readers would like to extend this guide with their own suggestions for what constitutes Good Demolition or Bad Demolition, please use the comments area below.

New video combines good quality demolition with an excellent dance soundtrack.

What can we tell you about this video? Well, it features Dutch contractor Van Vliet Demolition; It was shot in Cyprus almost exactly three years ago; and it features the kind of soundtrack that will rattle the fillings in your teeth. Enjoy:

Green light given to transform part of Yeovil.

In another example of a possible upturn in UK demolition workloads, Midwest Radio is reporting that Yeovil district council has granted Yarlington Homes permission to pull down over 70 old council houses in the Greenhill Road and St George’s Avenue areas. These houses will be replaced by 140 upgraded flats and houses.

The move comes despite local concern there won’t be enough parking outside the new homes and that the style of the buildings won’t fit in with the area.

Our moustache-growing campaign to raise awareness of prostate cancer is underway.

November is but 5 days old and already I am starting to look like the long-lost fourth member of ZZ Top.

In case you have been away for a while or are new to the site, allow me to explain. To help raise awareness of the devastating and wholly male disease, prostate cancer, I have set aside my shaving razor for the month of November and am concentrating on growing that icon of masculinity, a moustache.

Admittedly, having seen what I look like with even the beginnings of a moustache, I am currently camouflaging it with a full beard, an odd mix of black, ginger and grey face fuzz that makes me look like I am eating a large squirrel.

But if I am going to put up with the itchiness, the sideways looks of the clean-shaven, and the looks of disdain from my wife as another piece of dinner gets lodged on my upper lip, the least you can do is to show your support, either by a donation of cash or, simply, by growing a ‘tache of your own.

Full details can be found here.

Demolition engineers making final checks before demolition begins on run-down towers.

Survey work has started this week at Basing View in preparation for the demolition of two of the town’s most run-down office blocks.

City Wall House (pictured far right) and Loddon House are being demolished as part of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s ambitious plans to regenerate the town’s main business park.

Engineers are on site until the middle of next week to carry out tests which will include the removal of large panel sections from the buildings, to help decide the best way to demolish them.

Read the full story here.

Cardem puts its Liebherr R954CVHHD high reach to work.

We haven’t yet discovered where in France this video was shot but we’re always pleased to see Cardem‘s immaculate, white-liveried Liebherr equipment in action.

If you’re going to work demolition, Hawaii’s a pretty good place to do it.

Under normal circumstances, we would steer clear of running a video that is quite clearly an advertisement. But this just has so much going for it, that we’re going to make an exception.

First of all, it’s all the way from Hawaii, a tropical paradise not normally associated with the demolition business. In addition, the company in question – Island Demo Inc – seems to run an impressive equipment fleet and has clearly grasped the recycling nettle. But best of all is the presenter, owner and CEO Mike Leary, a guy who is the very epitome of the laid-back aging surfer dude. Nice work Mike.

Want your contract featured on Demolition News? It’s easier than you think.

There are two questions that we’re asked more often than any others by contractors that have seen Demolition News.

This first, obviously, is “what the hell are you talking about?” to which we have yet to find a suitable answer.

The second, for which there actually is a suitable answer, is “how do I get my company featured here?”

Well you basically have two options. You can either pay for a devilishly handsome, well-informed, urbane and experienced PR type to write some sparkling prose that could be used on Demolition News or any one of a multitude of demolition and/or construction magazines out there.

Or, if the thought of dealing with a PR type fills you with the same sense of dread that most people reserve for the dentist, or if your marketing budget is trapped in the snarling teeth of recession, you can always do it yourself. And fear not; you don’t have to be William Shakespeare or even, heaven forbid, Dan Brown.

To help ensure that your submissions contain all the right and relevant information that we (and, more importantly, our readers) are looking for, we have produced a very simple Job Site Report form that contains just about every question we’d ask if we were there in person (aside, of course, from “what time is lunch?”)

We can’t promise to publish every single submission (although we will try) but it’s worth noting that any submissions backed by good quality photos or (better still) video will be immediately bumped up the list.

We hope you find this Job Site Report form useful; but if you’re still confused and require assistance from that devilishly handsome guy we mentioned earlier…