Smashing a house down.

welcome to Today's Show guys if you're just tuning in I'm down in Iowa in a little town that was hit by an F4 tornado almost 400 homes were damaged or destroyed multiple people lost their lives and the devastation is horrible I'm going down to help a company called go serve Global and they come into situations like this and they don't charge any of these homeowners a dime they do all the tear down remove removal complete disposal including hallway just to try to help people out and today I'm going to take you guys along for the ride and we're going to start to knock down some houses let's start with this one we clear to knock the rest of the down I'm not [Music] sure so before I do the main tear down I always do one final walk through of the house that way if a stray Critter or a pet went back or ran back into the house I can make sure that the property is clear before the rest of it comes down now this house is a little bit too big for this machine so I've got a strategy that I'm going to be doing to gain access to that upper roof structure and what I'm going to do is use the house to build a ramp so that I can reach that upper roof so that that doesn't go the wrong way and land on somebody smash a machine or hurt something we're trying to keep this all contained as tight as possible and load over the side alley so you'll notice that all of the debris from this point forward is going to be aiming toward the right [Music] all right we're going climb on top of the [Music] pile I mean it's not the end of the world if it does yeah but you got a truck right behind you so [Music] now in this case I've got my Pusher blade in front of me because I want to try to catch catch and contain any stray boards that want to come and meet me inside of my cab from doing that so that Pusher blade is there to act more like a shield at this point once I finally start to get to the the point where I'm not worried about that so much I'll spin her around and then I'll use that push blade to help level me out but for the get-go beginning stages of this demo I want to keep that in front of me just to keep the Stray debris from meeting me in the cab so the company I'm down in Iowa helping is called go serve Global and I'll tell you a little bit more about them but the gist of it is is they don't have a big budget they don't have tons of fancy new equipment and fact this blue K cabota that I'm in was a laner from another company just helping them out they don't own dump trucks they only have old rickety dump trailers that are pulled by volunteers from the community they are operating on a Sho string budget and they've gone into this town and they've worked 7 days a week for the last last 7 weeks straight and while they're down in Iowa cleaning up their own Hometown up north in Northern Iowa in Spencer is getting hit by floods almost the last estimate I heard was almost 1,500 to close to 2,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed by floods and that's where they're from so while they're down here trying to help people clean up their messes down here their own home town is getting devastated he [Music] I know I guess some people would be a little uncomfortable demo on a house with a an excavator that's pretty much too small for the job but I mean I grew up without pot to piss in or a window to throw it out as my dad would say dirt floor pour so we just learn to make do and we're going to figure it out we'll get her figured out nobody will get hurt and we'll get her all figured out well that's about as good of a view as I can get you guys she going to get Dusty so I'm going to climb up here on top of the pile as best I can I am running like legitimately at one3 Power I don't need power for what we're doing here you don't need power you need finesse it's not about power it's about finesse I grew up with a fine bone structure I didn't have a whole lot of Brute Force so I learned to make de wiy right there was one of them wiry guys that surprised everybody let's not have this land in our lap too soon none too soon all right I should probably get my auxiliary Hydraulics to work y now the other excavator he's over there he's young kid I think that's one of Dennis's Sons there you go he's getting her everybody's got to learn somewhere don't think he could be learning better looks like he's 20 years old imagine how good of an operator he'll know all the experiences he'll have when he's 40 you know I learned how to demo houses that were way too big by stopping on the side of the road and watching what other people did kind of figuring it out kind of figuring it out what I don't want is a roof coming down directly on top of me I got falling object protection but I don't want to test it today's not test day houses are surprisingly weak sideways but surprisingly strong from pushing top down I can pick a fullsize excavator up on just a couple 2x4s elang that's hard on hydr Li I'm talking to Dennis's boy now I'm talking to myself I can't reach much further so oh here we go here we uh uh uh uh no sir no sir that that firewall wanted to go the wrong way I don't want it to go that way I am going to stop now he's putting a lot of pressure on I'm just going to have him hold off cuz he's putting a lot of sideways pressure on and I don't want I don't want this structure going into the alley not because it would hurt anything but just because practice makes permanent and what that means yeah that means is if you learn to do things the wrong way then when it comes time to do it right you won't know the right way right so I want him to learn the right way sh crappiest part about what I'm doing is uh I just gave him the hand signal behind the scenes he's moving behind me we'll rotate this camera around here and we're at at a bit of an angle here but what I'm going to do right now I'm going to dig that back end up and now I'm going to pull my pile of debris down and I'm going to use that as my stomping ground so I'm going to climb back up on top of the pile of debris that helped me get a little bit more level with that roof and uh lets me do a more comfortable control fall of the material it's nice that he's over there right now and he's just helping push everything there back down up back up up I climb up I need a good secure pile and I got a I got a basement underneath me here so you can see he's busy over there he's a pushing getting stuff done that's fine that's fine I mean you don't normally use two excavators on a demo job but we got him and he's learning man if I what I wouldn't have done what I wouldn't have given to be able to work with somebody experienced when I was demolishing stuff right next to them you know be able to see what they're doing and how they're doing it coordinate that that would have been an amazing lesson little things that are kind of important uh I just want to make sure Nobody's around me so this is going to be my new Ram right here kind of like a dirt ramp except it's made out of wood all right all right let's go up to the top of the there come on Bessie let's go oh come on we can do it we can do it oh I got to pull myself up I don't have enough I don't have enough gumin to get me up there okay how are we doing here we're doing good keep going D monkey all right I'll keep going I'll keep going why not right why not all right let's see not very comfy this pile's not very comfy right now pretty far up on the pile all right but what have you all right I got an interior wall that interior wall is going to stop my control demo so I need to need to peel that way peel that interior while away I know get us want to start going to trucks sure of the stuff I need get this house to do what I wanted to do in the direction I wanted to do it which is nowhere but the foot front of the house all right Dennis give me a push thank you sir good job good job good operators you don't even need to talk to they just see they see they know they do they see they know they do that's what a farmer does see they know they do oh that Bo is coming for me no sir no sir I saw you no I do not want to go out to lunch with you today I do not want a hard sandwich freshly served into my cake hole no thank you right now one wants to come my way to right there let's put let's push her down right there make that one go right where we want her imagine how much easier this be had a excavator that was three times bigger Diva house demos used to be fun then I did so many of them that it stopped and then I stopped doing house demos and now it's fun again I forgot how much fun demoing the house is is so fun really is so fun so many hours go went into building this thing freaking think about all of the hours that took to build down I do not think that is the back wall oh this is a big house she just keeps going all right I'm going to put you guys on time or [Music] coming along hey Dennis can stick this camera on top of your machine yep all right boys you're going to go for a ride along with Dennis all right guys let's pop you up on top and uh help him Road up trucks we're going to move everything his way well we're not done for the evening by any means but we are going to blow the equipment out just cuz all right I'm going to put you guys down so I can use two hands to do unless Dennis you going to blow it out I can blow it out for you is there what did I miss I got the back open I got the radiator done is there another spot I think you're good I didn't do the air filter though yeah that's a good point you want to do the air filter yeah okay all right I'm going to get this blown out and then we're going to hop back in loading we're going to keep going till we can't go anymore so I was saying earlier that goost serve Global doesn't use trucks well this is their only truck it's a 1986 army truck that was converted for construction use but they prefer dump trailers because then they can have anyone pull a dump trailer and they're not limited by the licensing where if they had a full-size dump truck you'd have to have either a Class B or a class a driver for that state although it's not quite as convenient at least the dump trailers keep the job sites going say the worst part about demolition running into insulation like this oh I know so I made the I made the mistake of keeping the window open on one of these and just blew all through there so yeah yeah uh-huh that's the the window shut yeah keep them shut right take a shower at the end of the day right so guys that was one of the volunteers and he drove his entire family all the way in from Oregon to Iowa and has been their entire family has been working to help clean up this devastated town it's just cold to see acts of giving like that where's that leaf blow when you need it so the way we're demoing houses down here is not what I'm used to doing in my neck of the woods in fact where I'm from the dust control is a priority anytime we knock down a house we have to have water on that house at all times just to keep that dust from blowing around but we're also doing that in more of a controlled fashion and less of a holy crap a disaster just came through and wiped everything out kind of a scenario wonder how that uh wonder how it dumps I was watching Dennis he was stack in this trailer for no mercy we could not demo a house like this in the cities we had a tornado go through Minneapolis St Paul and the city I mean the trees were dominant I mean it was it was a devastating tornado where trees were on top of houses and cars and covering streets and people couldn't even get out of their houses it was really bad I mean it was as bad as a tornado gets for what we had you know hitting right in Minneapolis and this he never going to believe this the City of Minneapolis turn this around the city of Minneapolis stopped people cuz PE neighbors were helping neighbors neighbors were coming out of their houses ones that had chainsaws they were cutting trees off from cars and uh taking them off from doors so people could get out of their homes and the City of min stopped them if they didn't have a certified Arborist license listed with the City of Minneapolis you were not allowed to do any work and I mean we're talking about the mour of people just trying to get out of their homes I lost so much respect for the city of Indiapolis uh a guy named Jeff Johnson he was running for governor of Minneapolis and Jeff was has Happ I kind of know Jeff kind of been a friend of mine and while he was running for governor we were sitting down and he was on the hennipen County board of directors so he was one of seven people that made all the decisions for the county and uh he says told me he said St our County for the City of Minneapolis has the 26th largest budget in the state of the union and I did I'm like Jee I'm like you got to break this down for me I don't know what that means what do you mean it has the 26th largest budget in the State of the Union your county the county has a larger budget operating budget than 24 states in the union has makes more money it takes more money in and spends more money than 24 States I can't make this stuff up and he was on the board of directors so he no would know let's go back to loading trucks see how this goes nice big fat dunk trailer one of the last one of the last loads other day you get sloppy it's getting late it's got to be 7:15 7 almost 7:30 we still got light it's uh middle of July I think it's July 13th or 14th and if you want more information it looks like that guy over there is filming us so maybe you could find out whatever his channel is and watch his take on the demo uh it's this was a sad event this home going down I guess these folks didn't want to be here they didn't want to watch it go down and uh boy I don't blame them you know a lifetime of memories mother nature takes out so sad so sad the dump is closed so this load will'll get is we're doing what we call a preload we get the load on that way the truck if the dump opens at 7 the operator the truck run truck runner truck truck driver whatever you want to call him can get to his truck at 6:30 and get his load right at the dump site right at 7 so as soon as that pit is open he's got a load on and he's dumping and that just helps when we're trying to do jobs get one if you get one extra load out sometimes that's the difference between a a finished job and what you got to go back the next day and load up and then you got to haul equipment out do everything else it's a big deal it really is a big deal don't let that uh downplay I'm going to uh put this on time warp and uh let you guys just go along for the ride for a bit [Music] what [Music] no one was hurt but remember when I said last load of the day something has to happen last not the end of the world but my bucket fell off right there he found the pin you find a cotter pin by it by any chance see we got something what' you break there must be missing something here oh yeah that uh it's the second time oh it fell off once before well the clip falls off it it didn't fall off on him the clip came off it's got that weird that's got that circular clip on them there's an extra one in there good deal I don't think you Dam anything no it fell off right where you see it so I was even saying last load of the day something is going to happen happen it always happens the last load of the day no shouldn't need one should be able to slide it in if we do it right yeah that's here you you you need it I don't hey these are hard to see okay so it's pretty hard hey it's pretty hard for me to eyeball it so just kind of stay back you guys I got to line everything up just right then the pin should slide right in easy enough to get it in but it's not easy to all right guys it's the end of day one we've got two houses and a garage down almost cleaned up but tomorrow is a brand new day and we've got another house to take down and we've got another machine to use we've got a 55,000 lb brand new Volvo that was loan to these guys we need to get this house down as fast as possible because the company that loaned it to them does utility work and they probably need that machine back these guys are strictly volunteers everything they do is volunteers and let me just show you one of the shirts that I found in this this is just their construction trailer it's go serve Global if you have any skills as an equipment operator and you want to help these guys out check out go serve Global if you're an equipment manufacturer and you've got extra equipment that these guys could use they're being inundated I mean when I say inundated up in Spencer Iowa right now there is almost a thousand homes that just got destroyed or damaged by a flood and as soon as these guys are done here they're heading up there and starting on helping those people out so it's go serve Global I'm going to recommend you guys if you have a chance check them out um phenomenal organization but tomorrow is another day I'm going to catch some rest because in about 6 and 1 half hours we're going to be going again well maybe seven or eight that's it for this one guys check you out on the next one God bless go get them so I was looking at your core values Dennis sharing God's love by delivering hope core values Christ centered passionate servant heart committed and integrity in Vision empowering those we serve and serve alongside to be World Changers transformed through Jesus yes 100% volunteers but you do need skilled operators you are hurting I mean because I'm one of two it's you and me you're two sons and then you've got four drivers and in the last eight weeks you guys have worked seven days a week you've knocked down how many well um so when we were in Minden we did a lot of property cleanups on Rural we we put some um Farms back to dirt so acreages that's what we did over there here um we probably knocked down 10 15 homes but we've done we'll do 25 basements um yeah and then up in Spencer that's a whole another ballpark yeah and I got to you know once I get up I'm hearing that there's a need to tear down hundreds of homes I don't know that for sure until we get up there but that's going to be a huge need yeah but tomorrow we're not done so we're going to clean finish cleaning up yep clean up the second home clean up the second home and then start on another and use a bigger excavator that a donor has given us to use so yeah yeah we rely 100% like Barb and I raise our own money to get to get paid we have to go out and raise money um you know so that's so we are staff but um and then we have another part-time staff but we I have to raise money so he can get paid um you know but yeah I I need a full-time mechanic operator that's the next step for us we have a lot of resources you you know you you know you need resources and you need people to them yep and it's going to be back and forth you know as we grow you know cuz we have a passion to help people in need and these people are in need so all right bright and early 6:15 right 6:15 we'll uh looks like I got some caffeine I found right there so we we'll get you guys some coffee and then we'll go start working all right so sounds good y all right thank you sir all right thanks Denis see you in the morning yes good morning one and all it's 5:37 a.m. we're getting a bright and early start we're going to get going and uh head out to the site we got one to clean up and another one to take down and a new office to work in today what I mean a new office a new excavator 55,000 lb excavator made by Volo it's going to be a fun day let's get it going see you guys on the next one God bless and go get them