Demo Day #1

Almost exactly a year after submitting for a building permit we are able to start with the demo, and amazingly we will actually be starting earlier than planned!! Paul organized a fantastic and efficient team of 3 guys, 2 who already helped with the initial clear out that happened in 2018. In one day, Saturday April 4th, the entire attic, roof and windows have all been taken out.

The guys that helped were:

Christof, he learned his trade as a carpenter and was the main lead of this project. In Switzerland, in most cases, the only part of the house that is actually built with wood is the top roof part. This is why Christof's knowledge was excellent for taking this part down (as he typically builds it up, hehe). The main challenge that we faced was ensuring that the part of the house that we aren't breaking down at the moment was stable enough. More importantly that the roof was stable enough, and not that with time it would start flaking away with any wind storms. What I mean by this is roof's here are covered with clay tiles. It is relatively easy to remove these tiles. Normally the way that they are attached to the house with a tongue and groove pattern (much like Canadian Siding or a wood floor) the clay tiles stay in place. But if one breaks, due to age and a hail storm lets say, and then coupled with a strong wind storm a couple tiles might blow off. This is typically an easy fix, as you just replace the broken or missing tiles with a new clay tile. So the challenge was ensuring that the remaining roof tiles were secure and stable. Thankfully most of the work was already done for us because the house was built in two stages. We are currently still living in the original house and we are tearing down the addition that was built in the 70s. So because of this the part that we are still living in didn't really depend on the structural support from the part that we are taking down. However as a precaution we nailed down all of the exterior clay tiles to give them extra support when some strong winds come along. Please do not ask me how you nail through clay without breaking the entire tile, no idea!

Joel, he helped with the interior demo. We normally get partnered up in tasks.

Bekim, he works as a builder. Unfortunately his company did not have time to complete our house. He is a machine when it comes to demo and has excellent knowledge on the building processes.

And then of course Paul and I.

We started at 8 am, everyone but Christof started with taking out the windows. The windows are still relatively new, so we are keeping them, so we can replace some other windows on the property (for example in the garage). After the windows were out, Joel and I removed the shutters. Bekim then started to build a temporary wall, so that we won't have a giant whole in the wall. And that was everything that needed to be completed on the main floor, for know.

Christof was also here at 8 but he went up to the roof to start. The rest of the day looked like this with everyone eventually making it up to the roof to help and then down again the main floor to help with cleanup.

• The clay tiles needed to be removed. We placed a trailer underneath the roof so the tiles could slide right in. Making this a quick process. This was an uninsulated attic. So under the tiles there wasn't any insulation.
• Remove the wood under the clay tiles.
• Remove the roof support beams. These we kept because I want to possibly incorporate into the new house. And they were still in great condition. Christof and Bekim's heart would have broken a bit if I didn't want to keep them.
• Go back to the main floor, rip down the ceiling (which we had mostly already ripped down in the initial gut of the house. The only part left was the insulation).
• Then Christof went back up to the attic and sawed out the attic wood floor. The panels would then fall down to the main floor where we were waiting to clean it all out. To clean it out wasn't too bad, we just drove a big machine (manitu) to the window and either stuffed everything into a big bag (insulation) or had the big front loader shovel on for the wood, so we could dump all the wood in the wood trailer afterwards. They are very strict here, and everything needs to be sorted correctly - clay tiles in one container, wood in another, metal in another and cables in another.

And that was that, all in a days work. On Monday Haffa is coming. They are the company in charge of the rip down and digging the hole for new house. Paul made a deal with him, that we are helping as much as possible to lower the cost. This is why we did all of this ourselves. On Monday we (only Paul and I) will also be helping. Paul said most likely with cleaning up and sorting all of the materials but I will let you know for sure in the next entry.

Thanks again for reading!