Excavation Vs Demolition

While both excavation and demolition are involved in construction projects, they’re not the same thing. Many people don’t realize this, which leads them to ask: excavation vs demolition? Aren’t they the same thing? What’s the difference between excavation vs demolition? While excavation and demolition can work together, so much so that many companies will offer both, they are not the same. Here’s what you need to know about excavation vs demolition. 

Excavation Vs Demolition: What You Need To Know

You can have excavation work done without any demolition involved, typically when making parking lots and roads and the like. However, if you’re going to need demolition work, you’ll need excavation with it. While many people assume that they are the same, excavation and demolition are not interchangeable terms. Here’s what you need to know about the differences between excavation vs demolition in what they do.

What Is Excavation?

Excavation refers to the removal of rocks, earth, and other such materials from the ground, generally as part of a construction process and for pavement. It moves earth in order to create a space, hole, or cavity for parking lots, new construction, and other such projects. 

What Is Demolition?

Demolition refers to the removal of a building or other such existing structure in order to make room for the construction of a new building or structure. Most construction projects in areas with existing structures begin with demolition, to make way for the new construction. As you can imagine, this leaves a lot of leftover materials that will need to be excavated. 

Excavation Vs Demolition: The Processes

Excavation is usually part of the demolition process, but demolition isn’t always involved in excavation projects. Here are the differences between excavation vs demolition processes. 

Excavation Steps

While usually the removal of rocks and earth and other such materials from a construction site, excavation can also involve tunneling, trenching, and wall shafts. It prepares a site for utility lines and drainage under a pavement. Excavation requires specialized equipment, tools, machinery, and techniques in order to be done properly.

The steps involved in excavation include:

• Rough staking: finding the extent of soil in the designated area and potential obstacles that will need to be removed.
• Clearing: removing vegetation from the excavation site.
• Ground tracing: laying down the excavation and center lines, as well as the depth of the excavation.
• Excavation: the excavation work, done either manually or mechanically.
• Rough grading: removing soil or backfilling, then overlaying with a top soil.

Demolition Steps

Demolition is one of the first steps in construction projects that are taking place in areas that have existing structures, as said structures will need to be removed in order for the new construction to take place.

The steps involved in demolition include:

• Inspection: inspecting the old structures to find any safety hazards, such as chemicals, as well as checking drainage conditions, walkways, roadways, and more.
• Permit: in order to legally demolish structures, you’ll need a permit from a local authority.
• Disconnecting existing services: if there are current services in use such as gas, water, electricity, or sewerage, this will need to be disconnected and made safe with temporary fencing before any demolition can start.
• Demolition: the structures are demolished and excavated. 

Excavation Vs Demolition: A Summary

Basically, excavation vs demolition comes down to that excavation is simply excavating, or making hollow, a site, while demolition is destroying part of or all of an existing structure. If you have a construction project, more likely than not, you will need both excavation and demolition work done. There’s a reason why people get the two terms confused, after all. You can’t really have demolition without excavation, and so many excavation projects necessitate demolition first.

However, excavation and demolition are not the same thing, even though they do go hand in hand, and it’s always good to be educated about the differences and similarities in the different steps involved in a project. For example, archeologists excavate archeological sites all the time, but they don’t demolish them! That would go against the very purpose of their field of study. When it comes to construction projects though, chances are, if you need excavation, there was demolition involved.

Do You Need Professional Excavation Services For Your Property?

Precision Asphalt Maintenance offers exceptional construction grading services. We use only the best technology and stay up to date with all the latest equipment in order to ensure that we provide the highest quality work possible. We are here for you for all your construction grading needs, from demolition to excavation to stone placement to concrete paving and more. Contact us today if you have a lot that needs prepping for paving!