Demolition Glossary: Terms Used in South African Demolition

Demolition quotes and permit documents use terms that decide what you are buying. The difference between strip to slab and demolition to footings is the difference between ground you can build on and ground you cannot. These are the terms that appear on a South African demolition quote, a method statement or a permit application.

Terms

Soft strip

The removal of all non-structural interior material from a building while the shell stays standing. Fittings, linings, ceilings, partitions, flooring and redundant services come out, leaving bare structure and slab.

Selective demolition

The controlled removal of specific structural elements while the remainder of the building stays standing and in use.

Total demolition

Removal of the entire structure above ground level, leaving the slab and foundations in place.

Demolition to footings

Removal of the structure, the floor slab, the foundations and the footings, leaving clean soil that can be built on.

Strip to slab

Removal of the roof, walls, fittings and services, leaving the floor slab and foundations in the ground.

Deconstruction

Dismantling a structure in reverse build order to recover materials intact for reuse, rather than breaking it down for disposal.

Party wall

A wall shared between two properties, typically in a semi-detached or terraced building, where each side relies on the other for structural bracing.

Lateral support

The sideways support that neighbouring land and structures provide each other. South African law recognises a right to it, and removing support a neighbour depends on creates liability.

Needle

A temporary steel beam passed through a wall above a proposed opening, propped on both sides, which carries the structure while the wall below is removed.

Prop

An adjustable temporary support that carries a needle or a structural element during selective demolition. Props carry needles; needles carry the structure.

Facade retention

Keeping a building's street elevation standing on an engineered temporary support frame while the structure behind it is demolished.

Method statement

The document required under the Construction Regulations 2014 setting out the demolition sequence, plant, temporary support, exclusion zones and controls, prepared before work begins.

Exclusion zone

The area around a demolition operation that nobody enters, sized at a radius of at least the height of the element being demolished and extended in the direction of any intended fall.

Spalling

The cracking and detachment of concrete caused by corroding reinforcement expanding inside it. Common on the Cape Town coast, where salt-laden air drives chloride into the concrete.

Vibracrete

The South African precast concrete boundary wall system of horizontal panels slotted into grooved vertical posts. Panels lift out intact rather than needing to be broken.

Oregon pine

Imported softwood used for floors, trusses and beams in Cape Town houses built before roughly 1960. The highest-value salvage material in ordinary South African demolition.

Soft spot

Ground over an unfilled or poorly compacted void, typically where a foundation or pool has been removed, which settles later under load.

Make-safe

Work that removes immediate danger from an unsafe structure without demolishing it: propping, removing material at risk of falling, and securing the perimeter.

Waste management plan

The document accompanying a demolition permit application that states the waste streams arising, how they are separated, which licensed facility receives each, and how disposal is evidenced.

Section 34

The provision of the National Heritage Resources Act 25 of 1999 that prohibits demolition or alteration of any structure older than 60 years without a permit from the heritage resources authority.

Heritage impact assessment

A report prepared by a heritage practitioner setting out the significance of a structure and the effect a proposed demolition would have on it.

Pulveriser

An excavator attachment that crushes concrete between jaws and separates the reinforcement from it in one operation.

Shear

An excavator attachment that cuts steel sections mechanically, without a flame.

High-reach demolition

Demolition using a long-boom excavator that takes a structure down progressively from the top while the machine stays outside the collapse zone.

Crushing on site

Processing clean broken concrete through a mobile crusher to produce granular fill, which removes both disposal tonnage and the cost of imported fill.

Respirable crystalline silica

The fine dust generated by breaking concrete, brick, block, mortar and tile, which causes silicosis. Exposure is cumulative and irreversible.

COIDA letter of good standing

Confirmation that a contractor is registered and current with the Compensation Fund, covering their employees for workplace injury.

Salvage credit

The value of recovered material, shown as a separate credit line on a demolition quote rather than retained by the contractor.