Demo of a big commercial watertube boiler (15' tall)

Hey, I'm new here. Found the forum while searching for info on exactly what's inside big fairly modern boilers. I couldn't find an answer after searching, so here's the situation.



I've been offered the opportunity to quote cutting up and removing a big natural-gas fired watertube boiler made by English Boiler & Tube in 1996. I know the replacement weighs 82k lbs, and this one can't be hauled straight to the yard because of it's 15' height. Someone else would be removing the boiler from the building; I would be working in the parking lot.

My first question is, what's going to be inside? Anything valuable, or all steel and cast iron? Pretty sure I can make keeping the scrap a condition of the quote.

Has anybody scrapped one of these onsite before? I've got oxypropane torches, a demo saw, a 5k and a 12k forklift, a Kubota articulating loader, and a tri-axle 20' equipment trailer. I don't have any employees, just a self-employed structural welder here. I can obviously weld lift eyes onto stuff and I've got rigging experience. How much time does it take to break one of these down?

Any other ideas or help would be much appreciated. Just not sure how to go about bidding something like this.

Could be stainless tubes inside.

Boiler built in 1996 - Asbestos insulation. Run away from it.

I thought asbestos wasn't an issue in the '90's? Was that just residential construction and not commercial?

Originally Posted by Welder

I thought asbestos wasn't an issue in the '90's? Was that just residential construction and not commercial?

Is Asbestos Banned in the United States?

No, asbestos is not banned in the U.S. While attempts have been made to ban it over the years, the U.S. continues to import and use asbestos. Nearly 114 metric tons of asbestos were imported in the first three months of 2022, according to the United States International Trade Commission, exceeding the 100 metric tons imported in all of 2021. Although imports continue, asbestos has not been mined in the U.S. since 2002.

They obviously got the boiler transported to the current site and have now managed to move it outdoors into the parking lot. Any equipment hauler with a lowboy trailer could handle the move to the scrap yard.

Let the yard deal with it, grab the money and run.

Originally Posted by Welder

I thought asbestos wasn't an issue in the '90's? Was that just residential construction and not commercial?

Quite honestly .... i don't think that anyone here has any experience with a boiler of that size. You probably know more than we do.

This is the best resource i have on asbestos but it's hard to say if it will be of any help.

https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Asb...hoto_Guide.php

The best general advise i could offer would be: Consider taking a pass on this one. It's one thing to bid a job on something you know inside and out. The fact that you have to ask a question here means that you don't. You might be batting out of your league on this one.

Originally Posted by alloy2

They obviously got the boiler transported to the current site and have now managed to move it outdoors into the parking lot. Any equipment hauler with a lowboy trailer could handle the move to the scrap yard.

Let the yard deal with it, grab the money and run.

The boiler is still in place and in operation; the job isn't until November of next year. An equipment hauler is actually who contacted me; the 15' height means major work to get it under power lines and stoplights in the area it's in intact. They're thinking that it might be cheaper for the customer for me to partially demo it in place so that they can get it out of there at a transportable height.

Originally Posted by hills

Quite honestly .... i don't think that anyone here has any experience with a boiler of that size. You probably know more than we do.

This is the best resource i have on asbestos but it's hard to say if it will be of any help.

https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Asb...hoto_Guide.php

The best general advise i could offer would be: Consider taking a pass on this one. It's one thing to bid a job on something you know inside and out. The fact that you have to ask a question here means that you don't. You might be batting out of your league on this one.

Thanks to all of you who replied. I got the request to quote the job yesterday morning, and of course the company who made the boilers has been bought and sold at least twice since 1996, so I just figured the next most logical place to ask would be with people who do this sort of thing for a living. I appreciate the asbestos info; I wasn't aware it was still in use. Hopefully the last company to buy this one out still has that info. As soon as the weekend is over and normal people go back to work, I'll call the current company and try to get an idea of what I'm in for.

I'm not exactly new at demo work or even hazardous environment demo, actually have like 55 explosion-proof lights still hanging out in the back of my shop from a factory I helped demo a few years back that I think can be cleaned up and sold for a nice profit....I just never dealt with boilers before. If I end up taking the job on after doing my due diligence, I'll take some pics and post back when the time comes.

Again, really appreciate the info. I was afraid this place was dead, and I'm happy it's not. I'll stick around and if there's anything I can offer help with, I will.

I didn't come to me till the wake up over coffee this morning. We do have one member with experience in doing the larger jobs that could lend sound advise. He slipped my mind because there are only a few of us that are active lately. He's Patriot76. It's been a couple of months since he last logged in. You might try sending him an message through your user profile. He was always willing to help.

Here's an example of one of his posts:

https://www.scrapmetalforum.com/dism...r-removal.html

Look into Oxygen Lances and liquid oxygen.

You'll have to order the liquid oxygen as your supplier only fills these cylinders on demand, once you have the cylinder use it daily as they will bleed off oxygen when not being used this is how the thermos is kept cold. A large cylinder is equivalent to 18 large cylinders/

The last liquid cylinder I had ordered cost me $150.00.

Originally Posted by Welder

The boiler is still in place and in operation; the job isn't until November of next year. An equipment hauler is actually who contacted me; the 15' height means major work to get it under power lines and stoplights in the area it's in intact. They're thinking that it might be cheaper for the customer for me to partially demo it in place so that they can get it out of there at a transportable height.

With run away inflation you expect your quote is still going to hold water next November.

Perhaps we'll be well into WW3 and metals prices will skyrocket or perhaps expropriated for the effort.

Originally Posted by alloy2

With run away inflation you expect your quote is still going to hold water next November.

Perhaps we'll be well into WW3 and metals prices will skyrocket or perhaps expropriated for the effort.

Yes, it'll still be good because I'm not valuing the scrap at all in it. The company who bought out this manufacturer said this will have steel internals; no SS or other higher-value stuff. My quote is my full labor rate only times X amount of man-hours. If I get allowed anything for the scrap, that'll just be a bonus.

Originally Posted by hills

Maybe submit an estimate for the job instead ?

I normally don't do quotes or estimates at all; I work on a time and materials only basis for most jobs. For this one, a solid quote was required. When that happens, I multiply my normal hourly rate x the expected number of hours x a significant multiplier to allow Murphy to not only show up but open up shop on my jobsite.

I guess scrapping is different, but estimates aren't really accepted in my core line of work, especially when I'm just a subcontractor and not the GC. It's either time and materials or a solid quote on jobs of any size significance. That's the other reason that I discounted scrap value completely on this quote....I'm not a scrapper by trade and am not planning to put any of my eggs in the scrap market futures basket.

I do have to say I'm enjoying reading up on different guys' opinions here on scrap torches, etc....I've used liquid O2 before but never rented it for my own company, and I think I've got a 4' Smith DG series scrap torch around somewhere but I'm not sure if I've ever even lit it up....and Smith discontinued the DG heads some years back anyway because the secondary spark arrestor in the head didn't work out so great. So maybe I'll even make a purchase or 2 based on some recommendations here.

KT450 Cummins, back in 1993, $11,000.00 for the core.