A residential demolition exercise often sounds like a lot of fun. Perhaps this is partly because of the kind of adrenaline that accompanies the thought of bringing down an existing structure. As exciting as it may sound, however, a residential demolition is not the kind of job you want to undertake on your own. There are serious risks involved, and you're better off leaving this job to a professional demolition contractor.

That having been said, here are three things you should not forget as you plan for your demolition exercise.

You Might Need a Structural Engineer

The thing about demolishing a section of a house is that it is bound to interfere with the support structure of your house. This is especially true if you intend to bring down load-bearing walls attached to the structure of the house.

In order to guarantee that the demolition will not have a negative impact on the structure of the house, you will need to have a pre-assessment carried out by a qualified structural engineer. Only a professional engineer can determine whether it is safe to proceed with the demolition as planned. If not, the engineer will be in a position to advise on the various available options.

You Will Need to Hire a Skip Bin

Another important fact to remember is that all the demolition waste from your project will need to be held in a safe place before the disposal of such materials.

Therefore, as you budget for the demolition, you will need to ensure that you factor in the cost of hiring a rental skip bin for holding such waste. The appropriate size of bin will be determined by the quantity of waste that you expect the demolition project to generate.

If you are not sure of the expected amount of waste, mention this to your demolition contractor and he or she will be in a position to give a valid recommendation. This is because the contractor is bound to have handled similar projects in the past.

Think to Recycle

One creative way to reduce the cost of a demolition project is to recycle the waste generated from such an exercise. Not known to many is the fact that demolition wastes such as concrete rubble can be recycled.

Alternatively, you can reduce the quantity of waste generated from the demolition exercise by re-using the waste on construction-related projects around the site.