Tell us what you need broken out
Two fields and you are done. We usually call back the same business day.
Confined Space and Internal Demolition
The concrete nobody else can reach. We put remote-controlled demolition machines and confined space crews inside basements, plant rooms, lift shafts and live buildings, where an excavator will never fit and a jackhammer crew would take a month.
- Remote demolition machines that fit through a standard doorway
- No operator under the hammer, ever
- Low vibration and dust control for live buildings
- Confined space tickets, gas monitoring and rescue plans
- Our operators, our machines, Australia wide
Call 02 8015 6345 and speak to someone who has run these jobs.
Why the machine matters less than where it can go
Every internal demolition job comes down to the same three questions. Can the machine physically get to the work? Can it break what needs breaking once it is there? And can it do that without hurting the people, the structure or the tenants around it.
A 20 tonne excavator answers question two brilliantly and fails the other two. A crew with jackhammers passes question one and then takes six weeks, wrecks everyone's hands and fills the building with vibration. The remote machines we run sit exactly in the middle: they walk through a 900mm doorway, ride a goods lift, and then hit with the force of a machine ten times their weight, with the operator standing well back holding a control box.
That is the whole reason this work exists as a specialty. It is not about owning a clever robot. It is about being the contractor who can still work when the access drawing says the opening is 1.1 metres wide and the slab above has to stay.
Where we put them to work
- Basement and sub-basement slab, footing and wall removal
- Plant rooms, switch rooms and pump stations inside operating buildings
- Lift shafts, stair cores and service risers
- Machine plinths, bases and foundations inside factories
- Tunnels, shafts and pits with restricted access
- Hospitals, data centres and laboratories where vibration limits are strict
- Heritage buildings where the facade stays and the guts come out
What makes these machines different
Compact remote demolition machines carry a hydraulic hammer, crusher jaw, bucket or drill on a machine small enough to work indoors, powered electrically so there are no diesel fumes in an enclosed space. They stabilise on outriggers, so all of the breaking energy goes into the concrete instead of bouncing the machine around.
The safety case is the part clients care about most. The operator stands five to fifteen metres away with a line of sight, not sitting on top of a vibrating hammer inside a dust cloud. On jobs with unstable structure, fire damage or contaminated material, that distance is not a comfort feature, it is the reason the job can proceed at all.
Working in a building that stays open
Most of this work happens under, above or beside people who are still trading, still treating patients or still running production. That shapes everything: shift timing, protection of finishes, dust screening and negative air, floor loading checks before a machine tracks across a suspended slab, and vibration monitoring with agreed trigger levels.
We plan those controls into the methodology before we price, not after somebody complains. If your building manager needs a document pack to approve the works, that is a normal part of the job for us.
The engineering that comes before the breaking
Internal demolition is temporary works first. Which slabs are propped, in what sequence, to what load, and who signs it off. Where the spoil goes and how it leaves the building without overloading a floor. What holds the structure up once the element we are removing is gone.
We produce the methodology and the temporary works design, get it engineered, and work to hold points so nothing proceeds on a verbal nod. That documentation is usually what wins the job on tier one sites.
What a typical job looks like: basement plant room strip
A commercial building needs its old chiller plant room gutted so new equipment can go in. The room is two levels below ground, the only access is a goods lift and a 1.2 metre corridor, the building stays open, and there are tenants directly above.
- Site walk and access measure. We check the lift capacity, corridor widths and floor loadings before anything is priced.
- Engineered temporary works. Props designed and certified for the slabs affected, with a hold point before any load comes off.
- Machine broken down and moved in. The remote machine travels in pieces, is reassembled inside the room, and runs on building power.
- Protection and controls up. Dust screening, negative air, floor protection on the spoil route, vibration monitors on the agreed points.
- Breaking begins, operator standing clear. Concrete comes out in sized pieces so it can be barrowed to the lift, not carried by hand.
- Spoil out on night shift so the goods lift stays free for tenants during the day.
- Clean handover with photos, waste dockets and the engineer sign off, ready for the mechanical contractor.
Frequently asked
How small an opening can you work through?
The smallest machines pass through a standard doorway of about 800 to 900mm. Where access is tighter than that, machines can be dismantled and rebuilt in the room. Send us the access drawing and we will tell you straight away if it is possible.
Can you work while the building is occupied?
Yes, and most of this work is exactly that. Night and weekend shifts, dust and noise controls, and vibration monitoring with limits agreed with the building owner.
What about asbestos found in the plant room?
We hold Class A and Class B licences in the group, so a find is a controlled removal rather than a stopped job and a scramble for another contractor.
Do you supply the temporary works design?
Yes. Propping and structural support is designed and certified as part of the package, with hold points before any element is removed.
Do you travel outside Sydney?
Yes, nationally. These machines are made to travel and a large share of this work is interstate.
Head office in Sydney, yard in Brisbane, and remote demolition crews that travel to every state and territory. Shutdown work is planned around your dates, so distance is a logistics question, not a reason to say no.
Got a job where the machine will not fit?
Send the access drawing and a photo of what has to come out. You will get an honest answer on method, program and price, usually the same day.
Call 02 8015 6345 or use the form at the top of this page.
Perfect Contracting acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Traditional Custodians of the country on which we live and work. We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, present and future, and honour their connection to the land and ongoing contribution to society.