Tell us your shutdown dates
Two fields and you are done. We usually call back the same business day.
Shutdown, Turnaround and Plant Decommissioning
Your window is fixed, expensive and does not move. We bring the machines, the crews and the planning discipline to get the demolition scope out of the way inside it, and hand the space back to the mechanical trades on time.
- Work planned around your shutdown window, not ours
- Remote machines for hot, confined or unsafe areas
- Crews that arrive inducted, permitted and ready on day one
- 24 hour shift rosters where the window demands it
- Australia wide, including remote and regional plants
Call 02 8015 6345 and speak to someone who has run these jobs.
On a shutdown, the demolition contractor is on the critical path
Nobody remembers the demolition contractor who finished early. Everybody remembers the one who ran two days over and pushed the mechanical install into overtime, or worse, delayed the restart. A day of lost production at a cement plant, a refinery or a processing facility costs more than the entire demolition package.
That is why we plan this work backwards from the restart date and build float into the sequence, not the other way around. It is also why we favour remote machines wherever the area is hot, tight, unstable or full of residue. A machine that can start breaking while the area is still too warm for people is worth days on a tight program.
We are used to being one trade among twenty in a shutdown, working to a permit system that is not ours, under a coordinator who has no interest in our internal arrangements. That is normal, and our planning documents are written for it.
What we take out during a shutdown
- Refractory, brick lining and castable removal from kilns, furnaces and boilers
- Redundant process plant, tanks, hoppers, chutes and conveyors
- Concrete plinths, machine bases and foundations
- Silo and bin internals, build up and blockages
- Structural steel and platforms in live plant areas
- Floor slabs and pits for new equipment installation
- Full decommissioning of a redundant line or facility
Why remote machines earn their keep here
Shutdown areas are the worst places to put people: residual heat, restricted access, poor light, unstable material overhead and a clock running. A remote machine takes the operator out of that zone while still delivering serious breaking force, which usually means work can start earlier in the cool down and continue through conditions that would otherwise stop a crew.
Electric drive matters too. Inside a vessel, kiln or enclosed structure there is no exhaust to extract, which simplifies ventilation and permits.
Planning that survives contact with a real shutdown
Before mobilisation we agree the sequence hour by hour with your shutdown coordinator, confirm isolation and permit requirements, book the lifting and access equipment, and pre-position spares for the machines. Crews arrive with inductions complete and tickets current.
During the window we report at the same frequency as your other critical trades, so if something changes you hear it from us early, not at handover.
Decommissioning a line for good
When a plant or line is being retired rather than refurbished, the work broadens: isolation and make safe, hazardous material removal, process cleaning, dismantling, structural demolition, scrap recovery and site validation. We can take that whole scope, and the recovered steel is weighed and credited openly against the price.
What a typical job looks like: 12 day plant shutdown
A processing facility has a twelve day shutdown. Two old machine bases have to come out, a redundant conveyor and transfer chute have to be dismantled, and a slab has to be cut and removed for the new equipment. The mechanical contractor needs the area clear by day eight.
- Pre-shutdown walk, four weeks out. Scope confirmed, access measured, lifting and isolation requirements agreed.
- Methodology and temporary works issued for the client's review, with hold points named.
- Day minus one: machines and crews on site, inducted, permits raised, exclusion zones marked.
- Days one to three: dismantling of the conveyor and chute while the area cools, using remote machines where residual heat still keeps people out.
- Days three to six: plinth and base removal, breaking with remote machines, spoil out continuously so nothing banks up.
- Days six to eight: slab cutting and removal, area cleaned and swept, handover to mechanical.
- Days eight to twelve: our crews stay available for the unexpected extra scope that always appears, and demobilise once you release us.
Frequently asked
How far ahead do you need to plan?
Four to six weeks is comfortable for a normal shutdown. We have mobilised faster when something failed unexpectedly, so ring us anyway if the window is tighter.
Can you work night shift or 24 hours?
Yes. Where the window justifies it we roster around the clock, with supervision on every shift rather than one supervisor stretched across all of them.
Do you work under our permit system?
Always. Your isolations, your permits, your inductions. Our systems sit underneath, not instead.
What if we find extra scope mid-shutdown?
Expected, and normally why we hold crew capacity in the back half of the window. Extra scope is priced against agreed rates rather than negotiated in a panic.
Regional or remote sites?
Yes. Travel, accommodation and float logistics are built into the price up front so there are no surprises.
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.
Shutdown coming up?
Send us the dates and the scope, even roughly. Early planning is where shutdown demolition is won or lost, and the conversation costs you nothing.
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.