Specialist demolition work

Asbestos remediation, demolition, sawing and drilling

Kwakkel BV was called in to completely strip the former HBS building in Kampen, which will house new care apartments. "All facets of our work are in it," he says.

Main contractor Salverda Bouw approached Kwakkel in mid-2021 for this project. After the tender process, the contract was awarded for execution in late 2022. "Just before Christmas 2022, we started the preparatory work and in January 2023 the asbestos remediation of various sources, both inside the building and outside on the facades. After the asbestos-free signal was given, we started with a large team of colleagues to clear the inside and a piece of total demolition of an extension in the courtyard. Ceilings, walls, floors, toilet units and piping throughout the building were removed and disposed of."

"After clearing, we continued with a smaller crew to do the structural and more specific work, such as making various door and elevator recesses in stone walls and concrete floors and notches for new steel beams to be installed."

Piling and tunnel network

While working in the basement, where holes had to be drilled in the basement floor for additional piles, Kwakkel faced a challenge. "Normally we drill the holes for this in a week and a half; here we were working on it for a month and a half. The concrete floor we had to drill through turned out to consist of two layers of concrete with 90 cm of sand bed in between. Together with Salverda we extracted sand and built in containers to prevent the drill from jamming due to the sand and water. We also specially ordered two-meter-long drills with a diameter of 400 mm to drill through the entire package. During excavations in various rooms on the first floor, we also came across an old tunnel network under the building. These tunnels all had to be preserved. As a result, the structural engineer even had to create a whole new piling plan."

Precision work

After the necessary demolition and excavation work, Kwakkel was called in for the drilling and milling work for the technical installation for Van der Sluis Technische Bedrijven and Installation Company Boer en van Veen. The company also sawed the monumental doors out of the walls and made the door recesses higher. This allowed the floors to be raised and the doors replaced, connecting to the new floors. "That's precision work, though, which is performed by our specialists. Because of any monumental issues we might encounter during the demolition, a group app was set up with representatives of the execution in it, together with Oversticht and Cultural Heritage. This way, if we came across something that we thought might need to be preserved, we could put a photo in the app group and quickly got a response as to what to do with it."

Meanwhile, the company finished work on the landmark building. The last job was the installation of dilatations. Kwakkel looks back on the project with satisfaction: "All facets of our work are in it. The monumental character of the building and its size make this a special project."