University of Salford
Pre-demolition audits
A significant challenge confronting the built environment is the substantial volume of construction and demolition waste generated across the entire lifecycle of buildings, with the most considerable quantities typically arising at the...
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A significant challenge confronting the built environment is the substantial volume of construction and demolition waste generated across the entire lifecycle of buildings, with the most considerable quantities typically arising at the end-of-service life phase.
The growing prevalence of ageing or functionally obsolete buildings earmarked for demolition underscores the critical importance of implementing pre-demolition audits.
European commission, (2024) defined a pre-demolition or pre-renovation audit as a systematic assessment, typically commissioned by the owner of a building or construction asset and conducted by an independent third party (excluding the demolition contractor).
These two stages involved:
Identifying the hazardous and non-hazardous elements and components
Decision-making on the materials after segregation
Early considerations help define the scope of the project
Enables stakeholders to understand the ambitions, incentives and context of the work
Gather original building documentation and/or maintenance protocols
Preparation of the field survey
Identification of products with potential for re-use
Waste identification (recycling and other recovery)
Measurements, sampling, analysis
Evaluation of material and element quality
Waste classification and estimation of qualities
Recommendations related to legal requirements, health & safety
E.g. safe removal of hazardous waste materials, re0use and recycling possibilities
Reporting following general structure and template
Although pre-demolition audits are increasingly recognised as a critical instrument for advancing circular economy objectives in the built environment, their implementation across Europe and internationally remains inconsistent and fragmented.
A fundamental barrier lies in the absence of a universally accepted procedure for conducting a pre-demolition audit, resulting in wide variations in scope, methodology, and expected outcomes.
To overcome these challenges, a decision-making framework for conducting pre-demolition audits is developed, with the overarching aim of maximising the reuse and upcycling of construction materials, and integrating other digital tools from RECONMATIC partners.
By leveraging targeted datasets and an information-centric approach, the framework enhances decision-making related to waste recovery, mitigates the risk of downcycling, and integrates seamlessly into broader building lifecycle management systems, thereby promoting sustainable construction practices and advancing the circular economy principles.
Specifically, the proposed framework establishes a systematic and scalable methodology for executing PDAs, incorporating decision-making processes applicable to buildings and infrastructures at the end of their service life.
Through the integration of digital tools and structured datasets, it significantly improves the traceability, transparency, and operational efficiency of material recovery activities.
Finally, it fosters greater stakeholder confidence in the quality and performance of secondary materials, thereby encouraging their uptake in subsequent construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction initiatives.
✅ The framework proposes a novel and standardised method for conducting a pre-demolition audit for effective decision-making towards the reuse process of buildings at end-of-service life. ✅ This serves as a solution for better waste management practices for building demolition that will generate quality information that will help in the reduction in the quantity of waste generated during the construction and demolition of any structure, with an increase in the volume of recycled materials and products.
The framework adopts the five typical stages of design science
Awareness of the problem
Suggestions,
Development,
Evaluation, and
Conclusion
Each phase is annotated with its activities, showing the structured path from problem identification to artifact validation and dissemination.
The framework is being validated using a case study and incorporating solutions from:
The University of Manchester (paper to 3D model),
BIMBOX (WASTEie) and
Tecnalia (PDA tool) to produce a material inventory and support for decision-making about recovery options.
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