Demolition of Council Offices in St Austell, Cornwall

Demolition South West began demolishing the former Cornwall Council offices in St Austell on Monday 2nd October 2023 to make way for a mixed-use development which will provide up to 180 homes. The council has moved out of the offices in Penwinnick Road and into Carlyon House in the town, before eventually taking up a new base in White River Place in the town centre.

What have we done so far?…

1. Soft Strip

As you can imagine with a project of this size and use as offices, the former council building contains numerous fixings and hidden cabling etc.

Soft Strip refers to the initial phase of the demolition process where non-structural elements of a building are removed. This typically includes the removal of fixtures, fittings, interior walls, suspended ceilings, and other non-load-bearing components. The goal of a soft strip is to clear the building of anything that is not considered part of the structure itself, leaving only the core structural elements, such as walls, floors, and columns.

Soft stripping is an essential step in preparing a building for more extensive demolition work. It helps to ensure the safety of workers during the subsequent phases of demolition and allows for the efficient removal of valuable or reusable materials. Once the soft strip is complete, the building will be in a state where it can be safely and more easily demolished.

Demolition South West (DSW) will be carrying-out the soft-stripping of the building for an estimated 7 1/2 weeks, removing communications and electrical cables, door frames, fixtures and fittings, plastic piping, carpets etc.  Our team will be sorting waste into various material classification in order to recycle them at our waste transfer station in Cornwall.