Compressor Crews, Concrete Chipping & Torch Cutting

DSI provides air compressor crews for pneumatic chipping, hand-breaking, and selective demolition in areas where machine access is limited or the scope requires precision hand work. Used for interior concrete breaking, trench cutting in tight spaces, tile and flooring removal, and any work where a full excavator cannot safely operate.

Torching covers cutting and burning of embedded rebar, anchor bolts, steel columns, beams, pipe, and metal structures that need to come out as part of a demolition scope. DSI runs compressor crews and torching under one mobilization when scopes require both — no separate sub needed.

Some concrete can't be reached by an excavator or skid steer: inside finished buildings, on upper floors, around equipment that stays, in trenches and pits, or right next to structure that has to be protected. Compressor crews break and chip it by hand with pneumatic hammers powered by a towable air compressor.

• Concrete chipping to expose rebar, embeds or utilities
• Breaking out saw-cut slab trenches for plumbing
• Removing housekeeping pads, curbs and equipment bases
• Tile, mortar bed and thin-set removal
• Selective demolition next to finishes or structure that stays

Torch cutting uses an oxy-fuel torch to cut steel that saws and breakers leave behind or can't economically remove. On demolition jobs that means rebar cutting after concrete is broken out, anchor bolts and embeds cut flush, and steel columns, beams, pipe, tanks and metal structures cut into pieces that can be loaded and recycled.

1. Confirm the scope, protection needs and whether the work is interior, overhead or confined.
2. Scan with GPR where post-tension tendons or conduit may be present.
3. Set up compressors and hoses outside or where exhaust and noise are acceptable.
4. Chip and break with water or vacuum dust control, and torch under a hot work permit with a fire watch.
5. Load debris, separate steel for recycling and clean the work area.

• Volume and thickness of concrete to chip or break
• Reinforcement density and the amount of steel to cut
• Access: interior, overhead, confined spaces or upper floors
• Dust, noise and working-hour limits in occupied buildings
• Hauling, bins and cleanup included in the scope

Compressor and torching crews are usually billed hourly or by the day, or included in a fixed-price demolition scope.

Chipping and jackhammering concrete fall under Cal/OSHA's respirable crystalline silica standard, so we control dust with water or shroud-and-vacuum systems and provide hearing protection. Torch cutting is hot work: we work under the site's hot work permit, clear or shield combustibles, keep extinguishers at hand and post a fire watch during and after cutting. Coated or painted steel is checked for lead before it is torched.

DSI provides compressor and torching crews from our Riverside yard across the Inland Empire, including Corona, Ontario, San Bernardino, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Moreno Valley, Temecula, Jurupa Valley, and on larger projects in Southern California, the High Desert, Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, the Central Valley, Northern California. See all California service areas.

Call (951) 737-2077 or send your scope for an estimate; we respond within one business day.