Large amounts of existing masonry structures in urban construction intensive areas of China are faced with severe demands for demolition and reconstruction. Traditional demolition methods such as manual demolition

semi-manual demolition

and semi-mechanical demolition have problems of low demolition efficiency

high noise

heavy dust

and difficult recycling of demolition materials. Typical modern technologies (e.g.

blasting demolition) are very dangerous and can easily produce huge noise and dust pollution to the surrounding environment. Demolition materials produced solely by traditional and modern demolition technologies are usually directly buried and difficult to be recycled. Therefore

green demolition methods and technologies of masonry structures should be developed to achieve low noise

low dust

and high recycling rate of demolition waste. In this study

five types of demolition techniques domestic and abroad were compared and analyzed

including manual demolition

crushing hammer

crushing ball

hydraulic scissors

and blasting method. The working principles

technical advantages

and application range of the techniques were summarized. The idea and method of dismantling masonry structure of wall cutting

lifting

transportation

and reassembling were proposed

which could provide support for demolishing and reusing masonry structures with high value.