Anyone ever paid to have a house demolished? Anything to look out for when looking for a company? Insurance, obviously... What might I expect to pay?

House is about 3000 square feet. One story. Brick veneer, on a slab with concrete driveway.

Thanks.

I was involved in demolishing a house once. Just about ended up in jail, but it was fun :beers: . Actually it was the day before demolishion and we threw a house wrecking party,BYOA (bring your own axe). We were about 20 years old and there wasen't much left for the crews to do the next morning but clean up the rubble.
Cheers
Bear

I was involved in demolishing a house once. Just about ended up in jail, but it was fun.
Cheers
Bear

Thanks, very helpful :)

I paid for a 2500 sf two story, just make sure utilites are all unhooked and call one-call to make the buried lines. I also set it up for the town maintance guy to be there to help with the water, sewer lines. Being a small town I did not worry about insurance.
Oh, hope for no aspestos =$

The only complete house demolition I have been involved in was easy. We had an old house sitting on the company property, so we called the fire dept. and asked them if they needed it for training. They just loved the idea, and set in on fire and put it out several times before they finally let it burn to the ground. Then we called a guy with a bulldozer to remove the debris and the foundation. Can't remember what we paid him, but it wasn't very much.

And yeah... asbestos can be a bad thing. In bad cases, the asbestos abatement can be way more expensive than the demolition itself. Better check the local laws before starting the demo.

Asbestos has to be abated before you can demo (EPA federal law). In older homes it is usually found in the shingles, building paper under the shingles, asbestos shingles (popular in the 40's & 50's), some plasters and early drywall joint compounds, old vinyl tile and sheet vinyl and the mastic used for installation and wrapping on ducts and steam pipes. If there is just a little bit its not a big deal, qualified contactor has to double bag it and take it to a qualified landfill. Any underground heating oil tanks need to be removed,. under 500 gallon capacity is not regulated. Just have it pumped and pull the tank.

Once that is done disconnect and cap the utilities at the property line. Then the demo contractor usually just chews it up with a track hoe with a hydralic jaw mounted on the arm. Run over it a few times and put it in a truck for the land fill. The cost around here without asbestos abatement is about 4K. The contractor has insurance for any of his liability and will not let anyone but his crew on the property once they start.

If you do it yourself you accept the liablility. When I was younger I helped demo a couple of places. Funnist moment was when the back hoe guy broke open the top o the septic tank without closing the window of the hoe. He got drenched pretty good, we laughed so hard we puked, it was funnny.

Rob as much copper pipe out of it that you can.

I was always wondering if you had to pay the fire dept. to use it for fire training and if so how much?

I was always wondering if you had to pay the fire dept. to use it for fire training and if so how much?

Exactly what I was thinking...
"donate" it to the local Volunteer Fire Dept. ;)

Exactly what I was thinking...
"donate" it to the local Volunteer Fire Dept. ;)

I would bet they would also handle the utilities end, or at least help put you in the right direction. Probably would get on the news, and make a few new friends in the city government (can't hurt when you need a favor).

Done right, you could make it an event for the local scouts or other community groups. even in my big town (60,000+) if it made the city paper ahead of time, you would have a decent size crowd just to watch.

send pics of the demo or blaze. It's a guy thing.

My best friend had a 100+ year old farmhouse. Built a new 5,000sf house behind it and had to have the old house demoed. Ended up finding someone who would move it for free (he gave them the house). Just ended up having to pay to have the foundation bulldozed for a few hundred bucks.

Our church once owned a property with a house and inground pool. When the tenant skipped out on months of past due rent, we found the place infested with ticks and bugs and all sorts of nasty things. We joked that the best thing was to burn it down. A while later the church wanted to build a new facility on that site, and we explored a lot of options before letting the fire department have at it for training as noted previously. We had to remove the appliances, water heater, furnaces, and have the utilities all cut to the site. FD did their thing. We then hired a contractor with loader to haul the debris away, then we had to fill the pool with dirt. Total cost was right around $2500 for everything as I recall (I was church treasurer at the time).

We also explored selling the house for $1 but it had to be moved. It was movable (brick, on a slab, etc) but the moving costs were more than anyone wanted to pay.

Jeff
68SS in TX

Also...couldn't you donate it to Katrina Relief? Possibly tax deductable? ;)
Beats living in a FEMA trailer...

I was always wondering if you had to pay the fire dept. to use it for fire training and if so how much?

I think the cost for our demo was a couple of hundred to the redneck with the bulldozer, some landfill cost for the debris, and the foundation was used as fill material at a construction site and was hauled off for free.

We didn't have to pay the fire dept at all, they were so happy that they probably had been willing to pay for the opportunity, if we had asked. On the other hand, we needed some brownie points, as the dust bins at our boiler room caught on fire quite frequently and we had to maintain a good relationship with them... :D

DON'T, DON'T try to remove the asbestos yourself w/o a PERMITTED crew doing the work!!

It's not friable, (i.e., dust-creating), as long as it is in BIG pieces so watch yourself b/c IT can get ugly when you get hit with a FINE from your states DNR/APCP/Enforcement section b/c you didn't know your state's asbestos reg's!!!!!

pdq67

I was always wondering if you had to pay the fire dept. to use it for fire training and if so how much?

We used to burn places all the time.....That's donated places, not good ones!!:D :D But with all the conservation laws now, it's getting harder to do this. You have to contact the state, get a permit, do it on a certain day, in just the right weather, etc...etc.... It's not a simple thing anymore. But it's still a good idea to ask them, if you live in a volunteer district. And yes, it's a donation. John

Before you donate it to be burned, have it appraised, you might be surprised at how large your "donation" might be!

My father did this about 10 years ago. It helped him when taxtime came around.

Ooop's, almost forgot!!

Check into Dallas/Ft.Worth's Project XL asbestos abatement study they are hassling the EPA about so it can be used to make this kind of stuff less expensive to do!!

And also, the city of Bridgeton, MO, (St. Louis International Airport expansion), is caught up in this too!!

And fwiw, this is why cities own one heck of a bunch of land AND property b/c our great GOV. made it too expense for private citizens to do this!!

So they walked away and left the Public sector holding the bag!! And now that the Public sector is holding the bag, the Private sector can't use the land and property UNLESS you do it THEIR costly BROWNFIELDS RECLAMATION WAY!!!

AND fwiw, the city of St. Louis own's over 33 percent of the cities land and property b/c of this!!

This is property AND land that is OFF the TAX rolls!!

So the rest of the people in St. Louis take up the drop in tax revenue!!!

pdq67

Today is D-Day, supposedly. I am taking the day off work to watch the destruction. Gear is supposed to be here within the next two hours.

What is it about men that makes destroying stuff so much fun? Or is that just me :)

Maybe some pictures later...

P.S. I didn't mention it before, but this is the house right next door to me. I bought it to enlarge my yard. :thumbsup:

What is it about men that makes destroying stuff so much fun? Or is that just me :)

I've always wondered that as well....

Maybe it makes you feel better to know you had the power to bring something down...like a high?

Wow, that was quick. About 30 minutes to knock down a 3200 square foot ranch house. I got it on video, it was very cool!

:thumbsup:

If the slab is still there, sounds like a nice size garage

You have a video?? And you're not sharing!!!?????:confused: :mad: