The cost of a residential house demolition.

So you get a demolition quotation for around $15,000 +GST for a standard house demolition, sounds rather pricey?

I bet the demolition companies make a fortune!

Well let's take a look.

The average standard 60's to 70's house built on limestone footings with timber floorboards and approximately 120sqm in size will contain close to 100-120 tonne of building material.

The rest of the property, usually large 700sqm +, will hold approximately 60 tonne of green waste, concrete septics, soakwells, reticulation pipes, buried building rubble, and of course, the concrete driveway.

At CLEAN SL8 Pty Ltd we base our quotes on between 160-180 tonne of waste to be removed from your property in order to leave a clean slate from which to re-build.

Council landfills are prohibitively priced at $150 per tonne. This high price encourages the demolition contractor to separate and recycle as much material as possible.

To demolish a house wholesale and dump at a local landfill will cost $27,000 just in tip fees alone. No diesel cost, no labour cost.

Landfill fee

180tonne x $150 per tonne= $27,000

This would pose an astronomical cost to the customer and make most projects unfeasible.

So we recycle.

Through the use of time and labour, we are able to separate the organic matter within a property , from that which is inert.

Inert materials such as concrete, brick, tile and limestone can be crushed and re used as road base, and the cost to dispose at a concrete recycling plant can be as cheap as $30 per tonne.

A typical residential home will usually contain 120 tonne of inert material. This means that the fees charged by the concrete recycler will amount to $3600 +Gst

120 tonne X $30 = $3600

So what about organic?

The organic material in your home and on your property consists of the roof timbers, doors, door jams, plasterboards,skirting boards, cupboards, flooring, carpets, underlay, trees, plants, underground roots, grass, and basically anything else that is prone to decomposition.

Most of this organic matter is unwanted, and thus we have to pay the maximum price for its disposal.

Of the 60 tonne of organic material,

CLEAN SL8 Pty Ltd will separate the 7 tonne of roofing and flooring material for recycling in the form of firewood mostly.

This leaves 53 tonne of waste that cannot be recycled due to lead paint, asbestos, weeds, grass, root material, pvc piping, fibreglass insulation etc.

This 53 tonne has to be disposed as mixed waste product which requires further screening and separation by dedicated recycling facilities using trommels and hand picking stations.

If we avoid council landfills and tip at dedicated recycling facilities we can lower our costs from $150 per tonne to $50 per tonne.

Mixed waste cost

53 tonne x $50 = $2650 +GST

So the fees to be paid just for the disposal of your demolition waste will approximate $6250 for both inert and organic waste.

However,

Before that material can be separated and loaded onto a truck, the Excavator must be delivered.

The delivery of our excavators are charged at a rate of $130 per hour.

This charge begins the moment the low loader truck leaves the depot and returns to the depot, and thus the standard charge for Perth metropolitan area is 4 hours each way.

Delivery

4 hours @ $130 per hour = $520

Pick up :

2 hours @ $130 per hour = $260

Fencing,

At CLEAN SL8 Pty Ltd we use our own temp fencing which saves us rental costs, but which adds labour to install ourselves. 4 hours.

Diesel

Diesel costs are dependent upon how far the recycling facility is from demolition site, and how many hours of operation it takes to clear the site and take it to 800mm.

Excavator diesel cost

We have found that excavator diesel costs amount to $180 per day over 7 days. 7 days x $180 a day = $1260

Truck diesel cost

Unfortunately most dedicated recycling facilities are located more than 100km away. We could opt for a transfer station, however the extra costs are not worth doing so.

We thus haul our material for a 200km round trip using $120 of diesel per trip. Each truck load can hold 20 tonne of waste, so we calculate 9 truck loads at $120 per load for diesel.

9 return trips @ $120 per trip = $1080

This now brings us to labour.

At CLEAN SL8 Pty Ltd our standard time on the average job equates to 70 hours labour.

So far our costs have equated to $9370 and this does not include any wear and tear servicing costs for machinery.

So with a quote of $15,000 we have $5730 left to pay out wages and profit. $5730 divided by 70 hours leaves a labour rate of $80 per hour leaving no profit margin, or $60 per hour with a $1400 profit margin.

I hope this quick guide helps the customer to know where their $15,000 is being spent.