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Interior and selective demolition estimating

Most estimating services bundle demolition with excavation, which tells you they are thinking about a machine on a site. Interior demolition in a building that is still partly in use is a different job, and it is priced differently.

What gets measured, and in the units a demolition crew works in

Flooring, square feet by type
Carpet, resilient, ceramic and poured floors come up at completely different rates, and a tile floor bonded to a slab may pull a grinding scope behind it. One flooring number is not an estimate.
Ceilings, split acoustical against gypsum
Acoustical tile and grid comes down fast. Gypsum board ceilings mean framing removal, more waste by weight and more debris handling.
Partitions, linear feet banded by height
Not square feet. A crew prices a run of partition by its length and its height band, because height determines access equipment and the number of passes.
Column wraps, count
Wrapped columns in retail and office fit outs are individually counted. They are slow, they are often furred with more than one layer, and they are invisible on a floor plan read as areas.
Casework and store fixtures, count
The most commonly missed item on this trade. Millwork, wall standards, display units and back of house casework are rarely in the demolition drawing scope and are always in the building. They are counted from the photographic survey.
Disposal, tons by material type
Not cubic yards. Haul and tip are charged by weight, so the conversion from measured volume to tonnage by material is part of the takeoff rather than an afterthought.

Scopes that are their own operation, not a demolition line

Escalator and elevator removal
Rigging, a structural opening, protection of the levels below, and a crane or hoist window. It appears as one line in a scope narrative and it is a separate priced operation with its own assumptions.
Mezzanines
Structural removal inside an occupied envelope. It needs a sequence and a temporary support scheme, and it is not selective demolition.
MEP make safe against removal
These are different scopes and sets frequently describe both without drawing the boundary. Make safe is isolate, cap and label. Removal is strip out and dispose. Getting the boundary wrong in either direction is expensive, so where the documents are unclear it is flagged.

Occupied and partially occupied buildings

When part of the building keeps working, the cost drivers change. Dust and noise containment becomes a priced scope rather than a general condition. Work moves to evenings and weekends, which is a labour rate and a productivity assumption. Protected routes for debris out and material in have to be established and maintained.

None of that appears in a quantity. All of it appears in the price. It is carried explicitly, with the assumptions written down, so you can qualify them in your bid instead of absorbing them.

Abatement coordination and hold points

On older buildings the abatement report is often not issued when the bid is due. That is a scheduling risk, not a quantity, and it is handled by stating the hold points the programme assumes rather than by pricing an abatement scope nobody has defined.

Where an abatement scope is defined, the coordination sequence goes into the means and methods narrative, because the demolition sequence has to work around it.

Disposal, diversion and why the recycling minimum matters

Removal quantities are converted to tonnage by material type. Concrete, metals, gypsum, wood and mixed waste all have different weights per unit of measured volume and different tip rates.

Then the project’s diversion requirement is applied. A specified recycling minimum changes the haul cost, because separated streams need separate containers, separate hauls and in some cases a separate processing fee, and it changes the site logistics on a building with one loading dock. A diversion percentage stated in the specification is a cost, and it is carried as one.

Documents needed to price it

  • Demolition plans for every floor.
  • Reflected ceiling plans, for ceiling types and extents.
  • The finish schedule, for flooring and wall finish types.
  • Original building drawings if the building is old, because that is often the only record of what is behind the finishes.
  • Site photographs. On an existing building these are worth more than the drawings, and they are the only way to count fixtures reliably.
  • The abatement report if it has been issued, or a statement that it has not.

Questions demolition contractors actually ask

How do you estimate disposal tonnage?

By converting measured quantities to weight by material type, rather than by taking a volume and applying a single density. Mixed waste from a retail fit out and concrete from a slab cut do not weigh the same per cubic yard and they do not tip at the same rate.

How do you price a recycling diversion requirement?

As separated streams with their own containers, hauls and processing, plus the site logistics of running multiple containers where the building has limited dock access. It is carried as a cost line, not as a note.

What happens when the abatement report has not been issued?

We state the hold points the programme assumes and exclude the abatement scope, in writing, so you can qualify it. We do not price a scope that has not been defined.

Work of this kind

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Estimating & Takeoff

Related trades

Bidding interior demolition?

Send the documents and the bid date. A written fee and turnaround come back before anything is measured.

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