Cost of Demolition of 2 story detached house?

yungwan

We wish to demolish a house in preparation for building a new one.
Its on my boyfs land and the existing house is inhabitable. I understand I we will most likely have to apply for planning permission to demolish it and clear the site, including the removal of the debris?
It a two story detached house. Does anyone have any information on how much this will cost and whether it is worth it?

We are in County Roscommon

porte

Hi, how old is the house? and what is the total square footage. Have you done any home work on recent planning decissions in your area, and what sort of structures have been approved, bunglows, dormers.!! You might not get a 2 storey on the site once its gone. Have you looked into government grants that are available for solar panals, cavity and loft insulation and wind turbines for green electricity, and drilling for fresh water supply. Get quotes for both revovation and new build, planning will be problem free unless you make radical external changes. Keep it simple like adding a sun room or porch, a lot can be done to old houses. Exposed stone, sash windows, reclaimed brick, your house will be the envey of rosscommon.:D Good Luck.

yungwan

Thanks for replying.....

I am not sure how old exactly the house is but I would estimate 55 years old, with the second floor being added at a later date, possibly 45 years ago?! As I said im not 100% but there or there abouts.

Square footage would be approx 1800 sq ft.

I am in the process of trying to negotiate (aka convince) my boyfriend to abandon that particular site and build elsewhere on their land. It seems like an awful lot of effort and a waste of money to me to knock the house. Particularly when nobody can tell us the cost of this (without having to hire an engineer!)

And to be honest I do not want to renovate the house. I want a new build.

So hopefully we can reach a compromise.

Thanks for your help!

clint_eastman

Not sure why you'd need an engineer to get an idea on cost of the demolition. You'll obviously need planning to demolish and it'd form part of the application for a new build but you seem to just require a quote for demolition at the moment to gauge the eventual overall costs so why not get a quote from a couple of building/demo contractors. You may even be able to dangle the carrot of getting the new build when (if....planning!) the time comes and get the cost down.

yungwan

clint_eastman wrote: »

you seem to just require a quote for demolition at the moment to gauge the eventual overall costs so why not get a quote from a couple of building/demo contractors. You may even be able to dangle the carrot of getting the new build when (if....planning!) the time comes and get the cost down.

Yes perhaps this is the best idea. You are correct, I want to see how much it is going to be for our overall budget and whether or not it would be benefital to complete this demolition at all if there are other viable sites on the land(which is my view on it all).

Kev2000

Yungwan, hope you don't mind me pitching in here. It would almost definately cost you less for demolition if this was undertaken prior to a follow-on construction of your proposed new property. This is for the fairly obvious reason that the Contractor will look to re-use some of the raw materials from the demolition. Such materials may be concrete masonry and slabs. The new build may also be able to re-use some of the existing foundations depending on their condition and size. Try also to get the contractor to re-use as much timber as possible. Timber as a construction product is currently a problem as the majority of it ends up at the tip. It then degrades emitting methane gas which is several times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

If there is available land, then some of the inert materials can be be buried on site (allied with a little re-landscaping) - a large proportion of the cost of demolition goes towards paying to send the waste materials to site, therefore, if you give the contractor some options, you can reduce costs (and emmissions).

muffler

Kev2000 wrote: »

Yungwan, hope you don't mind me pitching in here. It would almost definately cost you less for demolition if this was undertaken prior to a follow-on construction of your proposed new property. This is for the fairly obvious reason that the Contractor will look to re-use some of the raw materials from the demolition. Such materials may be concrete masonry and slabs. The new build may also be able to re-use some of the existing foundations depending on their condition and size. Try also to get the contractor to re-use as much timber as possible. Timber as a construction product is currently a problem as the majority of it ends up at the tip. It then degrades emitting methane gas which is several times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

If there is available land, then some of the inert materials can be be buried on site (allied with a little re-landscaping) - a large proportion of the cost of demolition goes towards paying to send the waste materials to site, therefore, if you give the contractor some options, you can reduce costs (and emmissions).

Thats terrible advice to offer anyone.

Apart from your post being off topic no one should ever attempt to use old founds for a new house, should not use any stone for under floor filling and certainly never ever use the old timber.

If I didnt know better Id say you were trolling but as you are new here Im going to cut you a bit of slack but please think before you post again.

Kev2000

muffler wrote: »

Thats terrible advice to offer anyone.

Apart from your post being off topic no one should ever attempt to use old founds for a new house, should not use any stone for under floor filling and certainly never ever use the old timber.

If I didnt know better Id say you were trolling but as you are new here Im going to cut you a bit of slack but please think before you post again.

Muffler - I'm shocked!

As an experienced Chartered Structural Engineer one of my duties is to reduce the carbon footprint of all construction activities and I am using this forum to offer my experience, knowledge and advice for free.

Have you ever read CIRIA C653 'Re-use of Foundations'?

If you read my post properly you will see that I did not propose placing the re-used hard core beneath house slabs, however it can be used externally say beneath concrete aprons or under paths (it will need to be compacted and topped with suitable finer hardcore). In fact it can be used as building aggregate or in re-cycled aggregate concrete (RCA) however, for small projects this is impractical due to the cost (and noise) of on-site crushing. Timber has been re-used in building since ancient times. You may wish to read 'The Ecology of Building Materials' by Bjorn Berge.

Muffler, I accept that you are an experienced forum writer and if what you have to say is constructive then I applaud you for this. However this does not mean that you have entitlement to some form of ownership over the forum. Unfortunately in this case I feel your comments are totally inappropriate and unfounded. I am left wondering whether others have had similar experiences with you?

gigino

yungwan wrote: »

Does anyone have any information on how much this will cost and whether it is worth it?

good question. Has anyone got any idea how much it would cost to knock that size house, about 1800 sq ft 2-story? ( say compared to a contractor going on to a green field site)

No6

gigino wrote: »

good question. Has anyone got any idea how much it would cost to knock that size house, about 1800 sq ft 2-story? ( say compared to a contractor going on to a green field site)

Whatever a few hours with a digger would cost more or less, then it depends on if you can reuse some of the rubble or if you have to send it to landfill,that is where the cost is!!

gigino

No6 wrote: »

Whatever a few hours with a digger would cost more or less, then it depends on if you can reuse some of the rubble or if you have to send it to landfill,that is where the cost is!!

maybe a couple of grand so, I assume? I have no idea how much it would cost to send that amount of rubble to a landfill, but I suppose a day or twos work for a lorry, plus the cost of disposing it there. I guess a couple of grand may be average / would go far? ...like its unlikely (in the current economic climate) to be 6 or 12 grand? I know its very vague, sorry about that.
Would some people nowadays try to seperate out the wood etc which could be recycled (even if just by cutting up for firewood?)....or I guess it practice if a digger + truck is there costing money by the hour its not worth trying to do that.

bustersdad

hi yungwan im a builder in roscommon and i can tell you for a fact you will get the house demolished for the price of a machine and man ,plus maybe dumper for 2 days pay.things are quiet around here and i know of many machine drivers would kill for some work,get a few quotes from adds in the people,herald and let them know your pricing with others.
if your not to far from me i can look at your site and advise you which way would be best for you to go.

screentodesk

bustersdad, I have a house not far from Roscommon that we are looking to knock and clear site for new build. If the price is right there maybe a job for you!

stone12

I learned a good lesson when I moved from the city to the country. Any material that was over when a job was finished was offered to the local farmer and not one of them ever refused it, no matter what the quality of infill was, they had some use for it. If the house is only the age you think it is, I doubt you will find it built of stone, but that aside, a block house will come down easily and provide the best of infill or grading material for you. Waste not, want not