Service 04
Mechanical Demolition
Mechanical demolition is machine-led teardown — excavators with shears, pulverisers, grapples and breakers, working a structure down in a controlled sequence rather than by hand. It is the fastest way to take a building down when there is room to work it, and in much of Greater Boston the honest answer at quote stage is how much room there actually is.
What the job covers
- Full structural teardown of commercial, industrial and residential buildings
- High-reach and standard excavator work with the attachment matched to the material
- Processing on the ground — steel sheared and separated, concrete broken and sized
- Dust suppression running throughout, which in a built-up street is not optional
- Foundations, slabs and below-grade structure taken out with the building
- Backfill, compaction and grading where the site is being handed over level
- Debris hauled off and separated for recycling where the job allows
What affects the quote
- How close the structure is to what stays — neighbouring buildings, the sidewalk, overhead lines
- Whether the site can take the machine at all, which on a narrow urban lot decides the whole method
- What the building is made of: wood frame, masonry and steel each process differently and at different speeds
- Whether the foundation and any below-grade structure come out or stay
- Street and sidewalk closures, which need permits and have their own lead time
- Season — frost changes what happens below grade and how backfill has to be handled
Every job is quoted after we understand the site. Photographs of what needs to come down, and of how a machine would reach it, get you an accurate number faster than a description will.
Common questions
Before you call
My lot is tight. Can you still use machines?
Usually, but with smaller equipment and more hand work at the boundaries, which changes the duration more than the method. Where a machine genuinely cannot reach, a structure comes down by hand from the top and that is a different job with a different price. Either way you should be told which one you are buying before the work starts.
Does the foundation come out too?
It depends what you are doing with the land. If you are rebuilding, the new design may want the old foundation gone or may be able to work around it. If you are levelling the site, the slab and walls normally come out and the void is backfilled and compacted. It is worth deciding this at quote stage — coming back for a foundation is a second mobilisation.
Other services
Ready ToClear The Way?
Tell us about the project. Allied will take it from there.
