# Forum Home Renovation Demolition  How much does it cost to demolish half of a house?

## kaoboy

Hi, I am trying to get an sense of how much it would cost to demolish half of my house. My wife and I purchased a 1890s Weatherboard Victorian in Melbourne (near Footscray/Yarraville) last year. The front 4 rooms are original and have been renovated. The rooms at the back of the house (kitchen/dining/bath/laundry) looks to be extensions made cheaply with cheap materials. We like to renovate the back, but we're wondering if it would just be easier to demolish the extension and build up from scratch instead of trying to patch the existing extension? 
The extension has approx 4 rooms occupying approx 40 square meters. How much would it cost to demolish and remove an area like that? I just like some rough numbers. Is it a few thousand or in the $10,000+ range? 
If you have done something like this, I'd love to hear from you. 
Thanks.

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## rod1949

_"How much does it cost to demolish half of a house?" _ Probably twice as much as a complete house

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## SilentButDeadly

This is a 'string' question.  It depends on a great many things. We demolished 40 sqm of our house for nothing more than two days sweat, some catering and $300 of asbestos dump fees.  If you get someone to do it with men and machines and cart the stuff away then you'll be up for a swag more than catering...especially if there's asbestos involved. 
Starting from scratch is likely to be easier and more cost effective in the long run...especially if you are altering room layouts or window/door openings.

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## jatt

Before I did my demo I had worked out what I was gunna do with the discarded materials. 
Very little in the way of plaster board, and no asbestos.  The worst thing to get rid of was foam block insulation.
Random groove paneling reused to help protect rear of main house from weather.
Weather boards and crappy wall frames to kindling.  No treated timber, so no hassles there. 
Subfloor bearers were quite chunky.  In good nick, so wound up being used for fence posts. 
Hardwood rafters so good they had hardly changed color.  Quick paint with a donated tin of green paint (happened to match good sections of roof tin).  Looks like a replacement fence.  Crap tin went with rest of my scrap to the scrap yard. 
Pulled whole thing down myself. 
So my demo didnt wind up costing a great deal.

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## David.Elliott

Little off topic but I (at least) found it interesting.. 
Watching an episode of This Old House last week and the new owners are completely gutting a 3 storey Victorian era timber framed house. They're making the inside "Scandinavian Modern"? 
The building team involved a deconstruction company that descended on the property with a huge team. In 4 days they had the place right down to studs...and floor framing. Everything was taken, even the door and window fancy architraves..
There were two skips there as well where the metal was placed for recycling and another for the real rubbish..
The decon team placed a value on the recyclable materials of $6000..00  The owners can then claim that value as a tax deduction

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## fredgassit

Love This Old House. 
It'd be great if there was an Aussie version (sigh...).

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## Oldsaltoz

$30,000.00 for an old Queenslander in Cairns. All materials removed and site levelled, well any holes filled anyway.

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## travelislife

I am just trying to get an understanding of the demolition requirements and thought it would best to ask in this thread. I am in the same area as the OP and doing similar, i.e. retaining the front half of the house. We are happy to do most of the demolition ourselves (dependent on Asbestos obviously which we will get professionals to do if discovered). I have been reading up on the council website regarding permits, etc. and they all state the requirement to provide a registered demolisher for the demolition permit. So does this mean we aren't able to demolish ourselves? We will be doing everything under an owner builder permit. We will have all the services disconnected and happy to tear it down and throw it in a skip, would prefer not to have to pay someone else to do something we can do for a few slabs of beer with some mates.

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## OBBob

I'm not sure but you could give the council a call and ask. A solution may be to call a couple of demotion places and ask if they'll just remove the waste if you pull it down?

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## phild01

Is 'This Old House' a Foxtel thing?

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## Bloss

Take care with demolition - it is dangerous and rules in each state vary. 
In Victoria it is governed in part by this direction still in place: http://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/ass...lines-MG09.pdf note is says it would be rare for a demolition permit to be issued to an owner builder. 
My reading is that you will not be able to demolish yourself - and in any case you have to submit both a demolition plan and a new build plan to council. 
Also see: http://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/ass...ition-work.pdf and see here: Owner-builders | VBA Website  
Note that even an unlimited Domestic Builder (DB-U) in Victoria cannot carry out a complete demolition http://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/ass...AQ-Booklet.pdf 
Given the regulatory environment and insurance risk I doubt you would find a licensed demolition person/company willing to allow you to do any of the work. 
Disposal costs for building/ demolition waste are high too and can quickly add up trailer load at time.

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## travelislife

> Take care with demolition - it is dangerous and rules in each state vary. 
> In Victoria it is governed in part by this direction still in place: http://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/ass...lines-MG09.pdf note is says it would be rare for a demolition permit to be issued to an owner builder. 
> My reading is that you will not be able to demolish yourself - and in any case you have to submit both a demolition plan and a new build plan to council. 
> Also see: http://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/ass...ition-work.pdf and see here: Owner-builders | VBA Website  
> Note that even an unlimited Domestic Builder (DB-U) in Victoria cannot carry out a complete demolition http://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/ass...AQ-Booklet.pdf 
> Given the regulatory environment and insurance risk I doubt you would find a licensed demolition person/company willing to allow you to do any of the work. 
> Disposal costs for building/ demolition waste are high too and can quickly add up trailer load at time.

  Thanks Bloss. Our plan was to just hire a skip and use man power to get rid of it all, but that is looking not too likely from what you have provided above. It seems crazy when wanting to just pull down some old timber and corrugated iron and dump it that I can't do that myself, surely there are others on here that have managed to do this themselves? I would have the existing services disconnected/removed by licenced trades otherwise I reckon the state it is in you could pretty much just push the part of the house off the back!

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## phild01

Someone always has to interfere with our freedoms.  I think they all work in insurance.

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## travelislife

> Someone always has to interfere with our freedoms.  I think they all work in insurance.

  Maybe I employ a licensed demolisher just to pull down the tin shed for $500 and pull the rest down myself!

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## fredgassit

Phild01, 
This Old House - most episodes are on youtube.

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## phild01

> Phild01, 
> This Old House - most episodes are on youtube.

  drat, youtube kills my quota.

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## Marc

Kaoboy.
You are on the right track. Demolish and rebuild from scratch. 
Before you get hang up on quotes to demolish half of the house, get a builder/carpenter/whoever is going to do the building and talk to them. 
It may well be that they agree to remove and build from scratch without calling it a "demolition". Many ways to skin a cat.... and now that I think of it ... who would want to skin a cat!  :Smilie:

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## joynz

I think it depends on the extent of the demo.  I totally understand that a 'full demolish' needs a permit. 
however,  I am going to demolish an external brick wall that makes up one side of the house.  It will be part of my permit and as I have an owner builder licence I am going to treat it as part of the construction.   
Ditto removing the six metre floor to ceiling wall of windows and the 5.5 x 3.5m bungalow.

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## travelislife

> I think it depends on the extent of the demo.  I totally understand that a 'full demolish' needs a permit. 
> however,  I am going to demolish an external brick wall that makes up one side of the house.  It will be part of my permit and as I have an owner builder licence I am going to treat it as part of the construction.   
> Ditto removing the six metre floor to ceiling wall of windows and the 5.5 x 3.5m bungalow.

  Hmm yea, the more I think about it we may be able to work it as a 'renovation'. In that the footprint of the new bit will be within the old bit.

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## joynz

I'm not sure if the footprint matters.  I will be demolishing the wall to put on a small extension, so technically going outside the footprint.  But hardly demolishing the whole house with all the care and OHS that would require.  I may be wrong of course...

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