Demolition pricing help.

We just meet the minimum for a city, around 20,000 people or so. Not many around on a Sunday morning. There are probably a couple flaggers directing people. Never been an issue. That street comes of the old town square. Not this coming summer, but the next, there is supposed to be a complete overhaul of water and sewer around the square, now that will be a nightmare. That school demo, people were coming in at lunch to try and grab bricks because they went to school there.

cuttin edge said:

That school demo, people were coming in at lunch to try and grab bricks because they went to school there.

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The last demo we did was a dining hall at an old private school. The kids, teachers and alumni all wanted bricks. We would stack them outside the fence and they would be gone the next day.

They were just common concrete brick but it meant something to them.



I kept some of the fire brick from the two masonry fireplaces. We crushed all the concrete, brick and block for re-use on site.

There is good money in used bricks. My former neighbor is in the demolition business and used to hire guys to clean bricks. Then he put them on pallets and sold them to a place that sells brick. People liked the used brick better than new brick. Old "clinker" bricks were the most desirable and commanded a premium price. I was asked if I wanted to clean bricks but declined. I think the experienced brick cleaners were paid by the pallet and had brick cleaning down to a science. I did quite a bit of welding for him and helped with salvaging items, including copper wire on a big gov't. job. That job turned into a HUGE mess and it took me a long time to get paid. Basically the neighbor needed someone else to help get the bonding and they bid the job way too low. The gov't. even asked them if they wanted to modify their bid but they insisted they could do the job for their original bid. There was a big lawsuit and it got really ugly.
This was the job where the neighbors wife was handling the salvage (very bad idea) and giving me $hit for getting lowered into the basement in an excavator bucket. The alternative was crawling down large piles of broken concrete with lots of rebar sticking out. It was MUCH safer getting lowered in the excavator bucket.

Old bricks are cool but I don't think I'd be interested in attempting to clean it.

The story as I understand it is someone in town was removing a bunch of old brick and the previous owner (and builder) of my house bought a pallet or two of it. A fair amount of it continues to sit in the woods on the property line. Another one of those random things that's hiding around that we didn't know we were getting when we bought the house. I haven't really inspected the brick to try to figure out how old it is.

Used bricks are big business in my area for the right type. Bessemer Gray's can bring several thousand dollars per 500.

They are tearing down a rather large old housing project and the demo contractor is cleaning and stacking most the exterior bricks. These are 70+ year old red bricks but somebody will want them.

So I estimated this building and slab to weigh about 33,000lbs.
Going to submit estimate tomorrow, what do yall think of this?

Total estimate $7248.00
My costs $2500 machine and hammer rental for a week(only planning 2 days but figured in a week incase something goes wrong)
17 tons taken to the dump 4.5miles from site $1292 will take me 5 trips with my dump trailer but it's worth it to make me the money vs paying $2248 for two rolloffs and dump fees.
$2500 labor.

keif said:

So I estimated this building and slab to weigh about 33,000lbs.
Going to submit estimate tomorrow, what do yall think of this?

Total estimate $7248.00
My costs $2500 machine and hammer rental for a week(only planning 2 days but figured in a week incase something goes wrong)
17 tons taken to the dump 4.5miles from site $1292 will take me 5 trips with my dump trailer but it's worth it to make me the money vs paying $2248 for two rolloffs and dump fees.
$2500 labor.

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You don't have a sand and gravel pit somewhere nearby that will take the concrete and block to crush into recycle?
I wouldn't be too comfortable bidding a job like that on tonnage, on top of the fact you have to rent equipment too. Just me, I guess.
Either you are going to be way high and not get the job, or are running a lot of risk getting burnt hauling that concrete out for tonnage ....

Acoals said:

You don't have a sand and gravel pit somewhere nearby that will take the concrete and block to crush into recycle?
I wouldn't be too comfortable bidding a job like that on tonnage, on top of the fact you have to rent equipment too. Just me, I guess.
Either you are going to be way high and not get the job, or are running a lot of risk getting burnt hauling that concrete out for tonnage ....

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I am putting in a stipulation that the price is includes 17tons of disposal and any above that will be additional cost. Also including the advice that any hazardous material fees are not included in my quote.

keif said:

I am putting in a stipulation that the price is includes 17tons of disposal and any above that will be additional cost. Also including the advice that any hazardous material fees are not included in my quote.

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Well, I would be interested to hear how it comes out. It's not like I haven't made some risky bids trying break into the demo world. I just don't have so much appetite for risk now ....

Acoals said:

You don't have a sand and gravel pit somewhere nearby that will take the concrete and block to crush into recycle?
I wouldn't be too comfortable bidding a job like that on tonnage, on top of the fact you have to rent equipment too. Just me, I guess.
Either you are going to be way high and not get the job, or are running a lot of risk getting burnt hauling that concrete out for tonnage ....

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Just found a place 12miles from site that will take the block and slab for free as long as there is no rebar. Do I lower my bid or keep it the same and make more $?

keif said:

Just found a place 12miles from site that will take the block and slab for free as long as there is no rebar. Do I lower my bid or keep it the same and make more $?

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Well, that's up to you, but all your competitors are going to be bidding the job that way.
Also, separating the rebar can be a pain if there is a lot of it. Most residential stuff around here doesn't have much rebar, or just wire. Usually the pits don't mind wire.
If you aren't desperate for the job, leave the bid where you are safe, but hope to take as much of the concrete to the pit rather than the landfill.

keif said:

Just found a place 12miles from site that will take the block and slab for free as long as there is no rebar. Do I lower my bid or keep it the same and make more $?

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If you feel good with your numbers keep it the same and consider the lack of dump fees a contingency. Only you know how fast your work and what you are capable of.

I've never lost money on a job I didn't get..

Acoals said:

Well, that's up to you, but all your competitors are going to be bidding the job that way.
Also, separating the rebar can be a pain if there is a lot of it. Most residential stuff around here doesn't have much rebar, or just wire. Usually the pits don't mind wire.
If you aren't desperate for the job, leave the bid where you are safe, but hope to take as much of the concrete to the pit rather than the landfill.

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Keeping it the same, I have plenty of work to do and want to be sure to come out on top. They've had two other people bid on the job but they never showed up to do it. I wish it didn't have the slab to break up so I could just do it with my mini excavator.

Cleaning bricks, they don't have to be perfectly clean. Just the mortar cleaned off enough so they are basically the same size. People prefer the used weathered look to the new shiny look. They make special hammers for cleaning bricks.

You never know, we redid a side walk last fall. While waiting for the other hoe with the hammer, I tried with the mini to move it, and the concrete was so old that it broke up really easy with little effort. Didn't use the hammer at all.

I tear out a ton of concrete with my 6 ton mini, pads up to 6" depending on condition and if there's rebar in them. A lot of it depends on the size of pad a 5x20 wide pad is a lot easier then say a 20x20 because you can lift one edge up and drop it. Only really encountered one driveway it wouldn't tear out, it was only a few years old and rebar was placed quite well not the usual in the dirt, it would have but it gets to the point it's hard on it and so very slow. Once you get into much bigger hoe it takes a massive pad to not be able to tear it apart. If you can get some pieces free to drop on it, or some cracks so it starts to move it will break it. Even the 6 ton can break 10mm rebar one piece at a time.

Judging by the pics and the small size of it, if it was my job I would gamble a 6 ton would tear that pad apart without a hammer.