How much does demolition cost in Toronto?

Every quote starts with the square footage of what comes out, then sorts the job into a type. A strip-out takes finishes back to the studs. Structural work takes out a bearing wall under shoring. A tear-down drops the building, breaks the foundation and backfills the hole. Site clearing takes sheds, decks, pools and pads off a lot.

The type sets the crew and the machines. The square footage sets the hours. Everything after that is the house itself, which is why two jobs of the same size on the same street carry different numbers.

Square footage sets the start. Six things move it.

• Plaster and lath. A pre-war Toronto house has lath and horsehair plaster on every wall. It weighs two to three times what drywall does and comes off in pieces. More hours, more bins.
• Storeys and access. Every floor above grade is a stair to carry down. A house with no lane or driveway means hand-carry to a bin on the street, and the street bin needs a City permit of its own.
• An asbestos survey. Any house built before 1990 gets a designated-substances survey first. If it finds asbestos, a licensed abatement crew removes it before demolition, as a separate line. [Survey and abatement scope, Kam confirms.]
• Structural engineering. Take out a load-bearing wall and an engineer draws the beam. The drawing is part of the permit and its own line. [Engineering arrangement, Kam confirms.]
• Other hazardous materials. Lead paint, mould, an old oil tank. Each has its own handling rule and disposal charge.
• Disconnects. Gas, hydro and water are isolated by licensed trades before the first cut, with Ontario One Call locates before any dig.

A bin line covers the bin, the pull and the tipping fee. What changes is how many bins the job fills. Plaster, tile and concrete fill a bin by weight long before it looks full, so a tear-down or a plaster house fills more bins than a drywall strip-out. Ask for the bin count on the quote, not just the size.

Permits are the other line. A non-structural strip-out usually needs no demolition permit. A full tear-down always does, and in the City of Toronto it runs through demolition control. When Breaker pulls the permit and orders the locates, that work is its own line, and the City fee itself is [fee, Kam confirms]. Keeping bins and permits separate lets you see the labour on its own.

A quote you can plan around is a scope, not one number. Check for these lines before you sign.

• What comes out and what stays, room by room, with the rough-ins marked.
• Dust containment, floor protection and the route to the bin.
• Bin count and sizes, and whether tipping is included.
• Which permit applies, who files it and who orders the utility locates.
• The survey, abatement and engineering lines, or a note that they are quoted separately.
• Sweep, nail pull and a walk-through with photos on the last day.
• HST shown on its own line.

Match the two scopes line to line before you look at the totals. A lower number that leaves out the bins, the permit or the sweep is not lower. It is a different job.

Check the bin count first; it is the line most often left thin. Check who pulls the permit; an owner who pulls their own is on the hook for the disconnects and inspections. Then ask both for the WSIB clearance and the insurance certificate. A contractor who cannot show them is pricing without the cover that protects your property.

A phone number cannot see the plaster, the stair or the survey. A 30 minute site walk can, and it ends with a written scope: bin count, permit path and the lines a phone number leaves out. Photos work for smaller jobs. Send them through the quote page and the same written scope comes back.