Basement demolition.
Most basement demolition is undoing somebody's weekend. Panelling over strapping over foundation, a dropped ceiling hiding the ducts, carpet glued to concrete, a bathroom plumbed without a permit. We take it all back to the slab and the foundation walls, leave the mechanical room untouched, and hand over a basement your contractor or your second-unit designer can actually measure.
On the ticket.
Dust walls at the stair; upstairs floors protected on the route to the bin
Water and power isolated by licensed trades; old bathroom plumbing capped
Framing, drywall, panelling, insulation, dropped ceilings and flooring out
Old bathrooms, bars, closets and built-ins removed
Furnace, water heater, panel and services left in place and protected
Slab and foundation walls swept clean and photographed at handover
Lines, not guesses.
| Driver | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Floor area | Square footage going back to concrete. |
| Finishes and how it was built | Plaster, tile and framed-over ductwork slow the strip. |
| Access | A walk-out with a driveway beside it is one job; a narrow stair through the kitchen is another. |
| Bins and tipping | Bin count by weight. |
| Permit and utility locates | Whether a permit applies and whether we book the locates. |
The number comes from a site walk. Concrete cutting for a new entrance and underpinning are quoted separately.
Paper first.
- A non-structural basement strip-out usually needs no permit. The finish or second unit that follows does.
- Cutting a new side entrance through the foundation, or lowering the floor, is structural: permit, engineer and a separate quote.
- Pre-1990 houses: vermiculite insulation, floor tile and duct tape can contain asbestos. A designated-substances survey comes first (O. Reg. 278/05).
The plates on every truck: WSIB, insurance, demolition permits, asbestos survey, utility locates, crew training.
For a non-structural strip-out, usually no. The finish that follows, and any second unit, needs a building permit. Any wall that carries load needs a permit before it comes out.
Three days on a typical basement: contain and disconnect, strip to concrete, sweep and sign off. [Kam confirms for a [n] sq ft basement.]
Yes, always, unless you tell us otherwise. Mechanical equipment, the panel and the services stay in place and get protected.
Cutting a foundation wall is structural work under permit with an engineer's detail. [Kam confirms whether Breaker does the cut or the strip-out only.]
Usually glue and sometimes tile. In a pre-1990 house that tile can contain asbestos, which the survey identifies before we lift it.