House demolition in Ajax
A house comes down in a day once the paperwork is done: permit filed, utilities dead, survey cleared. The paperwork is the part that takes weeks. Tear-downs and gut-outs in the wartime housing, basements and kitchens in the subdivisions.
Ajax, on the ground.
Old Ajax south of Highway 2 is 1940s and 1950s wartime housing; the rest of town is 1980s to 2000s subdivisions. That decides the machine we send, how many bins we stage, and whether a designated-substances survey comes before anything else. Modest older lots take a compact machine and a driveway bin; the newer streets have wide driveways. The excavator drops the structure into its own footprint, the foundation comes out, and the hole is backfilled and compacted so the builder gets a graded lot.
Read more about demolition in Ajax or the full house demolition service page.
On the ticket.
Demolition permit filed with the municipality by us
Designated-substances survey arranged on pre-1990 houses; abatement before demolition if anything is found
Gas, hydro and water disconnects by licensed trades, Ontario One Call locates before the dig
Neighbouring walls, fences and protected trees fenced or braced before the machine moves
Structure down, foundation and footings out, hole backfilled and compacted in lifts
Concrete crushed, metal sorted, wood chipped; lot graded and swept
Paper first.
Every house demolition needs a municipal demolition permit before the building comes down, plus utility disconnects and Ontario One Call locates. The Town of Ajax issues the permit; Durham Region is the upper tier.
- Every house demolition needs a municipal demolition permit before the building comes down. We file it. [n] weeks typical, Kam confirms.
- In Toronto, residential demolitions go through the City's demolition control process, which considers what replaces the house.
- Pre-1990 houses: a designated-substances survey comes first (O. Reg. 278/05 for asbestos).
- Gas, hydro and water are disconnected by licensed trades and Ontario One Call locates are done before the first dig.
The plates on every truck: WSIB, insurance, demolition permits, asbestos survey, utility locates, crew training.
| Driver | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Floor area and storeys | Footprint, height and how the house is built: brick, frame, or a semi with a shared wall. |
| Foundation and backfill | What the foundation is made of and how much fill the hole takes. |
| Disconnects and survey | Gas, hydro and water isolated by licensed trades; a designated-substances survey on pre-1990 houses. |
| Bins and tipping | Bin count by weight over the whole job. |
| Permit and utility locates | Whether we pull the demolition permit and book the locates. |
The number comes from a site walk. The survey, any abatement and engineering are quoted separately after the walk. A semi with a shared wall prices higher than a detached house of the same size.
A day for the structure, the rest of the week for the foundation and backfill on a typical lot. The permit from the Town of Ajax and the utility disconnects run ahead of that. [Kam confirms typical timing.]
It depends on the size and storeys of the house, how it is built, the foundation, the disconnects, the bin count and whether we pull the permit and locates. The site walk sets the number; we put it in writing the same week.
The Town of Ajax. We file it and book the disconnects and Ontario One Call locates.