House demolition in Toronto
Bins usually sit on the street under a City street occupation permit or in a rear laneway, and the crew carries out through a 30 inch side passage. 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. 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.
Toronto, on the ground.
Toronto's stock runs from 1890s brick semis downtown to 1950s bungalows at the edges, and almost none of it has a wide side yard. That decides the machine we send, how many bins we stage, and whether a designated-substances survey comes before anything else. In Toronto we mostly gut kitchens and basements ahead of a renovation, cut out load-bearing walls for open plans, and take down garages for laneway houses.
Read more about demolition in Toronto 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. Toronto Building issues the permit, and residential tear-downs go through the City's demolition control process, so having the replacement building permit ready shortens the wait.
- 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 City of Toronto (Toronto Building) 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 party wall stays. We cut the roof and framing back to it, brace it, and leave the wall weather-tight for the builder. Photos of the wall before and after go in the closeout.