What House Demolition Really Costs in Melbourne

Put the same house in front of three demolition contractors and the prices that come back can be tens of thousands apart. That is not because one of them is greedy. It is almost always because they have quoted three different scopes.

Here is what sits inside a demolition price, and what pushes it around.

The base job

For a standard single-storey brick or weatherboard house on a suburban Melbourne block with reasonable access, the machine and cartage work is the most predictable part of the whole exercise. It is a few days of plant, a series of truck movements, and a tipping bill. On its own, that portion is rarely where quotes diverge.

Everything else is where the money is.

Six things that move the number

1. Access

This is the biggest single variable and it is set entirely by your block. A driveway a truck can reverse down means big machines, fewer days, fewer movements. A 900mm side path between the house and the fence means a compact machine, material barrowed out, trucks on the street with a permit, and two or three times the hours.

Nobody can price this from a satellite image, which is why a quote given without an inspection is a number, not an estimate.

2. Asbestos

If the building predates 1990, assume it is there until an assessment says otherwise. A garage roof and some eaves is a modest addition. Friable material in a subfloor, with air monitoring and a clearance certificate, is a serious one. This single item explains a large share of the gap between quotes — one contractor has included it and another has written "asbestos by others" in small print.

3. What is under the ground

Slab, footings, stumps, an old pool, a septic tank, a previous demolition's rubble, redundant drainage. It all has to come out. A quote that only covers what you can see from the street is a quote you will be topping up later.

4. Two storeys, or attached to something

Height adds plant and time. Attachment adds propping, cut lines, make-good and, where an adjoining property is affected, protection work notices. A unit in the middle of a row is a very different job from a freestanding house of the same footprint.

5. Permits and approvals

Demolition permit, Section 29A report and consent, asset protection permit, and — where an overlay applies — potentially a planning permit and a heritage report. The fees themselves are modest. The time is not, and inside a heritage overlay, the approvals process can dominate the whole program.

6. Where the waste goes

Sorted, clean loads of concrete, brick and steel are the cheapest to dispose of and mostly get recycled. Mixed and contaminated loads cost significantly more. A contractor who sorts properly on site carries a lower disposal bill and can pass that on. A contractor who is very cheap has to be saving somewhere, and disposal is the easiest place to save badly.

What a proper quote should show you

You should be able to see, as separate lines:

- Service abolishment — who lodges it and whether the fees are in or out - Asbestos — assessed or assumed, and what happens if more is found - Below-ground works — slab, footings, and what is excluded - Permits and council fees — included or your responsibility - Disposal — and what happens to contaminated material - Site finish — cleared, or cleared, levelled and compacted

If the quote is a single number and a paragraph, ask for that breakdown. Any contractor who intends to do the work properly will have it.

The trap in the cheapest quote

A quote well below the others is not usually a bargain. It usually means asbestos is excluded, the slab is excluded, disposal is assumed clean, the permits are yours to chase, or the site is being left cleared rather than levelled. All five are legitimate ways to write a scope. None of them is a saving — you will pay for each one later, generally at short notice and with less negotiating room than you have today.

Get the variables checked early

The three items worth resolving before you commit to any program are your overlay status, your asbestos exposure and your access. All three are checkable in the first week, all three can materially change your budget, and all three are much cheaper to find out about now.

If you want that checked on your address, get in touch — it is part of quoting, not an extra.