Commercial Demolition in Memphis, TN

Commercial demolition covers more than wrecking a building. For property owners, landlords and builders around Memphis, it often means stripping a tenant space back to a shell for the next lease, removing a vacant gas station, small shop or restaurant building, or clearing a lot of old pavement and foundations before new construction. Memphis Code Enforcement notes that abandoned commercial structures can contribute to deterioration in a neighborhood, and some of these jobs start with a city notice.

Typical commercial jobs

• Tenant strip-outs: walls, ceilings, flooring and fixtures removed back to a vanilla shell.
• Small buildings: one- and two-story shops, offices, restaurants and garages.
• Site clearing: old foundations, footings, parking lots and curbs broken out and hauled.
• Partial demolition: an addition, canopy or wing removed while the main building stays.
• Storm and fire damage: unsafe portions taken down so the rest can be secured or rebuilt.

Planning a commercial tear-down

Commercial jobs have more moving parts than residential ones, and most of them need to be sorted out before demolition day:

• Permits. In Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County, demolition permits run through the Office of Construction Code Enforcement. Buildings in a historic overlay district also need Memphis Landmarks Commission approval.
• Asbestos survey. Commercial buildings are commonly surveyed for asbestos before demolition, and anything found is abated before the building comes down.
• Utilities. Electric, gas, water and sewer are disconnected and capped, and any fire service lines are coordinated with the utility.
• Neighbors and traffic. Shared walls, nearby businesses, sidewalks and street parking all affect how equipment is staged and when trucks load out.

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Recycling and disposal

Commercial buildings produce large amounts of steel, concrete and masonry. Scrap metal is separated and recycled, and clean concrete and brick can often be crushed for reuse instead of landfilled. We plan the load-out so materials stay sorted, which keeps disposal costs down.

How commercial pricing works

Commercial demolition is priced by scope rather than from a chart. Building size and height, construction type, asbestos, shared walls, how much of the foundation and pavement comes out, and working hours all change the number. National guides give a sense of the inputs: HomeAdvisor's demolition guide lists labor at $50 to $100 an hour and heavy machinery at $100 to $250 an hour. The walkthrough is where the real number comes from.

Leaving the site ready

When the building is gone, we break out the footings and slab, fill and compact any basement or pit, and grade the site to drain. With about 55 inches of rain a year in Memphis, per Wikipedia's climate table, a site left rough turns into a muddy, eroding lot fast. If a builder is next on the site, we coordinate the finished grade with their plans.