Calculating Demo Costs in Eastern NC

[Joe Roberts]

Good morning BP!

I’ve found a property that will need to be gutted down to its studs but as neither of my previous properties needed much demo, I’m having a hard  time figuring out how much I should estimate for rehab. It’s a pretty big house (almost 2300sqft), so numbers I’ve seen online (like $2/sqft) seem unrealistic for so much work. Does anyone in the Wilmington, Jacksonville, Hampstead area of an idea of how much a full demo job around here should cost? 

Thanks! 

[J Scott]

In my experience, a four man crew should be able to get a house of that size in less than a week (a good crew in much less than a week).

But, assuming one week, that's 160 hours of labor. At $15-20/hour (depending on skill and insurance coverage), that's $2400-3200 in labor.  

Add three 30 yard dumpsters at about $500 each for debris haul away, and that's $4-5K total.

I don't know your area at all, but in many areas it should be less than this.  And obviously, in some really expensive areas, it could be substantially more.

But $2/sf for labor and haul is a reasonable benchmark to shoot for.