As our new house is a knock-down/rebuild, one of the obvious things we needed to do before construction began was knock down the house that was there.
Finding a demolition company was not too hard. Porter Davis gave us the number of one and we had a friend who could recommend another. We also just looked up accouple of others on the Interweb. What was interesting was the difference in the quoting approach. Some just drove past and had a bit if a look around. Some wanted to go through the interior, which required coordination with the tenants.
In the end, we did not go with the cheapest quote. We went with the guy who made us feel like he knew what he was doing.
For what it is worth, here are a few bits of random advice.
Keep Photographic Records of Everything - Take Before and After photos of everything, including fences (they can easily get damaged in the process), the property, your neighbour's property, the footpath and crossovers.
Get your asset protection sorted - Asset protection is your problem, not the demolition company's. We were unable to organize a demolition company to handle the asset protection permit with the local council. This means that any damage to footpaths and crossovers was our problem and we would have to sort out repairs ourselves.
In our case, when we went to close off the asset protection permit and get our $1500 bond back, the council issued with an instruction to replace 8 of the footpath panels. We quickly used photographic records to demonstrate that most of the damage was pre-existing. But then, thinking about it further, it seemed a bit dumb and a wasteful to repair the footpath just a few weeks before the house construction began, with a very real liklihood of further damage to the footpath and crossover.
So we spoke to Porter Davis and ended up agreeing that we would retain the asset protection permit throughout the build period. In return, Porter Davis were able to reduce our site costs by about $1400. Nice.
So we spoke to Porter Davis and ended up agreeing that we would retain the asset protection permit throughout the build period. In return, Porter Davis were able to reduce our site costs by about $1400. Nice.
Keep Your Paperwork - Don't forget to get a copy of the demolition paperwork from the company. The demo compamy will typically get the relevant demolition permits (yes you need to have one) from the local Council. Before the job is done and paid for, make sure you gave a copy of the paperwork in your hands, just in case.
Here are a few pictures from the demolition process.
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| The original house |
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| What the demolition guy brought in to do the job |
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| The Site At the End of Week One |
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| The site at the end of week Two |
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