A guide to what sits inside a UK demolition quotation, and how to compare two of them without being caught out.
Demolition in the UK is priced per project rather than at a standard rate. The five things that move the price most are the size and construction of the building, whether asbestos is present, how much waste leaves site and where it goes, how a machine and lorries get in and out, and what condition the site has to be left in afterwards. Two buildings with the same floor area can differ substantially in price once those are known.
This guide sets out what a quotation is made of, which lines move most, and what to check before you sign one. It does not carry a price per square metre, and the section at the end explains why. For the work itself, see our demolition and site clearance service.
A demolition quotation usually breaks down into a pre-demolition survey, asbestos removal where it is found, the demolition works themselves, waste handling and haulage, reinstatement of the site, and preliminaries such as welfare, hoarding, permits and insurance. Asking for those as separate lines is the only reliable way to compare two quotations, because a low headline figure often means something has been left out rather than priced more keenly.
The table below is the shape most quotations take. If yours arrives as a single number with no breakdown, ask for one. A contractor who has actually priced the job can produce it without difficulty.
| Cost line | What it covers | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-demolition survey | Refurbishment and demolition asbestos survey, plus a structural view where needed | Building age and how many rooms need intrusive sampling |
| Asbestos removal | Licensed and non-licensed removal, encapsulation, certified disposal | How much is found, where it is, and whether the work is licensed |
| Demolition works | Soft strip, structural demolition, plant and operators on site | Construction type, height, attachment to neighbouring buildings |
| Waste and haulage | Grading, loading, lorry movements, tip charges and paperwork | Volume, material classification, distance to a licensed tip |
| Reinstatement | Backfill, compaction, capping and leaving the site to an agreed condition | What the site is needed for next |
| Preliminaries | Welfare, hoarding, permits, traffic management, insurance, supervision | Site location, public exposure, programme length |
Asbestos is the single biggest variable in most pre-2000 buildings. A refurbishment and demolition survey has to be carried out before work starts, and what it finds determines the cost. Licensed work has to be done by an HSE-licensed contractor and notified to the HSE 14 days in advance, which affects the programme as well as the price. A quotation priced before the survey is an estimate, and any contractor who says otherwise is guessing.
The practical consequence is about sequence. The survey comes first, the removal follows, and only then does structural demolition start. Trying to compress that is where projects go wrong, because discovering asbestos once machines are on site stops the job while a licensed contractor is arranged and the notification period runs.
Asbestos is also the most common reason two quotations look nothing alike. One may have priced removal from a completed survey. The other may have assumed none is present. Those are not competing prices for the same work.
Waste is usually the second largest line. It is driven by volume, by what the material is, and by how far it has to travel. Clean hardcore can often be crushed on site and reused as fill where there is room for a crusher, which takes lorry movements off the road. Contaminated material is a different matter: it needs testing, a licensed tip and consignment paperwork, and it costs considerably more per tonne than inert waste.
Two things are worth asking about early. The first is whether material can be crushed and reused on site, which depends on what the structure is made of and whether there is space to stand a crusher. The second is who holds the duty of care for the waste and who registers as the carrier, because that paperwork follows the material to the tip and back to you.
Where a project also involves moving significant volumes of soil rather than building material, that usually sits under bulk earthworks and excavation rather than demolition, and is priced differently.
Most demolition needs a Section 80 notice to the local authority under the Building Act 1984 before work starts, and usually a prior approval application to the planning authority covering the method of demolition and the restoration of the site. Listed buildings and buildings in conservation areas need consent in their own right. Where excavation or removal affects a neighbouring structure, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 may apply as well.
None of this is optional, and all of it takes time. The Section 80 notice has a notice period before work can begin, prior approval runs to a planning timetable, and licensed asbestos work carries its own 14 day notification. A programme that assumes a start next week rarely survives contact with those dates.
Surrey Contracting advises on notifications as part of project planning, and our health and safety standards cover how the works themselves are planned and supervised.
Compare scope, not the headline number. Check each quotation states the same survey position on asbestos, the same assumption about what happens to the waste, the same reinstatement condition, and the same responsibility for notices and permits. Then check the exclusions, which is where genuinely different quotations usually differ. A quotation with no exclusions listed is not a safer quotation, it is a less complete one.
Because a published rate would be a guess dressed as a price. Per square metre figures circulate widely online, but they hide asbestos, access, waste classification and reinstatement, which are the things that actually decide the number. Surrey Contracting carries out a free measured site visit and returns a fixed-price itemised quotation, so the figure reflects the building in front of us rather than an average of buildings that are nothing like it.
If you want a number rather than a range, the fastest route is a site visit. Send a postcode, a description of the building, any survey you already hold and a note on access, and we will come and measure it.
Send the postcode, a description and any survey you hold, and we will come and measure it.
