Outbuildings, slabs, hardstanding, fencing and vegetation taken off a plot so a builder can start. What the municipality protects and what needs consent is checked before the machine arrives, not after.
Clearing a lot and removing trees are not the same job, and contractors who fold the two together cause problems. Municipalities differ enormously on what can be felled, what needs a permit and what is protected outright, and the penalties for taking a protected tree are severe and personal to the owner rather than the contractor.
One of the larger US demolition firms is explicit that lot scrapes exclude tree removal and tells customers to call about trees because every city has different rules. We take the same position: the lot gets cleared, and anything with a trunk gets checked against the local rules and quoted separately once we know where it stands.
Root protection areas also constrain where machines can track, which affects the clearing itself. Structures come out under deck and shed removal, slabs under slab removal, and arisings leave under debris hauling.
Recent work
How It Runs
Four stages, priced before stage two
Walk the plot
What is there, what is protected, what stays.
Check the rules
Tree consents and municipal requirements.
Clear and separate
Structures, hardstanding and green waste.
Leave it workable
Lot level, accessible and free of debris.
Line Locates
Call in line locates before anything moves
Every plot has services under it and almost none of them are where a drawing says. Getting the underground lines marked before machines start is standard practice among established demolition contractors, and it is free compared with the cost of hitting a gas main or a fibre run.
It also takes time to arrange, which is why it belongs at the start of the programme rather than the morning work begins. We call in the locates, mark up what comes back and work to it, and where a service crosses the area being cleared we agree how it is protected or diverted before starting.
Anything needing to be dug rather than scraped is handled under excavation, levels are set under grading and backfill, and the wider scope sits under site work.
Not automatically, and deliberately so. Tree rules vary by municipality and some are protected outright, so trees are checked and quoted separately once we know what applies to yours.
We call in line locates and work to the marks. It takes a few days to arrange, which is why it belongs at the start of the programme rather than on the first morning.
Level enough to work from and to get a machine across. If your builder needs formation level to a tolerance, that is grading work and we price it as its own item.
Yes, and it is often worth it. A sound area of concrete makes a useful working platform or site compound and can be taken out later.
A domestic plot is commonly one to three days once the locates are back. Vegetation volume and access for the grab lorry move it more than the area does.
Customer reviews
What Hartford owners say about their demolition contractor
