When a market area faces extreme scarcity of available homes or available land, like we have here in Bellingham and Whatcom County in general, and that scarcity is met with rising buyer demand, one of the outcomes is this:

Some existing houses are going to get torn down, just so the buyer can re-build what they want on that lot.

We've had clients look at poor-condition homes listed as high as $1.25M with the idea of scraping the house and re-building from scratch.

When I heard that from our team, the price, and the fact that someone was actually considering a demo, stopped me in my tracks.

It is not a rampant part of our market here, but the concept of buying a house only to demolish it is only going to grow.

That caused me to want to give you a brief overview of what is involved in demolishing or deconstructing a house.

In this article, I'll stick to the basics as I do my best to answer these questions:

What are the steps involved?
What is the difference between demolition and deconstruction?
Who does it?
How long does it take?
How much does it cost?
How much money does it save me?

Let's start with the steps involved...

Demolishing a house is messy work, and it's not something you (generally) do over a weekend with a sixpack of IPA, a rented backhoe, and a dumpster.

It actually requires several verifications and a permit from the City of Bellingham or Whatcom County if the structure is over 120 square feet.

When in doubt, download those applications and get in touch with the City or County with your initial list of questions.

If the building is over 50 years old, you first have to check with the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation to make sure the building is not of historical significance.

If it IS determined to have historical significance, you're then on the hook to get SEPA involved. That's the Department of Ecology's State Environmental Policy Act.

But let's assume it's a newer building and you're not trying to hire Indiana Jones to help unearth the Shroud of Turin from the crawl space.

You'll need to contact the local utility companies whose cables and pipes are connected to the building.

You'll need to contact the health department if there's a septic system on site.

You'll need to contact the fire department if there might be buried fuel storage tanks or other potentially hazardous materials.

You'll need to contact the Northwest Clean Air Agency before ANY demolition greater than 120 square feet -- and they'll be even more involved if there is determined to be asbestos in the building.

If asbestos is present (popcorn ceilings, siding, pipe wraps, vermiculite insulation, certain linoleum flooring products), it will need to be professionally abated before the larger-scale demolition can begin.

Locally, CAZ Environmental has become the go-to for asbestos-related work.

And Yes, you'll need to verify to the City or County that you've done all of the above, pay for them to process your permit application, and wait for that permit to be issued.

Once the steps above have been ticked off the list and your permit is in hand, you should be ready to bring in the backhoe and the dumpsters, and start crunching!

Demolition vs. Deconstruction

To demolish a house is, like in the gif above, to bring in a large machine and just smash the thing into bits, drop the debris into a dumpster, and haul it to the dump.

Benefit: It's fast.But some houses slated for scraping have a lot of re-useable materials, components, fixtures and such, and that can warrant a deconstruction instead of just demolition and disposal.

Benefit: There are many. Keep reading...To deconstruct a house means to have a team of people manually dismantle it by hand, salvaging everything from the cabinets and flooring to the windows and doors, decks and framing members, outlet covers, and other architectural treasures.

We are fortunate in the greater Bellingham area to have an amazing resource for deconstruction, and that is the ReStore!

The ReStore has an entire division that focuses solely on deconstruction and salvage operations.

With the cost of EVERY material and construction-related-item having skyrocketed, deconstruction makes even more sense than ever before.

On the ReStore's website they mention that salvaging the lumber from a 1,200 square foot home has these benefits:

Prevents 33 trees from being logged, transported, and processed;
Saves 900 kilowatt hours of electricity;
Generates 6 more jobs for every 1 job in demolition;
Results in 12 tons less CO2 released into the atmosphere;
Removes more than 8 tons of material from the waste stream.

As the homeowner donating the materials, you also receive a tax credit for the donation since the ReStore is a non-profit.

I'll share more about the deconstruction process in the sections below.

Who does the actual work?

If you're doing a full-on demolition and disposal, that is generally done by an excavation subcontractor.

That sub will show up with a backhoe, and arrange for the dump trucks or roll-off dumpsters to put the debris into so it can be hauled away.

If you're going the deconstruction route, that team with their truck and tools is provided by the ReStore.

Unless you are personally general contracting the demo and reconstruction of the new house, there will usually be a general contractor involved who is handling all the minutiae in the permitting and "steps involved" list at the top of this article.

Regarding all the various mandatory parties like inspectors, required agencies, recycling and disposal centers, etc., the City of Bellingham's permit packet has a ton of useful links and lists.

How long does it take?

The actual work of demolishing a house goes very quickly, like a day or two if you're going the crunch-and-haul-away route.

If you're deconstructing the house, it of course takes longer -- but not as long as you might think.

I spoke with my friend Kurt Gisclair, Director of the ReStore, and he said their team can fully deconstruct a 3000 square foot house down to the foundation in about a month.

That may seem like a long time and "not worth it" if you're itching to get started on building your new house.

But my friend Ian Rae at Chuckanut Builders made a great point.

He said, "We try to get our clients to focus less on when the project will start, and more on when it will be finished. That's when you get to move in anyway."

When you look at it that way — and if you know construction — a month in the overall timeframe of building an entirely new house is practically a rounding error.

How much does it cost?

It depends.

Will it be demolition or deconstruction?

Is the whole house going, or just parts and portions of it?

How big is it?

How's the access?

Etc.Kurt from the ReStore mentioned when we spoke that, "...the people who have us out to bid their project don't usually make their decision on price. They decide based on the time required to complete it."

Having the ReStore deconstruct a leaning garage on a gravel pad in the backyard of a Core Neighborhood home can be as little as $1200.

"Deconstructing a larger single family home will likely cost in the realm of $15 to $20 per square foot," says Kurt.

Speaking with several general contractors about actually demolishing and disposing of a whole house, that is very much in line with their estimates of "fifteen to twenty five grand, give or take a few thousand."

Remember: If there is asbestos abatement or, say, a buried oil tank to be removed first, that will add to the cost.

Obviously, like everything related to construction and real estate, the only true answer is "it depends." But this hopefully informs you in a general sense.*Disclaimer: If you've been tracking the prices of EVERYTHING lately, you won't disagree with me when I suggest adding at least 50% to the above numbers. And if you read this more than a month after I've written it, go ahead and add an additional 25%.

How much money does it save me?

There is money to be saved if you are demolishing one house and replacing it with one house.

The City of Bellingham's impact fees typically paid when you obtain a new building permit, *should* be waived.

Those are the transportation impact fees, park impact fees, and school impact fees.

If you're not expanding the size or number of faucets and such, you might also save on the water and sewer connection fees.

I am told that, all in, you *could* save close to $20K in fees over what you would pay if you had bought a never-before-built-on vacant lot and were starting from scratch.

That may not cover it all, but it's a nice offset to your demolition or deconstruction costs.

Demolishing or Deconstructing a Bellingham House just to Re-Build on the Land