Demolition
Houses, unit blocks, shops, factories and service stations, under a licensed demolisher.
Areas we serve · Western Sydney
Demolition across Western Sydney
Auburn through to Seven Hills. Houses, unit blocks, shops and factories taken down under a licensed demolisher, with the asbestos managed first and the spoil carted on the same contract.
- Demolition licence AD214737, SafeWork NSW
- Demolition, asbestos, clearing, excavation and cartage together
- 14 Western Sydney suburbs, each with its own page
0456 220 552
or send the site details
Get a quote in Western Sydney
Tell us the suburb and what is on the site. We will arrange a time to look.
What we do in Western Sydney
Five service groups, one contract
Most jobs need more than one of these. Quoted together they share a mobilisation, a programme and one set of truck movements instead of three contractors waiting on each other.
Asbestos Services
Identification, removal by licensed asbestos removalists, independent clearance and disposal.
Site Clearing & Land Remediation
Structures, trees, stumps, vegetation and contaminated ground off the block.
Excavation
Site cut, footings, basements, pools and rock, with the spoil carted.
Haulage & Waste
Truck and dog and tipper hire, material delivery, and demolition waste recycling.
Suburbs
14 suburbs, each with its own page
What changes between them is the housing stock, the access and what the ground turns out to be once the first metre is off.
Auburn
Dense post-war fibro and brick veneer on regular blocks, now going to duplex and multi dwelling. Narrow side access is the usual constraint.
Lidcombe
Older cottages beside industrial land, so a demolition and an excavation job can sit on very different ground within a few streets.
Granville
Mixed residential and light industrial, with older commercial frontages where the structure is attached on both sides.
Parramatta
Redevelopment scale work: walk ups, unit blocks and commercial sites, where staging and traffic management matter as much as the machine.
Merrylands
Large post-war blocks, heavy knockdown rebuild and duplex activity, and almost always pre 1990 stock that needs a hazardous materials survey.
Guildford
Single storey brick and fibro on wide blocks. Good machine access, and usually room to sort material on site rather than carting it mixed.
Fairfield
Tight older subdivisions with established trees and shared boundary structures, so partial and hand demolition come up often.
Chester Hill
Post-war housing with original fibro eaves, sheeting and wet area linings still in place behind later renovations.
Bankstown
A wide range in one suburb: cottages, walk up unit blocks and commercial strips, each with a different approval path.
Greenacre
Steady duplex and secondary dwelling work on blocks that were originally single dwellings, so services and boundaries have to be sorted first.
Wentworthville
Older housing on gently sloping blocks, where a site cut and the spoil cartage usually follow straight after the knockdown.
Toongabbie
Post-war stock with large rear yards, which often means a pool, a shed and a garage are all in the same scope.
Blacktown
High volume knockdown rebuild area. Shale close to the surface on many blocks, which changes how a site cut and footings are dug.
Seven Hills
Mixed residential and industrial, with warehouse and factory demolition alongside ordinary residential knockdowns.
The ground
Shale country, not sandstone
The Cumberland Plain is underlain by the Wianamatta Group: Ashfield Shale, Minchinbury Sandstone and Bringelly Shale, sitting above the Hawkesbury Sandstone most people picture when they think of Sydney geology.
That changes how a dig runs. Weathered shale usually comes out with a ripper or a toothed bucket rather than a rock hammer, which is a different machine and a different rate. The soils it weathers to are clay rich with appreciable shrink and swell, which is why so many blocks out here classify as reactive. The spoil is heavier and wetter than sand, it holds water after rain, and it is classified differently when it leaves. Bringelly Shale in particular breaks down quickly once an excavation is opened up, so a cut left open over a wet week is not the surface it was when it was made.
It still varies block by block, and none of this is a statement about any particular property. It is the reason we look at a site before pricing the dig.
Digging here
Four conditions, and each one is dug differently
The geology named here is the published regional record. What any particular block is made of has to be found by looking at it.
Topsoil and fill
The first metre or so, and on an older block it is frequently fill rather than natural ground. What it contains decides where it can go.
- How it comes out
- Stripped and kept separate from what is below it, then classified before it moves.
- What does it
- Standard bucket on a midi or larger excavator, tippers or a truck and dog for the volume.
Residual clay
Weathered from the Wianamatta shale above. Clay rich, reactive, heavy when wet and slow to dry out after rain.
- How it comes out
- Dug with a toothed bucket. On a wet site the timing matters more than the machine, because clay that has taken water is harder to handle and heavier to cart.
- What does it
- Midi to large excavator with a toothed bucket. Truck and dog where the street allows it.
Weathered shale
Ashfield or Bringelly Shale broken down near the surface. Firmer than the clay above and usually still within reach of a ripper.
- How it comes out
- Ripped or dug with a toothed bucket rather than hammered, which is a different rate from rock.
- What does it
- Large excavator with a ripper or heavy duty bucket.
Fresh shale and sandstone bands
Deeper material, and Minchinbury Sandstone where it appears between the shale units. This is where a dig stops being earthworks.
- How it comes out
- Hammered, and priced by the cubic metre at a rate agreed before the dig starts rather than guessed at.
- What does it
- Large excavator with a hydraulic hammer. Zero tail swing where the cut runs against a boundary.
Western Sydney
What shapes the work around here
One of the two areas we work in most. Travel is not a separate line on a Western Sydney quote.
| What it is | Why it matters on the job |
|---|---|
| Post-war stock on regular blocks. | Much of the housing across these suburbs went up between the 1950s and the 1970s, which puts almost all of it in the window where asbestos has to be assumed until it is tested. |
| Duplex and multi dwelling pressure. | A large share of the work here is a single dwelling block being turned into two or more, which brings services, boundaries and approvals into play before anything comes down. |
| Side access is the usual constraint. | Regular blocks with a house already on them, and a side gap that decides what machine can reach the rear. |
| Good truck access on the arterials, poor in the pockets. | Which decides whether material goes out on a truck and dog or in tippers, and that is a real difference in the number of loads. |
| Industrial land sits close to residential. | Particularly around Lidcombe, Granville and Seven Hills, so an industrial site and a knockdown can be a few streets apart. |
We work the whole corridor
Wollongong through Greater Sydney and the Central Coast to Newcastle. Western Sydney and the Northern Beaches are where we are most often.
Western Sydney questions
What people here ask us first
Do you charge travel to come out to Western Sydney?
No. Western Sydney is one of the two areas we are in most weeks, so there is no travel loading on work here and a site visit is usually easy to arrange.
Does the shale ground change what a site cut costs?
It changes the method, and the method sets the rate. Weathered shale generally comes out with a ripper or a toothed bucket rather than a hammer, and the spoil is heavier, wetter and classified differently from sand. Fresh shale and the sandstone bands between the units are hammer work and are priced by the cubic metre.
Can one contractor do the demolition, the asbestos and the dig?
Yes, and across Western Sydney that is how most jobs run. The asbestos is removed and cleared first, the structure comes down, the site cut follows and the spoil is carted on the same contract, which means one set of truck movements planned once.
What has to happen before a demolition can start?
A hazardous materials survey, removal and clearance of anything the survey finds, written confirmation that water, sewer, gas, electricity and telecommunications are disconnected, and the approval in place. The structure is the last part, not the first.
Is the slab and the footings included?
Only if that is what the new build needs. Sometimes a slab stays and is built over and sometimes it all comes out, and it is worth settling with the builder before the quote rather than afterwards.
Is Max licensed for the asbestos removal itself?
Max holds the demolition licence, AD214737. The asbestos removal is carried out by licensed asbestos removalists, and the air monitoring and clearance by an independent licensed assessor. The whole pathway is managed as one job so you are not coordinating three contractors.
Western Sydney
Tell us the suburb and what is on the site
Send the address and a photograph or two and we will tell you what the job actually involves. One of the two areas we work in most. Travel is not a separate line on a Western Sydney quote.
- Demolition, asbestos management, excavation and cartage quoted together
- 14 Western Sydney suburbs covered, each with its own page
- Builders, developers and homeowners all welcome
Prefer to talk
0456 220 552
Special demolition offer
Get your free demolition quote
Demolition and removal services from $15,999*. Tell us about your project and we'll help you understand the costs.
*Starting price applies to eligible demolition and removal projects only. Final pricing depends on structure size, materials, site access, location, waste disposal requirements, hazardous materials and any necessary approvals. A final quote will be provided following project assessment.