RSB Empire → Construction → Demolition
Sheet D-101 · Bell Engineering & Construction
Interior tear-outs, structural and residential demolition, pool and slab removal, and site clearing across Palm Beach County — permitted, contained, hauled away, and left clean. The only Palm Beach County contractor who is also a certified energy engineer, and the owner inspects every job.
Scope of Work
Why It Matters
Every remodel, addition, and new home starts with something coming out — an old kitchen, a load-bearing wall, a tired lanai, or an entire structure on a lot you want to rebuild. Do that first step carelessly and it poisons everything after it: a wall pulled without checking what it carries, a permit skipped, a gas line cut live, asbestos scattered through an occupied house. We treat demolition as engineering, not just muscle. Before anything comes down we confirm what is structural, what the utilities feed, what the survey says about hazardous materials, and how the debris leaves the site — then we take out exactly what the plan calls for and protect everything that stays.
Because Bell Engineering & Construction is a full general contractor and roofer, the demolition is planned around the rebuild from day one. The crew that tears out is thinking about the crew that frames back in. That is a very different job than hiring a stand-alone demo outfit that leaves and never sees the finished room.
How We Work
A safe teardown follows an order, and skipping a step is how demolition goes wrong. Here is how ours runs.
Demolishing a structure — and most work that touches framing, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical — requires a permit in Palm Beach County, and the utilities have to be officially disconnected before a wall comes down. As a licensed GC we pull the demolition permit and coordinate the power, water, gas, and sewer disconnects with the right authorities so the site is legal and safe before the first swing.
Florida requires an asbestos survey before most demolition and renovation, and any home built before 1978 can hide lead paint. We are an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm (#NAT-F122701-2), and where a survey calls for it we coordinate licensed abatement before demolition begins. This protects your family, our crew, and the validity of your permit.
On an occupied home or a selective interior tear-out, containment is half the job. We set dust barriers, protect the floors, cabinetry, and finishes that stay, and control the debris path in and out. You get a clean remodel, not grit in every room for a month.
Then it comes down — by hand for a delicate selective demo, or with our Bobcat T740 and grapple for heavy structural work. Debris is separated for recycling and disposal where we can, hauled away, and the site is left broom-clean or graded. On a teardown-to-rebuild we roll straight from demolition into land clearing and site work — one team hands off to the next with no gap and no second mobilization charge.
The Investment
Every demolition estimate in Palm Beach County comes down to five variables, and until a contractor walks the site and answers each one, any number given over the phone is a guess. Here is what actually moves the price up or down — not a rate card, because there isn’t an honest one.
The single biggest cost driver is scope. Pulling one interior wall, gutting a bathroom, or removing an old lanai is a different job — different crew size, different equipment, different permit path — than taking a house down to the slab or clearing a lot for a rebuild. Selective demolition moves slower and more carefully per square foot because it protects everything around it; full structural or whole-house demolition moves faster per square foot but brings heavier equipment, more debris, and more permitting weight. Knowing which one you actually need, before pricing starts, is half the estimate.
How old the home is changes the job before a single hammer swings. Federal law requires that any renovation or demolition disturbing painted surfaces in a home built before 1978 be performed by an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm using contained work practices — dust containment, specific cleanup steps, and documentation. We hold that certification (#NAT-F122701-2), so it is built into how we price and staff an older-home job rather than a surprise added mid-project. A 1960s Palm Beach County home and a 2005 build are not priced the same way for this reason alone.
Demolition permits run through the local building department or, for unincorporated areas, the Palm Beach County Building Division, and pulling one under our GC license (CGC1528750) is part of the job, not an add-on. Utility disconnects — electric, water, and gas — typically have to be confirmed and finaled before that permit is issued or closed out, and coordinating those disconnects takes time, sometimes on the utility’s schedule rather than ours. A job that already has utilities capped and confirmed moves through the permit process faster than one where that still has to be arranged.
What comes out of the structure changes what it costs to haul away. Concrete and masonry weigh and price differently at the dump than wood-frame debris, and mixed construction-and-demolition debris — drywall, fixtures, roofing, flooring, insulation — often has to be sorted rather than hauled as one load. More square footage means more loads; more material variety means more sorting and more separate tipping fees. This is the line item that varies most from job to job, and the reason a flat per-square-foot demolition rate doesn’t hold up in the real world.
Finally, how the crew and equipment reach the structure matters. A house on a wide corner lot with room to stage a dumpster and run equipment is a different job than a home on a narrow lot, tucked behind another structure, or with limited street access — those constraints can mean smaller equipment, more hand labor, or a longer timeline, and all of that shows up in the price.
None of this is guesswork once we are standing on the site — that is exactly what a free, in-person estimate is for. And if the plan is demolition followed by a rebuild, everything from the framing back is covered by our written one-year workmanship warranty, so the two phases are priced and planned as one project instead of handed between separate contractors.
Questions, Answered
Yes. A demolition permit is required for tearing down a house, a detached structure, or a load-bearing portion of a building, and utilities must be officially disconnected first. As a licensed general contractor we pull the demolition permit, arrange the disconnects, and carry the job through final inspection so nothing comes back on you when you build or sell.
Often, yes — anytime the work touches structure, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical it usually requires a permit, even when it is “just” an interior gut. Simple non-structural removal sometimes does not. We tell you which it is up front and permit whatever the code requires, because an un-permitted tear-out can stall the remodel that follows it.
Florida requires an asbestos survey before most demolition and renovation, and homes built before 1978 can contain lead paint. We are an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm, and where a survey calls for it we coordinate licensed abatement before a wall comes down — it protects your family, our crew, and your permit.
Demolition removes built structures — a house, a slab, a pool, interior walls. Land clearing removes vegetation, stumps, and debris to ready raw ground. We do both, and on a teardown-to-rebuild we roll straight from demolition into site clearing with our Bobcat T740 so one crew hands off to the next without a gap.
Yes — selective demolition is one of our most common jobs. We remove exactly what the plan calls for — a wall, a room, a roof section, an old lanai — while protecting the parts of the home that stay, then tie the new work in cleanly. Because we also build, the demo is planned around the rebuild, not against it.
Always. Every demolition includes load-out, haul-away, and a broom-clean or graded site at the end — concrete, drywall, framing, and fixtures separated for recycling and disposal where we can. You are left with a clean pad ready for the next phase, not a pile to deal with.
We contain the work area with dust barriers, protect floors and cabinetry that stay, shut off and cap the right utilities, and control dust and debris paths in and out. On an occupied home that containment is half the job — it is the difference between a clean remodel and grit in every room for a month.
It depends on size, what is being removed, access for equipment, disposal, and whether abatement or utility disconnects are involved. There is no honest flat rate — every estimate is free and in person. Call (561) 779-3213 and we will walk the site and give you real numbers.
Yes. We remove or fill-and-abandon swimming pools to code, break out old concrete slabs, driveways, and foundations, and take down sheds, garages, carports, and storm-damaged structures — then clear and grade the ground so it is ready for whatever comes next.
Yes. When a structure is a total loss or unsafe after a storm, we document the condition, handle the safe teardown and debris removal, and provide the paperwork your adjuster needs — and because we are also a full construction and roofing contractor, we can rebuild once the site is clear.
Five things: whether the job is selective or full structural demolition, your home’s age (pre-1978 homes trigger EPA lead-safe requirements under our Lead-Safe Certified Firm status), permitting and utility-disconnect timing, the volume and type of debris being hauled away, and site access for equipment. There is no honest flat rate — call (561) 779-3213 for a free, in-person estimate that actually accounts for your site.
In most cases, yes. Detached structures like sheds and garages, and room additions, typically require a demolition permit through the local building department or the Palm Beach County Building Division for unincorporated areas, and utility disconnects usually need to be confirmed first. We pull the permit, coordinate the disconnects, and carry it through to close-out as part of the job.
It depends on what comes next. If a rebuild is planned, we can often break out and remove the old slab so the new foundation starts clean, or in some cases prepare it for reuse if it is sound and the new plan allows it. If the lot is being cleared rather than rebuilt, the slab typically comes out with the rest of the structure and the site is graded. We will walk you through which makes sense during the estimate.
Generally yes — the demolition permit needs to be finaled and closed out, which includes confirming the required utility disconnects, before the building department will issue a permit for new construction on the same site. Because we hold the GC license (CGC1528750) for both phases, we manage that sequence so the rebuild permit is not held up waiting on demolition paperwork.
Yes, significantly. Any home built before 1978 falls under federal lead-safe renovation and demolition rules whenever painted surfaces are disturbed, which means the work has to be performed by an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm using contained work practices. We hold that certification (#NAT-F122701-2), so an older Palm Beach County home is scoped, staffed, and priced with that requirement built in from the start rather than discovered mid-job.
Free estimate, 24-hour response, and a licensed contractor who answers his own phone.