House Demolition - Brisbane

Pumpkin_rrr on 20/01/2014 - 10:21

My MIL passed away and BIL is looking at demolishing her house for development. The house is over 60 years old, one level, has fibro/asbestos issues. He made a random phonecall and was quoted $40k over the phone!

Time to seek my dear OzBargainer's experience again: do you know of any reasonable demolisher out there? I was thinking whether he should strip it down to bare minimum, but another school of thought says it would increase the cost as they wont have anything to sell. The hot water system and water tank are already taken off.

If it is not because of asbestos, I would have ordered a street party :-) Some said the asbestos only increase the safety gadgets but the increment should not be that great.

Another thought is whether to leave it to the developer, and do that as a package? But BIL hasnt identified a developer yet ….

Thanking you in advance.

General Discussion

Comments

  • ferguscan on 20/01/2014 - 12:27

    Gasoline and a match?

    • c64 on 20/01/2014 - 12:48
      +2

      unfortunately asbestos is very fire resistant and you've just contaminated the whole frigging property

  • GiggidyGoo on 20/01/2014 - 14:09

    Expensive because of the asbestos. Shop around, I doubt you'd find it much cheaper. You'll just have to do some searching on this one unless someone here is local and has good recommendations.

    A developer would just add a management fee on top of his subbies cost so unlikely it will work out cheaper either.

  • voteoften on 20/01/2014 - 20:34

    In Perth, 10 years ago, the quote was $50k for demo of a brick double story with lots of salvagable jarrah and an asbestos roof. There were no heritage fittings in the house. There was also a garage/shed out back - about two cars with plenty of other room. Brick and asbestos.

    • Pumpkin_rrr on 20/01/2014 - 21:03

      Gosh, this is another learning lesson for me. I wish I can get a breakdown of the cost. How many man hours in total? How much money goes to the Council and the government authorities etc….. Mind boggling…

      • voteoften on 21/01/2014 - 11:05

        The best thing to do is get written quotes. Due to the asbestos you can not do it yourself.

  • teekay on 21/01/2014 - 14:08

    Please, whatever you do, take the asbestos removal seriously (as there's some dodgy companies around). It may add to the cost but it's worth it for peace of mind. My father died of mesothelioma, which was through exposure to asbestos. I can't begin to describe the suffering this disease causes.

    • Pumpkin_rrr on 21/01/2014 - 14:13

      H Teekay, sorry to hear about your father. Rest assured I am fully aware of the danger of asbestos, as I have stated in my original post.

  • voteoften on 21/01/2014 - 15:19

    If subdivisible, it might be better to get the subdivision done and sell the subdivided block to someone with a property development dream. It doesn't sound like there is a great deal of property development experience in your family. Sometimes you can make as much if not more just selling a dream. YOu add value by subdividing.

    Consider cutting down any substantial trees before making subdivision application. You can probably do it now with impunity. The minute you ask for subdivision, is when they may throw all sorts of restrictions at you, like keep this tree or that tree.

    Also consider tax implications of continuing to hold the property. I think you might have two years to sell it and pay no taxes on the gain.

  • Natt on 21/01/2014 - 19:22

    You may be able to do it yourself after the correct training. But you would also look at how it will be transported/disposed of.

    See
    http://www.health.qld.gov.au/asbestos/default.asp

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