Kitchen or Bath Remodel? Hand Off the Tear-Out

Demo looks easy on TV. In real life, it's heavy, dusty and slower than anyone plans for.

Cabinets are awkward to carry, and tile comes up with the mortar still on it. Drywall dust finds every room in the house. Then the whole pile needs somewhere to go.

Handing off the tear-out lets you or your contractor start on a clean, empty room. Your weekends stay yours, and the debris doesn't sit in the driveway for a week.

A kitchen tear-out is mostly cabinets and countertops. Both are heavier and clumsier than they look.

The tops come off first. Then the uppers come off the wall, and the base cabinets and island come out.

Backsplash tile and the drywall behind the cabinets can come out on the same visit if the remodel calls for it. Our kitchen demolition service covers the full list.

In a bathroom, the vanity and cabinets usually go first. Then the floor and wall tile come up and the drywall comes down.

Tubs, shower pans and toilets depend on the room, so we look at photos before we say yes. A tub set into tile and framing is a different job from a freestanding one.

We load as we go, so the rest of the house stays clear. Our bathroom demolition service has the details.

The old dishwasher, microwave, range or fridge can ride out on the same trailer. That saves you a separate haul-off later.

We unhook standard plug-in and water-line connections. Anything hard-plumbed into gas needs a plumber to disconnect it before we arrive.

Tear-outs aren't only kitchens and baths. One of our jobs was a client's closet demo that needed to be done before a remodel.

That's the kind of work this is. A defined space, a clear line of what comes out, and an empty room handed back for the next step.

Laundry rooms, built-in shelving, old cabinets in a garage and closets all fall into the same light demolition work. Our interior demolition service covers the range.

We do light demolition only. That means nothing structural, nothing that needs an engineer and nothing that needs heavy machinery.

Sometimes the tile comes off and the subfloor is rotted, or a wall turns out to be doing more than it looked. When that happens, we stop and tell you.

That part belongs to your contractor. We'd rather pause the job than guess at something that holds up your house.

Permit rules are set by each city and differ from town to town. Where a city requires a permit, it's usually pulled by the general contractor or the homeowner.

If one is needed and nobody else is pulling it, we can usually pull it ourselves for an added fee that varies by city.

Our guide to interior demolition before a remodel covers planning, prep and what to sort out before demo day.

A little prep keeps the tear-out quick and keeps the price where we quoted it.

Tear-outs are quoted per job after we see photos. A single wall of cabinets and a full kitchen gut aren't the same work.

We quote the tear-out and the haul-off together, on one invoice. You pay at the end, once you're satisfied.

If your crew already pulled everything out, hauling off the pile is priced by how much trailer space the load takes. That's our construction debris removal service.

A dumpster can work for a long remodel. But it sits in your driveway, and you or your crew still do all the tearing out and loading.

With us, the tear-out and the loading are our job, and the debris leaves the same day. Our comparison of junk removal and dumpster rental lays out both sides.

Plenty of remodels have a general contractor running the job. We demo to the line they give us and haul it all off, so their crew can start on a clean subfloor.

The plan stays simple. Send photos for a quote, pick a time, and we haul it off and sweep up.