Queens, NY
Interior Demolition in Queens
We take a space back to whatever your next stage needs. Bare structure, a clean shell, or something in between, with the parts that are staying protected and untouched.
What comes out, and what stays
Interior demolition is the inside of the building coming out while the building stays up.
In Queens that usually means drywall or plaster off studs, partition walls, dropped ceilings, kitchens and bathrooms, floors and the sleepers under them, millwork, and redundant pipe and wire. It can mean a two-family house taken back to the studs, a co-op apartment opened to its joists, a garden-apartment unit gutted between tenants, or a storefront under the train taken down to the slab.
What stays is the structure, the facade, the windows, the risers, and anything you tell us is staying. We mark all of it out with you before we start rather than working from a drawing alone, because in an older house the drawing and the wall rarely agree.
Partial is normal. Not every job is a full gut. Taking out one kitchen and a bathroom in a house the family is still living in is a real scope and we treat it as one. In the trade this is called selective demolition, and it is most of the interior work in this borough.
01 Debris
The material still has to leave the building
Demolition is roughly half taking things apart and half moving them. In a house with a driveway the second half is the easy one, and that is a large part of why the same job costs less in Queens than across the river.
In a co-op tower or a prewar building it is the hard half. We work out the route out before we start: which windows management will release the service elevator for, how the cab gets protected, where a container can legally sit, and how much can leave in a day. Debris gets broken down, bagged, staged inside the work area on protected floor, then moved out in those windows and carted away by a registered carting company. It never sits in the lobby or the hall.
Where a building only gives us the elevator for two hours in the morning, that limit sets the pace of the whole job, and we build the schedule around it instead of discovering it in week two.
Permits and building access, before the first wall
Most delays happen before day one.
Nearly every demolition job that runs late in Queens ran late before anyone picked up a tool. The permit waited on an assessment nobody had ordered. The board met once a month and the job was two days too late for the agenda. The container needed a permit for the curb because the driveway was too short. The elevator was only available two hours a day and nobody had asked. None of that is complicated. It is just a sequence, and it has to run in order.
First question: does your job need a filing at all? Not every demolition job needs a Department of Buildings permit, and the answer decides how much of the sequence applies to you. Taking out kitchen cabinets, flooring, a dropped ceiling or fixtures, and putting back like for like, is generally minor work that does not need a permit. Removing walls, changing the layout, touching plumbing or gas, or doing anything structural does, and the filing is made by a registered design professional, an architect or an engineer, not by the demolition contractor.
Where it is not obvious, the design professional decides, and we will tell you honestly on the first call which side of the line your job is likely to sit on. What we will not do is pretend a job is minor because it is convenient. The building department, the super and your neighbours all know the difference.
The sequence, in the order it happens
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Step 1 of 6
The asbestos assessment, if the building predates April 1987
For a building built before 1 April 1987, the city requires an asbestos assessment before the Department of Buildings will issue a permit for work that could disturb material. A DEP certified asbestos investigator inspects the areas the work will touch and files Form ACP-5 with the Department of Environmental Protection if the work is exempt, or an abatement plan if it is not.
Most of Queens's houses and all of its prewar apartment stock predate that date. This is the customer's own filing, it is the most common cause of a late start, and it is the first thing to order.
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Step 2 of 6
Design and filing, where the work needs it
A registered architect or engineer prepares the drawings and files with the Department of Buildings. The permit issues to the licensed contractor doing the permitted work. Demolition that is part of a larger renovation is normally filed with it, as one job, rather than as a separate permit.
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Step 3 of 6
The building's own approval
In a co-op or a condo the board and the managing agent have their own process, set out in the alteration agreement: drawings, insurance certificates, a deposit, a schedule, and rules about hours, the elevator, protection and noise. It can take longer than the city's permit. A house owner skips this step entirely, which is one reason the same job moves faster in Bayside than in Forest Hills.
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Step 4 of 6
Work hours, and a variance if you need one
Construction work runs 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM on weekdays. Anything earlier, later or at the weekend needs an After Hours Variance from the Department of Buildings, filed a few business days before the first day and covering days inside a fourteen day window. Your building may set narrower hours, and a co-op usually does.
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Step 5 of 6
Landmarks, on the borough's designated blocks
Queens has fewer designated blocks than Manhattan or Brooklyn, but it has them: Jackson Heights, Sunnyside Gardens, Douglaston, Fort Totten, Hunters Point and parts of Ridgewood among them. Inside a historic district, on an individual landmark, or in a building with an interior landmark, the Department of Buildings may not issue a permit until the Landmarks Preservation Commission has issued a certificate.
For interior work that does not touch a protected feature, which is nearly all interior demolition, that certificate is a Certificate of No Effect, issued at staff level and usually within about ten business days. It is a step, not a barrier, and it belongs in the sequence ahead of the permit rather than as a surprise after it.
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Step 6 of 6
The elevator, the container and the route out
The last thing to settle, and the one that decides the schedule. In a house: where the container sits, which is the driveway if it is long enough and the curb with a permit if it is not. In a co-op or a prewar building: which windows the service elevator is released for, how the cab is protected, and how much can leave in a day. We work this out with the super before we quote, because a two-hour elevator window sets the pace of the whole job.
Who carries which step
The asbestos assessment, the design filing, the Landmarks certificate and the alteration agreement are the owner's, the design professional's or the building's to carry out. The elevator window, the container and the route out are ours to settle with you and the super before we quote.
What we do on the first call is tell you which steps your job triggers and in what order, so the schedule you plan against is a real one. See how the building stock changes the job across the borough.
A stripped commercial floor
How we work in a live building
Protection first
Hall, stair, floors, door frames, and the lobby and elevator cab where there is one, get covered before anything comes down. It is faster to protect a cab than to repair one.
Dust control
Openings sealed, negative pressure where it is warranted, and cutting kept wet where the material allows it. The family downstairs notices dust long before they notice noise.
Noise in windows
The loud work gets grouped and run inside the hours the building and the city allow, so it is predictable for everyone in the house or the stack.
Daily clear-down
The space is left safe and swept at the end of each day. Nothing is stored in a hall, a stair or the lobby overnight, and the container is covered.
Common questions
What is interior demolition?
Interior demolition means taking out the inside of a building while the building itself stays up. Walls, ceilings, floors, fittings, and services come out. The structure, the facade and usually the windows stay.
It is what most people mean when they say they need a space gutted before a fit-out or a renovation.
What is the average cost for interior demolition?
There is no useful average, because the same square footage can differ several times over in price.
A drywall two-family with a container in the driveway is straightforward. The same area of plaster on lath on the twelfth floor of a co-op tower, leaving through a booked service elevator two hours a day, with parquet and sleepers to lift, is a much larger job.
What we can do is give you a real number quickly. We walk the space, price the actual scope, and tell you which parts could move once the plaster is off. Tell us your date when you call and we will tell you what we can hold.
Does my job need a Department of Buildings filing at all?
Not every demolition job does, and the answer decides how much of the sequence applies to you. Taking out kitchen cabinets, flooring, a dropped ceiling or fixtures, and putting back like for like, is generally minor work that does not need a permit. Removing walls, changing the layout, touching plumbing or gas, or doing anything structural does.
The filing is made by a registered design professional, an architect or an engineer, not by the demolition contractor. Where it is not obvious the design professional decides, and we will tell you honestly on the first call which side of the line your job is likely to sit on.
Do I need an asbestos assessment before interior demolition can start?
If your building was built before 1 April 1987 and the work needs a Department of Buildings permit, then yes, one has to be filed before the permit is issued.
A DEP certified asbestos investigator does the inspection and files Form ACP-5 with the Department of Environmental Protection. If material is present but sits under the DEP thresholds and will not be disturbed, the ACP-5 can still be issued.
This is the customer's own filing rather than part of a demolition contract, and it is worth starting early, because the permit waits on it.
What hours can demolition work happen in New York City?
Construction work may be carried out from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM on weekdays.
Anything before 7:00 AM, after 6:00 PM, or on a Saturday or Sunday needs an After Hours Variance from the Department of Buildings. It has to be filed a few business days before the first day of work and can cover days inside a fourteen day window.
Your building may also set its own hours that are narrower than the city's, and a co-op with a hundred households usually does. Where the two differ, the building's rules are the ones that decide your schedule.
Does a historic district mean I need Landmarks approval?
For permitted work, yes, but the approval is usually light. Inside a historic district the Department of Buildings will not issue a permit until the Landmarks Preservation Commission has issued a certificate.
For interior demolition that does not touch a protected feature and is not visible from the street, that certificate is a Certificate of No Effect, handled at staff level and normally issued within about ten business days. It is a sequence step, not a hearing. In Queens it applies in Jackson Heights, Sunnyside Gardens, Douglaston, Fort Totten, Hunters Point and parts of Ridgewood among others.
What happens to the debris?
Clearing it is part of the job.
In a house, material goes straight to a covered container in the driveway, off the street, which removes the permit and most of the argument. In an apartment building we break the material down, bag or bundle it, and move it out in the elevator windows the building gives us, down to the loading point ready to go. Carting off site is done by a registered carting company, and we coordinate it so the two halves line up. Where a container has to sit at the curb, its placement has its own rules about where and how long, and that gets worked out before it arrives.
You get the space back swept and clear.