How to Price Demolition Work: Interior Demo Price per Square Foot, Plus Dump Fees

How do you price demolition work? The formula

Price interior demolition from crew hours, not from a going rate per square foot. Hours come from the area and your own production rate. Debris is its own cost line. Margin is divided in at the end.

1. Hours on site = area ÷ production rate (sq ft the whole crew strips in one hour).
2. Labour and overhead = hours × crew size × (loaded wage + overhead per sellable hour).
3. Break-even = labour and overhead + debris cost (dumpster or tipping fee, plus haul).
4. Price = break-even ÷ (1 − margin), or your minimum charge if that is higher.
5. Price per sq ft = price ÷ area. It is an output you check, never the input.

This page covers interior, selective demolition: gutting a kitchen or bathroom, tearing out flooring, stripping drywall. Knocking down a whole house or removing structure is a different job with permits, surveys and utility work, covered under exclusions below. The contractor job pricing guide has the general method; here it is applied room by room. Every input is an assumption you replace.

Interior demolition price calculator (per square foot)

Enter the area, your crew's production rate, crew size and costs. Put the debris cost in the materials box. The calculator returns hours on site, break-even, the price to quote and price per sq ft.

It starts on the kitchen gut below, so the price should read $1,626.15. The production rate is for the whole crew together: 15 sq ft an hour means two people clear 15 sq ft of kitchen floor area, cabinets and all, in one hour on site.

Worked example: pricing a 150 sq ft kitchen gut

At an assumed 15 sq ft per hour for a 2-person crew, a 150 sq ft kitchen takes 10 hours on site and prices at $1,626.15, which is $10.84 per sq ft of floor.

The assumptions: two workers paid $22 an hour with 30% burden, so $28.60 loaded each; $29,040 of yearly overhead over 2 people × 220 billed days × 8 hours, which is $8.25 per sellable hour; $320 of debris cost for a dumpster or dump runs; 35% margin. Scope assumed: cabinets, counters, flooring and wall board out to the studs.

The working: 10 hours × 2 workers = 20 labour hours. Each crew hour on site costs $73.70 (2 × $28.60 labour + 2 × $8.25 overhead), so labour and overhead come to $737.00. Add $320 of debris cost and break-even is $1,057.00. Divide by 0.65 and the price is $1,626.15.

Per hour, that is $162.62 billed for each hour the crew is on site, against a break-even of $105.70.

Interior demolition price per square foot by room type

There is no single interior demolition price per square foot. On the same crew and costs, the four jobs below run from $1.42 to $29.60 per sq ft, because the square feet are not the same kind of work.

Every row is the formula run with a different area, production rate and debris cost. The rates are assumptions, not measured averages. A kitchen has cabinets and counters on every foot of floor, a bathroom adds tile, a tub and tight access, flooring is one layer over open area, and drywall is measured on wall and ceiling surface, not floor. Always note which area you divided by.

The bathroom shows the effect most clearly. It is the smallest job in the table and the highest per sq ft:

8 hours on 40 sq ft gives $1,184.00, or $29.60 per sq ft. Quote that bathroom at the kitchen's per-sq-ft figure and you are far below its break-even of $769.60.

How do I estimate demolition hours? Time your own production rate

Divide the area you stripped by the hours the crew was on site, job by job, and keep a rate for each room type. That rate is the one input that moves the price most.

On the kitchen, a crew at 10 sq ft an hour needs a price $850.39 higher than a crew at 20 sq ft an hour. Nothing else changed.

• Count carry time. Stairs, a long walk to the container and floor protection all lower the rate. Time the whole visit, not the swinging.
• Note what was behind the wall. Plaster and lath or a second layer of flooring needs its own slower rate.
• Record the crew size with the rate. 15 sq ft an hour for two people is not 15 for three.

Dump fees and debris haul: price them as a separate line

Keep debris off the labour rate and on its own line, entered at cost. At a 35% margin, each $100 of debris cost adds $153.85 to the price.

On the kitchen, demolition labour alone prices at $1,133.85 and the debris line adds $492.30. The debris cost has two forms:

• A container. Enter the dumpster rental quote, with any weight overage.
• Your own truck. Enter the tipping fee for the weight plus crew time and truck miles for each dump run.

Read the tons off your own dump tickets. As arithmetic only: an assumed 1.5 tons at $62.28 per ton is $93.42 in tipping fees before any crew or truck time. That per-ton figure is the default in the junk removal pricing spreadsheet; replace it with the rate on your ticket.

To be plain about that $39 sheet: it prices the haul-off load: tipping fee for the weight, crew hours including the drive, truck miles, special-handling items and overhead, with a break-even and a minimum job price. It does not price demolition labour per square foot. Use it, or the free junk removal price calculator, for the debris line, and the formula on this page for the demolition hours.

One trap: enter the debris cost here, not a haul price that already has margin in it, or the margin is applied twice. To quote haul-off as its own priced line, leave the debris box at zero and add the haul price underneath. The junk removal price sheet guide builds that load price from 1/8 to a full truck.

What is the minimum charge for a small demolition job?

Set the minimum from the hours a small job really uses: the drive, setup, protection, the work and a dump run.

Assume the smallest job you will take is 2 hours on site plus 1 hour of drive and dump run, with a $60 dump minimum:

That gives a minimum charge of $432.46 on these costs. Test a small job against it: stripping 100 sq ft of drywall at 100 sq ft an hour with $40 of debris cost prices at $174.92 by area. That is under the minimum, so quote $432.46. Charge whichever is higher.

If the tear-out is followed by patching, that is separate work with its own trips for mud to dry; see how much to charge for drywall repair.

What this price leaves out: permits, asbestos, lead and utilities

The formula prices labour, overhead and debris for selective interior work. It does not price permits, hazardous-material surveys or abatement, utility disconnection or structural removal. List each as a written exclusion.

• Asbestos. EPA's asbestos NESHAP page says the rules require a thorough inspection where a demolition or renovation will occur, and notice to the delegated agency (often a state agency) before any demolition. The same page says the federal rule excludes residential buildings with four or fewer dwelling units. See the EPA asbestos NESHAP overview, and ask the agency for your area what applies to the job.
• Lead paint. EPA states that its RRP Rule requires anyone paid to do work that disturbs painted surfaces in homes, childcare facilities and preschools built before 1978 to be certified, with employees trained in lead-safe work practices. See the EPA Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program.
• Survey and utilities. OSHA's demolition standard, 29 CFR 1926.850, requires an engineering survey by a competent person before employees start demolition operations, and electric, gas, water, steam, sewer and other service lines shut off, capped or otherwise controlled outside the building line before work starts.
• Structure. OSHA's demolition page names unplanned collapse as a planning item. Load-bearing walls and whole-building demolition are outside this page.
• Permits. Fees and thresholds are set locally. Quote the fee your building department gives you.

I put no price on these because no sourced figure would hold for your job. This is arithmetic, not legal or safety advice: confirm what applies with the agency or a licensed professional before you quote.

Common demolition pricing mistakes that lose money

Three errors each have a dollar cost you can calculate: one blended per-sq-ft rate, the bare wage in place of the loaded rate, and margin added as markup.

• One per-sq-ft rate for everything. The table above runs from $1.42 to $29.60 per sq ft on identical costs. Any single rate overcharges one job and loses money on another.
• Wage instead of loaded rate. The kitchen's 20 labour hours cost $440.00 at the $22 wage but $572.00 once 30% burden is on. That is $132.00 missing before overhead.
• Markup instead of margin. Adding 35% to the kitchen's break-even gives $1,426.95, a real margin of 25.93%. That is $199.20 less per job and $20,717.20 a year at two such jobs a week.

Multi-day strip-outs with sorting and donation runs price more like a cleanout; the estate cleanout pricing guide covers pricing by crew-hours and truck loads.

Demolition price sheet: what to put in it, with Excel formulas

A demolition price sheet needs one row per room type with its own production rate, a debris line and a minimum charge. Layout: B2 = area, B3 = crew production rate (sq ft per hour), B4 = crew size, B5 = wage, B6 = burden %, B7 = debris cost, B8 = yearly overhead, B9 = people in the field, B10 = billable days, B11 = margin %, B12 = minimum charge.

• Room type and which area was measured (floor or wall surface).
• Timed production rate, with crew size.
• Loaded wage, overhead per sellable hour, margin.
• Debris cost, minimum charge and written exclusions.

No ProSheet template prices demolition labour by room type today. The free Job Pricing Starter covers loaded labour, overhead and break-even, and a done-for-you custom build with your own room types is $497.

Step-by-step: How to Price Demolition Work: Interior Demo Price per Square Foot, Plus Dump Fees

1. Define the scope and exclusions. Write down what comes out. List permits, asbestos and lead work, utility disconnects and structural removal as exclusions.
2. Measure the area. Measure floor area for kitchen, bathroom and flooring jobs, and wall and ceiling surface for drywall. Note which one you used.
3. Divide by your production rate. Area ÷ the sq ft your crew strips per hour on that room type gives hours on site. Use rates timed on your own jobs.
4. Cost the crew hours. Hours × crew size × (loaded wage + overhead per sellable hour). Loaded wage is the wage plus burden, not the wage alone.
5. Add the debris line at cost. Add the dumpster quote, or tons × tipping fee plus the crew and truck cost of each dump run.
6. Divide by one minus margin, then apply the minimum. Break-even ÷ (1 − margin) is the price. Quote the higher of that and your minimum charge.

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