How long does demolition take? The honest timeline
The machines are fast. The paperwork isn't. That's the whole story of demolition scheduling, and understanding it is the difference between a smooth project and a month of frustrated phone calls. Here are the real 2026 numbers.
Machines-on-site time
- Shed or garage: a few hours to a day.
- Single-storey weatherboard/fibro home: 1–3 days of structural demolition.
- Single-storey brick veneer: 2–4 days — more tonnage, more truck cycles.
- Double-storey or double-brick: 2–5 days.
- Add for asbestos removal: 1–4 days before the machines, depending on extent — a fully fibro-clad house sits at the top.
- Add for slab/footing removal and site finish: 1–2 days.
So the visible job — asbestos strip to levelled block — typically runs 3 days to a fortnight. But that's act three.
The real timeline: 4–8 weeks end to end
- Weeks 0–1: quote and acceptance. Site visit, fixed quote, asbestos survey booked.
- Weeks 1–4: the parallel paperwork phase. Section 29A consent (council has 15 business days), building permit through the surveyor, and — critically — service abolishments booked with retailers (2–4 week lead times for power and gas). Run in parallel by someone who lodges everything immediately, this phase is 3–4 weeks. Run sequentially, or started late, it's 6–10.
- Week 4–6: demolition. Asbestos crew, then machines, then trucks, then final grade.
- Final days: paperwork handover. Clearances, dockets, permit completion.
What stretches the schedule
- Late service abolishment booking — the number-one cause of slipped dates in this trade. No power abolishment clearance, no machines.
- Heritage or overlay complications: if Section 29A referral surfaces a planning trigger, add months, not weeks. Check VicPlan before you plan anything.
- Friable asbestos finds: damaged or hidden friable material upgrades the removal class and slows the strip. More common in fire-damaged and long-vacant houses.
- Weather: demolition works through most of it, but high-wind days stop asbestos handling, and sodden sites bog trucks — a wet fortnight in a Gippsland winter can add days.
- Total fire ban days restrict hot works and some machinery use in high-risk periods — a real regional consideration in January and February.
What shrinks it
- A contractor who lodges every approval and books every abolishment on the day you accept.
- An empty, vandal-secured house — squatters, and re-connections done for cleaning, both cause resets.
- Decisions made once: finish spec, salvage list and tree scope settled before lodgement, not renegotiated mid-permit.
A week-by-week example that actually happened
A 1958 weatherboard in a North East town, accepted on a Friday: Week 1 — Section 29A lodged Monday, building permit application to the private surveyor Tuesday, power and gas abolishment requested same day, asbestos survey done Thursday (fibro eaves, laundry walls, shed roof). Week 2 — gas meter out; council queries the 29A on a dividing-fence detail, answered same day. Week 3 — 29A consent lands day 13; building permit issues two days later; water capped with standpipe retained. Week 4 — power abolished Wednesday; asbestos crew in Thursday–Friday. Week 5 — machines Monday, house down Wednesday, slab and footings out Friday. Week 6 — final grade Monday, paperwork file emailed Tuesday. Thirty-nine days, no drama — and every day of it was determined by the bookings made in the first 48 hours.
Booking backwards from a build date
One more scheduling truth: demolition slots are seasonal. Spring and early summer book out first as builders push to pour slabs before Christmas, while mid-winter often has genuine availability — and a weatherboard house comes down just as well in July, sodden site management aside. If your dates are flexible, say so; flexibility is worth real money in this trade.
If a builder is waiting, work backwards: builder wants the pad in June → machines mid-May → paperwork lodged mid-April → quote accepted early April. Regional builders book demolition too late more often than too early — if your build contract is signed, the demolition clock should already be running. Start it here — the quote is free and the paperwork starts on acceptance.