Independence Demolition Pros: Deconstruction vs Demolition for an Independence House

What each word means on a job site

Demolition is mechanical: an excavator with a grapple takes the house down in sections and loads the mixed debris into roll-offs, and the whole structure is gone in one to three days. Clean concrete and scrap metal are still sorted for recycling, because they are cheaper to recycle than to landfill, but the wood, drywall, roofing and finishes go out as one stream. Deconstruction is manual: a crew takes the house apart in roughly the reverse order it was built, pulling fixtures, cabinets, doors, windows, flooring, trim, framing lumber and brick for resale or reuse, and only the unsalvageable remainder goes to the landfill. It takes one to three weeks and a larger crew, and it ends with the same foundation to deal with as any teardown.

What an Independence house gives back

It depends on the decade. The 1910s to 1930s houses of Englewood, Procter, Mount Washington and Fairmount were built of old-growth dimensional lumber, with hardwood floors, solid doors, built-in cabinets, brick chimneys and sometimes limestone foundations, and all of that has a market. A 1950s or 1960s ranch gives back less: the lumber is smaller and often nailed with a pattern that splinters when pulled, the cabinets are plywood, the floors are oak under carpet (worth saving) and the rest is drywall and composition. A 1970s or later house gives back the least. The crews we work with walk the house with that in mind and will say when a partial salvage, pulling the floors, doors, fixtures and brick before the excavator arrives, captures most of the value at a fraction of the deconstruction cost.

What it costs, and the deduction

Demolishing a house in Kansas City runs $10,000 to $21,100 in HomeBlue's guide. Full deconstruction is not published for the metro; nationally it runs well above demolition because of the labor, and the gap is closed, sometimes entirely, by two things. Salvaged material donated to a qualified nonprofit reuse organization can be appraised and deducted; the appraisal has to be independent and the paperwork is the owner's, not the contractor's. And the landfill bill shrinks, since tipping fees are paid by the ton and deconstruction sends far less. Whether the arithmetic works depends on the house: on a lath-and-plaster bungalow with hardwood throughout it often does, on a 1960s ranch it rarely does.

The part that is the same either way

One more thing is the same: the schedule is set by the paperwork, not the crew. A deconstruction crew can start pulling floors the week the contract is signed, but the structure itself cannot come down until the City permit has issued and the Department of Natural Resources' ten-working-day notice has run, so the extra weeks of hand work usually overlap the waiting rather than adding to it. On a lot with a closing date, that overlap is the argument for a partial salvage: the valuable material comes out while the permit runs, and the excavator takes the rest on the day it was going to anyway.

Neither path skips the City of Independence demolition permit, the insurance certificate naming the City, the meter pulls, the sewer kill or the erosion control. Neither skips the Missouri asbestos inspection, and deconstruction makes it more important, since people are handling every material by hand; floor tile, pipe wrap and siding found in testing are abated before anyone starts pulling. And neither path changes the basement fill-in: the walls still come out or get broken below grade, and the hole is still filled in compacted lifts. Owners in Liberty face the same choice under that city's 18-inch foundation rule, which applies to both.

Choosing

Pick demolition when the house is postwar, the schedule is tight, a dangerous-building order or a closing date is involved, or the structure is fire or water damaged, since damaged material has no salvage value. Pick deconstruction or a partial salvage when the house is pre-war, the materials are sound, and there is time for the appraisal and the crew. Ask on the first call: the contractor will say what is in the house worth taking out, and the house demolition page explains the rest of the sequence. The federal rules on noncash charitable contributions, which govern the deduction, are published by the IRS at irs.gov.

Primary sources: the federal rules on noncash charitable contributions at irs.gov, the federal guidance on construction and demolition materials at epa.gov, the Missouri asbestos program at dnr.mo.gov, and the City of Independence checklist at independencemo.gov.