A garage teardown splits into structure, floor, utilities, and haul. The building itself often takes less time than the concrete beneath it. Anyone searching garage demolition near me should already hold a footprint, a wall type, and a decision about the concrete. Garage demolition Ann Arbor quotes begin at the drip edge and stop at whatever grade you name.
01Detached Garage Teardown
A freestanding garage at the rear of a lot is what we tear down most often in this city. Wood frame on a block stem wall comes apart quickly once the roof is stripped and the walls are laid over. Older ones hide things: cloth-wrapped wiring, packed dirt under part of the floor, or one floor poured directly over an older one.
Tell us the outside measurements plus the wall height at the eave. Say whether shingles, roll roofing, or metal covers the roof, since layers add weight to every load. Anything stored inside remains yours unless disposal gets written into the quote. Mark the trees and the lot line where a machine has to stay clear.
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02Attached Garage Separation
A garage built against the house is a different job than a freestanding one, and it costs more for good reason. The shared wall has to be cut, braced where the framing calls for it, and closed in so the house stays weather tight. Any door leading from the garage into a kitchen or mudroom turns into an opening somebody has to frame and cover. Ask garage demolition companies in Ann Arbor who is closing that wall before you set two numbers beside each other.
Roof lines tying into the dwelling get cut back to a straight edge and flashed. Siding, soffit, and gutter all want patching along the seam, and that generally falls to a carpenter rather than to us. We quote removal plus the temporary closure, then say plainly where our part stops.
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03Slab And Footings
The concrete floor is often the heavier half of a garage demolition Ann Arbor job. Most slabs run four inches with a thickened edge, though a shop floor poured for a lift can reach six or more with heavy steel through it. Perimeter footings and a block stem wall may go three or four feet down, well below anything visible from the yard.
Decide early whether the concrete leaves the property, because that one choice drives the truck count. A slab left in place has to be broken up for drainage if fill goes over it. Footings that remain can block a future patio, addition, or new pour, so think past this season. Put the depth of removal into the quote as a number rather than a description.
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04Electrical Disconnect
Nearly every garage around here carries a buried or overhead feed out from the house panel. That circuit gets killed at the breaker and disconnected by whichever trade holds the license, never by an excavator operator. A subpanel inside, an exterior outlet, or a light facing the alley all ride on the same feed. Say whether the conduit and wire come out of the ground or get abandoned in place and capped.
A licensed plumber caps gas piping to any unit heater before machine work begins. Read up on demolition of all kinds around Ann Arbor to see the way utility steps fall into order when several structures share a parcel. Locate tickets go in first, so the yard carries paint and flags on day one.
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05Alley And Driveway Access
Where a machine and the trucks can sit decides half the schedule on a rear-lot garage. A back alley is the easiest approach when it runs wide enough and neighboring fences leave room to swing. Without one, every load travels the drive, past the house, and back across the lawn.
Measure the narrowest pinch on that route and send a photograph of it. Low branches and a service drop crossing overhead both limit what is able to pass under. Ground softened by rain will not hold a loaded truck, so plan on mats or a dry stretch. A quote for Ann Arbor garage demolition services should name the truck parking area along with an assumed load count.
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06Carports And Sheds
Carports, storage sheds, and lean-to additions frequently come down during the same visit as the garage. A metal carport on posts set in concrete pulls out faster than a framed shed resting on skids or a pad. Vinyl and resin sheds break into material a landfill accepts rather than a recycler. List every outbuilding on the parcel when you ask a garage demolition contractor Ann Arbor MI for a number.
A shed with a wood floor over blocks leaves behind nothing but a flat patch of dead grass. Anything sitting on a poured pad raises the same concrete question the garage does. Rolling these into one mobilization runs cheaper than calling us back out in the spring.
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07Debris Haul-Off
Wood framing, shingles, concrete, and steel each go somewhere different once they leave your property. Clean concrete has a crusher waiting for it, and scrap metal brings money at the yard. Mixed loads cost more to dump, so the piles stay apart while the building comes down.
A single-bay garage usually fills fewer loads than the floor underneath it. Old paint cans, tires, fuel, and lawn chemicals stored inside get handled apart from building material. Tell us what is in there ahead of the day, because those items change the disposal plan. Nails and glass are raked and magnet-swept off the grass before we pull out.
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08Backfill And Grading
The void a stem wall leaves is deeper than most owners picture. Clean fill returns in layers, and each layer is rolled tight before more dirt lands on it. Loose dirt dumped in a single pass will settle into a visible dish by the second spring. Set the finished ground so runoff heads for wherever the lot already drains, never back toward the dwelling.
Say whether topsoil is stripped from your own lot or delivered. Fence sections taken down for access go back up, and the gate must latch like it did before. Shrubs, sprinkler heads, and any tree you want left alone should be flagged in paint the morning we start.
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