NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
When roughly 69% of homes in Plandome were built before 1950, a gut renovation isn’t just a construction project — it’s a hazardous materials project until testing says otherwise. Floor tiles, pipe insulation, plaster, joint compound — these were standard in the homes being built in Plandome in the 1930s and 40s, and they don’t disappear just because you’re ready to renovate. What changes when you hire a contractor who is licensed for both demolition and abatement is simple: the project doesn’t stop.
Most contractors will get into your walls and then hand you a problem. They find something they can’t legally touch, work stops, and now you’re coordinating a second company on a timeline that wasn’t built for two. We hold the NYS Department of Labor Asbestos Handling Contractor License — which means when something turns up, the same team that started your project finishes it. No handoff. No delay. No gap in who’s accountable.
For a home worth $2.5 million on Manhasset Bay, that accountability isn’t a bonus — it’s the whole point. Plandome’s coastal exposure also means moisture gets into old structures in ways that accelerate deterioration. Water-damaged plaster, moldy insulation, and compromised subfloors are common finds in homes that have been sitting on the bay for 80 or 90 years. Having one team that can assess, abate, and demolish means you’re not managing a relay race through your own home.
We’re a full-service environmental contracting and demolition company based in Bohemia, NY, with documented service coverage across Nassau County — including Plandome, Plandome Heights, Plandome Manor, and the broader Manhasset area. We were built around a specific problem that homeowners on Long Island’s North Shore face constantly: demolition and hazardous materials abatement are almost always part of the same project, but most contractors only do one of them.
We hold the licensing to do both — asbestos abatement, mold remediation, lead paint removal, and structural demolition — under a single contract. That’s not a common setup. It’s why clients in Plandome, where the housing stock is among the oldest in Nassau County, keep coming back and referring their neighbors.
Our 4.7-star review record reflects something that matters in a small village of 1,458 people: word travels. Reviewers consistently name individual staff members and describe being genuinely informed through a process that can feel overwhelming. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to on every job in Plandome and across the North Shore.
It starts with an assessment. Before anything comes down, we identify what’s there — asbestos-containing materials, lead paint, mold, structural conditions. In a Plandome home built in the 1930s or 40s, this step isn’t optional. It’s what determines the legal scope of the work and what licenses are required before demolition begins. Skipping it doesn’t save time — it creates liability.
Once the assessment is complete, permitting comes next. Because Plandome is an incorporated village with its own governing authority, demolition permits are pulled from the Village of Plandome — not the Town of North Hempstead’s building department. That distinction matters. Contractors who don’t know the difference cause delays that push start dates back by weeks. We know which permit office governs your property and handle that process in the contractor’s name, so the work is fully documented and legally protected from the start.
From there, abatement and demolition proceed in the correct sequence — containment, removal, air clearance testing, then structural demo. When the project is complete, you receive disposal manifests for any hazardous materials removed from the property. That documentation matters when you sell, when you pull future permits, and any time a question comes up about what was found and how it was handled. It’s not paperwork for its own sake — it’s protection for your property.
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Every project we take on in Plandome starts with the same understanding: this is not a post-war Cape Cod in Levittown. The homes here were built in a different era, with different materials, and they require a contractor who is equipped for what that actually means. That includes pre-demolition hazardous materials testing, licensed asbestos abatement under NYS DOL certification, EPA RRP-compliant lead paint handling, mold assessment and remediation where needed, selective interior demolition that protects original structural elements and finishes worth keeping, full debris removal, and post-project clearance testing with written documentation.
Selective demolition is worth calling out specifically, because it’s where a lot of contractors fall short in a village like Plandome. Plandome’s homes often have original hardwood floors, plaster ceilings, period millwork, and stone foundations that add real value to the property. Swinging a sledgehammer through all of it isn’t demolition — it’s destruction. The work here requires knowing what to take out and what to leave intact, and doing it carefully enough that the reconstruction phase isn’t starting from scratch.
For projects that involve water damage — which is a realistic scenario for any home sitting close to Manhasset Bay — our scope extends to water-damaged material removal and mold containment before demolition begins. The full scope, from first assessment through final clearance, is covered under one contract.
Yes — and the permit needs to come from the right place. Because Plandome is an incorporated village, it operates under its own zoning and building authority separate from the Town of North Hempstead. The Village of Plandome’s zoning code (Chapter 175) explicitly requires a valid permit before any demolition or structural work begins — including interior work like removing walls or gutting a kitchen or bathroom. Contractors who aren’t familiar with how Nassau County’s incorporated villages work sometimes attempt to pull permits through the Town’s building department, which is the wrong office for properties within the village boundaries. That mistake causes real delays. We handle permitting as part of the project scope, pulling permits correctly in the contractor’s name so the work is documented and legally protected from day one.
Statistically, yes — you should assume it’s there until testing says otherwise. Approximately 69% of homes in Plandome were built before 1950, and the materials used in that era routinely contained asbestos: floor tiles, pipe insulation, boiler wrap, ceiling plaster, roofing felt, and joint compound were all common sources. That doesn’t mean every renovation triggers a major abatement project, but it does mean that testing before demolition is the legally correct and practically smart approach. If asbestos is found, New York State law requires a licensed NYS DOL Asbestos Handling Contractor to remove it — and that license is not held by most general demolition contractors. We hold it, which means the project doesn’t stop when something turns up.
It’s a meaningful difference, and it matters especially in a community like Plandome where the housing stock is old and hazardous materials are a realistic part of almost every project. A junk removal company hauls away items and debris — they’re not licensed to perform structural demolition, and they’re explicitly not equipped for work involving asbestos, lead paint, or mold. Several companies that appear in search results for demolition in the Plandome area are actually junk removal operations that handle shed and deck removal for non-habitable structures and state clearly that their services don’t include work requiring licensed professionals or permits. A licensed demolition contractor holds the certifications required by New York State and federal law, pulls the proper permits, follows OSHA demolition standards, and provides documentation of how hazardous materials were handled and disposed of. For any interior work in a pre-war Plandome home, you need the latter.
Coastal proximity accelerates the deterioration of older building materials in ways that aren’t always visible until you open up the walls. Salt air, elevated humidity, and the periodic flooding that comes with living near Manhasset Bay — especially after nor’easters or storm surge events — create conditions where water intrusion into an 80-year-old Plandome structure is not unusual. When water gets into pre-war construction, it doesn’t just damage the finishes. It saturates plaster that may contain asbestos, promotes mold growth within 24 to 72 hours, and can leave behind structural damage that needs to be assessed before any demolition work begins. For Plandome homeowners dealing with water-damaged areas of their home, the remediation and demolition phases are connected — and having a contractor who handles both under one contract means the work proceeds in the correct sequence without coordinating between separate companies during what is often an already stressful situation.
Yes, and it’s not optional. The EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule — known as the RRP Rule — requires that any contractor disturbing more than six square feet of interior painted surface in a pre-1978 home must hold EPA RRP certification. Given that virtually the entire housing stock in Plandome predates 1978, and the majority of it predates 1950, lead paint is a factor in almost every interior demolition project here. Violations of the RRP Rule carry significant federal fines, and the liability falls on the property owner as much as the contractor when work is done without proper certification. Beyond the legal dimension, lead paint that is disturbed without proper containment creates a genuine health risk — particularly in homes where children are present. We hold EPA RRP certification, which means lead paint is handled with the correct containment protocols, removed through licensed channels, and documented as part of the project record.
It depends on the scope, but the honest answer is that the timeline in a pre-war Plandome home is almost always shaped by what’s found during the assessment phase — not just the demolition itself. A straightforward kitchen gut in a home without hazardous materials might take a few days. The same project in a 1938 Plandome home that tests positive for asbestos-containing floor tiles and lead paint on the walls involves an abatement phase, containment, air clearance testing, and proper disposal before structural demolition can begin. That adds time — but it’s time that protects you legally and protects your family’s health. The permitting process through the Village of Plandome also factors into the overall timeline, which is why starting that process early matters. We provide a clear written scope of work before the project begins, so you understand what’s involved, what the sequence looks like, and what to expect at each stage — not a rough estimate that shifts once the walls come down.
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