NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
Most property owners in Steinway don’t run into problems because they made a bad decision. They run into problems because nobody told them what the process actually involves. You hire someone, they start tearing out walls, and somewhere around day three you find out there’s asbestos in the pipe insulation and suddenly your $8,000 project is a $22,000 problem with a stop-work order attached to it.
That’s the reality of working in a neighborhood where over half the buildings were constructed before 1940. The Victorian row houses and worker cottages that line these blocks many of them built in the 1870s and 1880s for Steinway & Sons employees are some of the oldest residential structures in Queens. They’re beautiful. They’re also almost guaranteed to contain asbestos, lead paint, or both. It’s simply what pre-war construction looks like in New York City.
When you work with a contractor who handles hazardous material assessment upfront, you know exactly what you’re dealing with before a single wall comes down. The scope is accurate. The quote holds. The timeline doesn’t fall apart. And when the job is done, your site is clean, documented, and ready for whatever comes next whether that’s a builder, an inspector, or a sale.
We’ve been working in the New York metro area for over 12 years. In that time, we’ve completed more than 340 demolition projects including the kind of dense, attached-row-house environments that define northwest Queens and Steinway specifically. We hold licensing from the NYC Department of Buildings, the NYS Department of Labor, and operate in compliance with USEPA NESHAP regulations. That’s not a list of credentials for show. It’s what it takes to legally pull a demolition permit in New York City and handle asbestos abatement in the same project without handing you off to someone else.
Steinway isn’t a neighborhood where you want to learn on the job. The buildings are old, the streets are tight, and the regulatory requirements are real. We’ve navigated the Queens DOB permit process, worked on pre-war buildings throughout Community District 1, and dealt with every variation of what aging construction hides. Our 4.7-star rating across 33 reviews reflects what consistent, knowledgeable work actually looks like not a marketing push, just repeat customers and referrals.
It starts with a site assessment. Before anything is quoted or scheduled, our team walks the property to understand what we’re dealing with the structure, the materials, the access constraints, and the scope of work. For any building constructed before April 1, 1987, that assessment includes an ACP-5 asbestos evaluation, which is a legal requirement before the NYC Department of Buildings will issue a demolition permit. In Steinway, where the housing stock skews heavily pre-war, this step applies to nearly every project.
If hazardous materials are identified asbestos, lead paint, mold abatement is planned and priced into the project before demolition begins. There’s no separate contractor to coordinate, no gap in the timeline, and no mid-project discovery that rewrites the budget. Once abatement is complete and documented, demolition proceeds under the permits we pull on your behalf. On Steinway’s narrow, attached-building blocks, that also means coordinating DOT street permits for equipment and debris staging, protecting shared party walls, and managing dust containment in a dense residential environment.
When the structural work is finished, debris is sorted and removed properly asbestos waste goes out in labeled 6-mil poly bags via a licensed hazardous waste carrier, not a standard dumpster. What you’re left with is a clean site, full compliance documentation, and a clear path forward for your builder or next phase of construction.
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We handle residential demolition, commercial demolition, interior selective demolition, and full structural teardowns and because we’re also licensed for asbestos abatement, lead abatement, and mold remediation, all of it moves under one contract. For Steinway property owners, that integration isn’t a convenience. It’s a practical necessity. Almost every renovation or demolition project in this neighborhood involves a pre-1987 building, which means hazardous material work isn’t optional it’s built into the legal process before permits are even issued.
For homeowners gutting a kitchen or bathroom in one of the neighborhood’s pre-war row houses, the work includes pre-demolition hazmat testing, abatement if needed, interior demo, and full debris removal. For landlords or investors undertaking gut renovations on two-family or multi-family properties which are common throughout the Ditmars-Steinway area the process also accounts for occupied building protocols, co-op board documentation requirements where applicable, and party wall protection on attached structures.
Emergency demolition is available 24/7, and we bill insurance carriers directly for disaster-related work. If a pipe bursts in a 100-year-old row house near Bowery Bay or a fire damages a unit on Steinway Street, our team can respond the same day, handle the insurance coordination, and get the site cleared before mold takes hold which, in water-damaged buildings, can start within 48 hours.
Yes and it’s not optional. New York City requires an ACP-5 asbestos assessment before the Department of Buildings will issue any permit for renovation, alteration, or demolition in a building constructed on or before April 1, 1987. In Steinway, where more than half the residential buildings were built before 1940, this requirement applies to the overwhelming majority of projects. A Certified Asbestos Inspector conducts the assessment, and if asbestos is found, an ACP-7 notification must be submitted to the NYC Department of Environmental Protection before any abatement work begins.
Skipping this step doesn’t just put you at regulatory risk it puts you at financial risk. If asbestos is discovered mid-demolition without prior documentation, work stops, the site may need to be sealed, and the cost to remediate and restart can far exceed what a proper upfront assessment would have cost. We handle the ACP-5 process as part of the project scope, so you’re not managing a separate inspector or filing paperwork on your own.
The specific permits depend on the scope of work. A full structural demolition requires a Demolition Permit filed with the NYC Department of Buildings. Interior or selective demolition removing non-load-bearing walls, gutting a kitchen or bathroom typically requires an Alteration Type 2 or Type 3 permit depending on the extent of the work. In all cases, the ACP-5 asbestos assessment must be completed and submitted before the DOB will process the permit application.
Beyond the DOB, there are often additional requirements. Utility disconnections gas, electric, water must be certified before demolition begins, coordinated through Con Edison and NYC DEP. If equipment or dumpsters will occupy any part of the street or sidewalk, a NYC DOT street work permit is required. On Steinway’s narrower residential blocks, where staging space is limited and adjacent buildings are attached, that coordination matters. We pull all applicable permits as part of the job you don’t need to navigate the DOB or DOT filing process yourself.
Interior demolition in New York City is priced differently than national averages suggest, and it’s worth understanding why before you get a quote. The regulatory overhead alone ACP-5 asbestos assessment, DEP-certified abatement if needed, mandatory independent air monitoring during asbestos removal, and licensed hazardous waste disposal adds real cost to any project in a pre-war building. Asbestos removal in New York runs roughly $20 to $65 per square foot depending on the material type and location, and air monitoring can add $600 to $1,200 per day on top of that.
For a typical interior gut demolition in a Steinway row house or apartment a kitchen, bathroom, or full floor the total cost including abatement and demo generally ranges from a few thousand dollars on the low end to $15,000 or more for larger scopes with significant hazmat work. The most reliable way to get an accurate number is a proper site assessment, because the quote can only be accurate once the hazardous material picture is clear. A low quote that doesn’t account for asbestos or lead is not a deal it’s a number that will change once the walls open up.
Yes, but only if they hold the right credentials for both. In New York City, asbestos abatement requires two separate layers of certification: a NYS Department of Labor license under Industrial Code Rule 56, and NYC Department of Environmental Protection certification specifically for work within the five boroughs. Demolition requires NYC DOB licensing. Most contractors are licensed for one or the other not both. That’s why so many Steinway property owners end up managing two separate contractors, two schedules, and two sets of paperwork on what should be a single project.
We hold all of the above. We can assess, abate, and demolish under one contract, which means the project moves in sequence without gaps, handoffs, or scheduling conflicts between separate crews. For pre-war buildings in Steinway where asbestos abatement is almost always a prerequisite before demolition can legally begin having a single licensed contractor handle both isn’t just convenient. It’s the most efficient and legally sound way to get the work done.
If asbestos is discovered during demolition without prior documentation, work must stop immediately. The site may need to be sealed, and a licensed asbestos inspector must conduct a formal assessment before anything can proceed. Depending on the quantity and type of asbestos disturbed, USEPA NESHAP notification requirements may also apply. This scenario is exactly what a pre-demolition ACP-5 assessment is designed to prevent and it’s far more disruptive and expensive when it happens mid-project than when it’s identified and addressed upfront.
In Steinway’s pre-1940 housing stock, asbestos is commonly found in pipe and boiler insulation, floor tiles, ceiling tiles, joint compound, roofing materials, and textured wall finishes. The Victorian-era row houses and worker cottages built for Steinway & Sons employees in the 1870s and 1880s are among the highest-risk residential structures in Queens for multiple asbestos-containing materials in the same building. The right approach is to test before you touch anything and to work with a contractor who can handle what’s found without stopping the clock on your project.
Yes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Emergency demolition calls in Steinway most often come after pipe bursts in aging pre-war buildings, fire damage, or storm-related flooding near the Bowery Bay corridor. Queens County has had eight federal disaster declarations since 2000, and northwest Queens has seen repeated flooding events from storms including Sandy, Henri, and Ida. When water gets into a 100-year-old row house, mold can begin growing within 48 hours which means the window for emergency response is short.
We deploy crews for emergency demolition and remediation across Queens and bill insurance carriers directly. That direct billing matters because most property owners dealing with a flooded basement or fire-damaged unit are already managing an active insurance claim, a displaced household, and a damaged property simultaneously. Removing the administrative burden of insurance coordination from that situation is a real, practical benefit. Our team handles the carrier communication and documentation while the physical work gets done. You focus on your family and your property.
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