NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
Most of the homes in East Hills were built between 1946 and 1955. Levitt & Sons finished Strathmore in 1947. Canterbury Woods broke ground in 1946. Fairfield Park went up in 1949. These homes are now pushing 80 years old — and at that age, the cost to restore one rarely makes sense when the lot underneath it is worth over a million dollars. What most East Hills homeowners are really looking for isn’t just demolition. They want a cleared site, a clean permit record, and a crew that didn’t cut corners getting there.
That’s where the process matters. Every pre-1980 home in East Hills carries real asbestos risk — in the floor tiles, the pipe wrap, the joint compound, the exterior siding. Nassau County requires compliance with both New York State Industrial Code Rule 56 and the county’s own EHRP/EHRT asbestos regulations before any demolition begins. If your contractor doesn’t know both frameworks, you’re exposed. We’re licensed and certified under both — and we handle the survey, the abatement, and the teardown as one coordinated job, not three separate contracts.
When the work is done, you’re not left with a debris pile and a question mark. The site is cleared, graded, and ready for your builder to move in. For East Hills homeowners running on a tight construction timeline — in a market where homes sell in under three weeks — that handoff matters.
We’re a Long Island-based environmental and demolition company that’s been working across Nassau and Suffolk County for over 12 years. We’re not a general contractor who does the occasional teardown — demolition, asbestos abatement, and full-site remediation are our core work. We’ve completed more than 340 demolition projects across the New York metro area, including incorporated villages like East Hills where the permitting process runs through a village Code Enforcement Officer, not just Nassau County.
That distinction matters more than most homeowners realize. East Hills operates under its own Chapter 223 building construction ordinance. A demolition permit here requires sign-off at the village level — separate from the county process. Contractors who don’t know that find out the hard way, usually after a stop-work order. We know the difference, and we handle both layers before a single wall comes down.
We hold EPA certification, OSHA certification, NYS DOH asbestos licensing, Nassau County EHRP/EHRT compliance credentials, and NYS and NYC M/WBE certification. These aren’t decorative — they’re the specific credentials required to legally perform demolition on the pre-war housing stock that defines East Hills.
Before anything is touched, we conduct a full asbestos and hazardous material survey. For the original post-war homes in East Hills — Strathmore, Norgate, Fairfield, Westwood — this step is not optional. It’s legally required under both state and Nassau County regulations, and it determines the full scope of the abatement work before demolition pricing is finalized. You’ll know exactly what’s there and what it takes to handle it properly.
Once the survey is complete and the abatement scope is confirmed, the permitting process begins. That means coordinating with the Village of East Hills’ Code Enforcement Officer under Chapter 223, filing the Nassau County demolition permit through the Department of Public Works, arranging utility disconnections with the relevant providers, and satisfying all state and federal environmental requirements. This isn’t a quick step — but it’s the step that keeps your project from getting stopped mid-demolition. We manage it all.
When permits are in hand and utilities are disconnected, the physical demolition begins. Equipment access in East Hills is planned carefully — the village’s residential streets, large lots, and hilly North Shore terrain all factor into how machinery is staged and how debris is hauled. After the structure is down, the site is cleared, graded, and left in a condition your builder can actually work with. If you’re doing a teardown-and-rebuild, we can stay on through the restoration phase. If you just need the site handed off, it’s ready.
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House demolition in East Hills isn’t a one-size job. Some homeowners are doing a complete teardown — clearing an original 1,400-square-foot Cape Cod to build a 4,000-square-foot custom Colonial in its place. Others need selective or interior demolition: gutting a post-war ranch down to the studs while keeping the foundation and framing, or removing a specific addition that’s structurally compromised. We handle both, and everything in between.
Full structural demolition includes the pre-demolition asbestos survey, all required abatement work, village and county permit acquisition, utility coordination, mechanical demolition, foundation removal if needed, debris hauling, and site grading. For East Hills properties where the teardown is the first step in a new build, the site is left cleared and level — ready for your architect and builder to take over without delay.
Selective and interior demolition follows the same compliance process — asbestos testing in the affected areas, proper containment, and permitted work — just scoped to the specific portion of the structure being removed. And if your project is the result of fire damage, a burst pipe, or storm damage, we operate 24/7 and can respond to emergencies on the same day. We’ve helped East Hills homeowners navigate insurance claims from the initial assessment through full restoration, so if you’re dealing with an adjuster right now, that’s a conversation worth having early.
Yes — and this is one of the most common things that trips up contractors working in East Hills for the first time. East Hills is an incorporated village, which means it operates under its own building construction ordinance, Chapter 223 of the Village Code. Under that ordinance, no demolition may begin without a permit issued by the village’s own Code Enforcement Officer. That’s a separate requirement from Nassau County’s demolition permit process, which runs through the Department of Public Works at (516) 571-3678.
So in practice, you’re navigating two permit processes simultaneously — village-level and county-level — before a single piece of equipment arrives on site. Add in the state and federal environmental requirements tied to asbestos abatement on pre-1980 structures, and the permitting phase alone involves multiple agencies. We handle all of it. We know the East Hills process specifically, and we manage every layer of permitting so your project doesn’t stall before it starts.
If your home was built before 1980 — which covers virtually every original structure in East Hills — then yes, an asbestos survey is legally required before any demolition work begins. New York State Industrial Code Rule 56 mandates a pre-demolition asbestos inspection by a certified inspector, and Nassau County adds its own layer through EHRP/EHRT regulations that require licensed professionals compliant with both state and county standards. These aren’t overlapping rules that cancel each other out — they’re separate requirements you have to satisfy independently.
For the post-war homes in Strathmore, Canterbury Woods, Fairfield Park, and Norgate, asbestos exposure risk is high and predictable. These homes were built during the peak era of asbestos use — it shows up in floor tiles, ceiling tiles, pipe insulation, joint compound, roofing materials, and the textured exterior siding common on Cape Cods of that era. We conduct the survey, manage the abatement, and document everything required for regulatory clearance before demolition proceeds. You don’t need a separate asbestos contractor — it’s handled under the same contract.
Nationally, full house demolition runs roughly $6,000 to $25,000, with the average around $15,000 for a 2,000-square-foot home. In the New York metro area — and specifically on Nassau County’s North Shore — expect those numbers to run 20 to 30 percent higher. Labor costs, stricter permitting requirements, limited equipment access on residential streets, and the near-universal presence of hazardous materials in East Hills’ pre-1980 housing stock all push costs upward. A realistic range for a full teardown in East Hills is $20,000 to $35,000 depending on the size of the structure, the extent of asbestos abatement needed, and whether foundation removal is included.
Foundation removal adds roughly $2,000 to $10,000 on top of the base demolition cost. If you’re planning a teardown-and-rebuild — which is the most common scenario in East Hills right now — the total project budget typically runs from $125,000 on the low end to well over $400,000 for a full custom build. The demolition itself is a small fraction of that number, and it’s not the place to cut corners. A permit violation or improper asbestos handling can create legal exposure and project delays that cost far more than any savings on the demo bid.
For most of the original post-war homes in East Hills, the math favors teardown. The original Strathmore ranches and Canterbury Woods Cape Cods were built inexpensively as starter homes for returning veterans — 1,200 to 1,600 square feet, with structural systems that are now approaching 80 years old. In a market where lots routinely sell for over a million dollars and new construction commands $3 million or more, the cost to bring an aging structure up to modern standards — new electrical, new plumbing, new HVAC, foundation work, plus mandatory asbestos and lead paint abatement throughout — often rivals or exceeds the cost of a full teardown and new build.
There’s no universal answer, and it depends on the specific condition of the structure, the scope of your vision, and your timeline. We can give you an honest assessment of what’s actually in the walls before you commit to a renovation budget. We do pre-demolition assessments and can help you understand what you’re working with before you decide which direction makes more sense.
That depends on what you’re building next and what condition the existing foundation is in. If you’re doing a full teardown-and-rebuild, the foundation is typically removed entirely so your new construction can be built on a fresh footing designed for the new structure’s load and layout. Foundation removal adds to the overall cost — generally $2,000 to $10,000 depending on the size and depth — but it’s usually the right call when the new build has a different footprint or the existing foundation has deteriorated.
In some cases, if the existing foundation is structurally sound and the new build’s footprint is compatible, it can be evaluated for reuse — but that’s a structural engineering question, not just a demolition decision. On East Hills’ hilly North Shore terrain, soil conditions and drainage also factor into whether an existing foundation is a viable base for new construction. We coordinate with your builder and, where needed, with structural engineers to make sure the site condition you’re handing off is actually ready for what’s going up next — not just cleared on the surface.
Yes. We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and have documented response times of under an hour for emergency calls. For East Hills homeowners dealing with fire damage, a catastrophic pipe burst, or structural damage from a nor’easter, the speed of that first response matters — both for safety and for your insurance claim. Getting a certified contractor on-site quickly means the damage is properly documented, the scope is accurately assessed, and the insurance adjuster has what they need to process the claim correctly from the start.
This matters especially in East Hills, where homes are high-value and fully insured, and where the insurance claim process can be as complicated as the physical damage itself. We have a documented track record of helping homeowners navigate the claims process — not just performing the demolition and restoration work, but actively working alongside the adjuster to make sure the scope is documented properly and the claim reflects the actual damage. If you’re in the middle of that situation right now, the earlier you get a qualified contractor involved, the better your outcome tends to be.
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