NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
A lot of Long Beach homeowners have already been through one round of this. Post-Sandy repairs, FEMA paperwork, contractors who didn’t quite understand the island’s rules. If you’re back here again — staring at a structure that’s cost more to maintain than it’s worth — the question isn’t whether to demo. It’s whether the contractor you hire actually knows what they’re doing in this city.
When you work with a team that’s handled over 340 demolition projects across Long Island and New York City, the process stops feeling like a gamble. We pull permits correctly. We handle asbestos legally — not ignored. The City of Long Beach Building Department gets what it needs, and your project doesn’t stall at the starting line.
Nearly three-quarters of Long Beach’s housing was built before 1970. That means asbestos-containing materials are present in the overwhelming majority of older structures here — not occasionally, but routinely. A demolition contractor who doesn’t hold NYS DOH asbestos licensure isn’t just cutting corners. They’re putting you in a legally compromised position before a single wall comes down. Getting this right from the beginning is what makes the difference between a project that moves and one that doesn’t.
Green Island Group is a full-service demolition and environmental contractor based in Bohemia, NY, serving Nassau County, Suffolk County, and the five boroughs. We’ve been doing this for over 12 years — and Long Beach is not new territory for us.
We hold EPA certification, OSHA certification, and NYS Department of Health asbestos abatement licensure. We’re also NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified. That combination isn’t common among the demolition contractors showing up in Long Beach search results, most of whom handle junk removal with demolition as a side service.
What that means for Long Beach homeowners: asbestos testing, certified abatement, permit acquisition, structural demolition, debris removal, and site prep all happen under one roof. You’re not coordinating between three separate contractors while trying to satisfy the City of Long Beach Building Department’s requirements. One call covers the whole project — from the Canal Section to the West End, whether you’re two blocks from the ocean or right on Reynolds Channel.
It starts with a site assessment. We look at the structure, identify what’s there — asbestos, lead paint, mold — and give you a clear picture of what the project actually involves before any paperwork is filed. For most pre-1980 homes in Long Beach, certified asbestos inspection is required by New York State law before demolition can legally begin. We handle that in-house, which keeps your timeline intact instead of adding weeks to coordinate a separate abatement contractor.
Once the hazardous material phase is clear, we pull the demolition permit from the City of Long Beach Building Department. This is its own process — separate from Nassau County, separate from the Town of Hempstead. Long Beach has its own licensing requirements, and every permit we file reflects that. If your property sits in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area — which many Long Beach properties do — we account for the compliance documentation that flood zone work requires, including any elevation or foundation removal needed for your new build.
Then the physical work begins. Long Beach is dense. Some blocks in the West End are only two blocks wide, and your neighbors are close. We use equipment sized for the island environment, manage dust and debris containment properly, and coordinate debris removal with required permits for roll-off containers on city streets. When the structure is down and the site is cleared, it’s ready for whatever comes next — whether that’s a new elevated foundation or a fresh start entirely.
Ready to get started?
House demolition in Long Beach isn’t a single-trade job. It involves environmental testing, certified abatement, municipal permitting, structural teardown, foundation removal in many cases, debris hauling, and site preparation — all of which have to happen in the right order, under the right licenses, to satisfy the City of Long Beach’s building code and New York State law.
We handle the full scope. That includes asbestos surveys and NYS DOH-certified abatement for the pre-1980 housing stock that makes up the majority of Long Beach’s residential structures. It includes pulling demolition permits directly with the City of Long Beach Building Department — not a Nassau County office, not a third-party expeditor working blind. And for properties in AE or VE flood zones, it includes the documentation and site work that FEMA compliance requires when you’re clearing a lot for elevated new construction.
If you received NY Rising funding after Sandy, there are specific documentation requirements tied to your reimbursement eligibility that affect how permits and project records need to be maintained. We’ve worked through that process before. We’re also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week — because Long Beach’s storm exposure means emergencies don’t wait for business hours. Whether it’s a planned teardown in the spring construction season or an urgent assessment after a nor’easter compromises a structure, the response is the same: we pick up, we show up, and we get it handled.
Not automatically — but it often leads there. The FEMA 50% rule applies to properties in Special Flood Hazard Areas, which covers a significant portion of Long Beach. If the cost of repairing or improving your home equals or exceeds 50% of the structure’s pre-damage market value, the entire structure must be brought into full compliance with current floodplain regulations. That typically means elevating the home on piles or piers to meet Base Flood Elevation requirements — and in many cases, the existing foundation has to come out entirely to make that work.
For a lot of Long Beach homeowners, especially those with smaller bungalows or capes that were built as summer cottages, the math on repairing versus rebuilding shifts pretty quickly once you factor in what full flood compliance actually costs. With median home values in Long Beach near $917,000, the land itself is worth enough that a properly elevated new build often makes more financial sense than repeated repairs on a structure that will keep triggering the same threshold. If you’re not sure where your property stands, that’s exactly the kind of question we can help you work through before you commit to anything.
Yes — and this isn’t optional. New York State law requires a certified asbestos inspection before demolition of any structure that may contain asbestos-containing materials. Given that roughly 72% of Long Beach’s housing was built before 1970, this requirement applies to the vast majority of full demolition projects in the city. Materials like floor tiles, pipe insulation, roofing, siding, and joint compound from that era routinely contain asbestos.
If asbestos is found — which it usually is in older Long Beach homes — a licensed abatement contractor must remove it before structural demolition begins. Skipping this step doesn’t just create a health hazard. It exposes you to significant legal and financial liability, and it will stop your project cold if the City of Long Beach Building Department or a state inspector gets involved. We’re NYS DOH-licensed for asbestos abatement and handle inspection, removal, and demolition as one coordinated project. You don’t need to find a separate abatement company and then coordinate handoffs — we manage the entire sequence.
The City of Long Beach Building Department handles demolition permits independently — this is not a Nassau County process or a Town of Hempstead process. Long Beach is an incorporated city with its own building code, its own licensing requirements, and its own permitting workflow. A demolition permit is required before any partial or full structural work begins, and it can only be obtained by a City of Long Beach licensed contractor or by the homeowner directly.
The permit application requires documentation of the scope of work, proof of contractor licensing, and — for properties in flood zones — additional compliance documentation related to FEMA regulations and Base Flood Elevation. If utility disconnection is involved, that needs to be coordinated and documented as well. Starting demolition without a permit isn’t just a fine risk — it can trigger a stop-work order that freezes your entire project and creates costly corrections. We pull permits directly with the Long Beach Building Department on every project, and we handle the flood zone documentation when it applies.
The honest answer is that it varies — and in Long Beach, there are a few factors that push costs higher than a standard mainland Nassau County demo. The island access alone affects logistics: all equipment, crews, and debris loads have to cross a bridge to reach the site, which factors into scheduling and cost. The density of the city — particularly in the West End, where some blocks are only two blocks wide — means equipment selection and site management require more precision than a typical suburban teardown.
Beyond logistics, most Long Beach demolition projects involve asbestos abatement, which adds cost but is legally required and non-negotiable. Foundation removal is common when new construction requires elevated pile foundations for flood compliance. Debris disposal requires permitted roll-off containers on city streets. All of that is part of the real scope of a Long Beach demo — and a quote that doesn’t account for those elements isn’t a complete quote. We give you a full-scope estimate upfront so you’re not hit with additions mid-project.
Our scope covers the full demolition and site preparation side — asbestos abatement, structural teardown, foundation removal, debris hauling, and site clearing to a ready-to-build condition. The construction of the new structure is a separate engagement with a general contractor or builder of your choosing, but we coordinate the handoff so your site is properly prepared for whatever foundation system the new build requires.
In Long Beach specifically, that often means pile or pier foundation prep, since new construction in flood zones typically requires elevation above Base Flood Elevation. Getting the site cleared and graded correctly for that kind of foundation work is something we account for during the demolition phase — not something left for the next contractor to figure out. If you already have a builder lined up, we can work directly with them on site prep requirements. If you don’t, we can point you toward resources for finding licensed contractors familiar with Long Beach’s post-Sandy building standards.
The City of Long Beach is explicit about this: construction materials and demolition debris cannot be placed curbside for sanitation pickup. All debris must be properly disposed of by the contractor, and roll-off containers placed on city streets require a separate permit from the city. This is a detail that catches some homeowners off guard when they’re comparing quotes — a contractor who doesn’t mention debris disposal isn’t giving you the full picture.
For projects involving asbestos-containing materials — which applies to most pre-1980 homes in Long Beach — the disposal process is more involved. Abated materials must be packaged, labeled, transported, and disposed of according to NYS DOH and EPA regulations. That’s not something you can hand off to a general hauler. We handle certified hazardous waste disposal as part of the abatement process, and standard demolition debris gets removed and disposed of properly as part of the overall project scope. When we leave a Long Beach site, it’s clean, compliant, and ready for whatever comes next.
Local Resources
Useful Links
