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Demox

Miami-Dade County

Structural Demolition

Load-bearing elements removed under an engineer's sequence, with shoring in place.

Who usually calls

Engineer-led work. The buyer is checking whether you understand shoring and sequencing before you touch anything.

Structural demolition is removing elements that carry load, and it is the one scope where the sequence is not a matter of preference. An engineer sets the order, the temporary support goes in first, and the removal follows the drawing.

The cost sits in the shoring and the engineering far more often than in the demolition. Temporary support has to be designed, installed, inspected and left in place until the permanent solution takes the load, and on a long programme the hire alone can exceed the cost of taking the element out.

Everything is documented because everything is inspected. The engineer's drawing, the shoring installation, the condition of what remains, and the handover to the next trade each have a record, and that record is what the permit sign-off is built on.

Licensing, plainly

This scope is licensed contracting in Florida, and ISP GROUP LLC does not hold that licence today. So we are not offering to perform it and you should not read this page as a bid for it. What is written here is what the work involves and what the county requires, which is true whoever does it.

What we can do now: walk the site, scope and document the work, handle the survey, the notification and the permit paperwork, bring in a licensed contractor who contracts that part directly with you, and do the clearance, haulage and disposal ourselves. When you take bids, ask every contractor for a licence number and verify it on the issuing register.

Shoring posts and needle beams in place, one bearing wall opened up.
Shoring posts and needle beams in place, one bearing wall opened up. Generated footage, not a job of ours and not a recording of one. It shows what the scope looks like. Our own work goes up as clients release it.

Scope

What is in the job.

Included

  • Engineer's removal sequence and temporary works design obtained before pricing is finalised
  • Temporary support designed, installed and inspected before any load is disturbed
  • Removal strictly to the engineer's sequence
  • Monitoring of what remains where the design calls for it
  • Interfaces left prepared for the permanent structural solution
  • Documentation at each stage for the permit sign-off
Shoring posts and needle beams in place, one bearing wall opened up.
Licensed stock photograph of the same kind of work.

What moves the price

We do not publish a rate for this, because a number given without seeing the site is either useless or untrue. These are the things that decide it.

  • Shoring design and how long the support has to stay in place
  • Access for the support equipment, which on an occupied floor can dictate the whole method
  • Whether the building stays occupied, which fragments the work into windows
  • The quality of as-built information, because unknown load paths mean investigation first
  • Permit review duration, which on structural work is longer than on a strip-out

Permits

Where this scope sits with the county.

This is always permitted work and always needs an engineer's drawing before the application. The review is longer than for non-structural scopes, and the permit sign-off depends on the inspection record. Miami-Dade requires an asbestos survey before demolition regardless of the year the building went up, and the federal NESHAP notification runs ten working days from a correctly filed notice. That clock runs in parallel with everything else, so it is filed first, not last.

Have this ready

  • An engineer appointed, because the design is the critical path and nothing firm can be priced without it
  • Whatever structural drawings exist
  • A decision on whether the building stays occupied during the works
  • The programme for the permanent solution, since the temporary support stays until it takes the load

None of it is required to get a visit booked. All of it makes the number firmer and the date earlier.

The full permit sequence, with sources, is on the permits and asbestos page.

Questions

What people ask about structural demolition.

Why does the engineer come before the quote?

Because the shoring design is most of the cost and the sequence is most of the programme. A price given before the design is a guess, and the direction it is wrong in is predictable.

Can the building stay occupied?

Often yes, with the work in windows, monitoring in place and the escape routes maintained. It changes the method and the price rather than ruling the job out.

How long does the shoring stay?

Until the permanent structure takes the load and the engineer says so. It is a hire cost that runs with the whole programme, not with the demolition.

Usually bundled with