Shed Removal and Demolition in Chicopee, MA

A shed is two jobs. Emptying it, which is a normal cleanout and usually takes longer than people expect. Then taking the structure apart and removing it, which is light demolition.

Most people forget the first half when they ask for a price. A shed that has been in a Western Mass yard for fifteen years contains mowers, paint, bags of fertiliser, tools, bicycles, an old grill and probably some tires. Some of that is scrap, some is hazardous waste that cannot go in a truck at all, and all of it has to come out before anything else happens.

The structure itself depends entirely on what it is made of. A metal shed comes apart with a socket set in an hour. A wooden shed on skids takes a few hours. A wooden shed built on a poured concrete slab, with a shingled roof and a real floor, is most of a day and a much bigger pile.

Check with your building department first

Under 780 CMR, small detached structures generally do not need a permit while larger ones or anything attached to the house generally do. The usual threshold discussed is 200 square feet, but the number and the process genuinely vary between municipalities, and Springfield, Northampton and Amherst do not all handle it the same way. It takes one phone call to your town's building department, and it is worth making, because demolishing something that required a permit can cause problems with insurance and with a future sale.

The slab is the question that changes the price

If the shed sits on a concrete slab, decide before you book whether the slab is staying. Leaving it is much cheaper and gives you a patio base or a spot for a new shed. Breaking it up is a different job with a different tool, and broken concrete is heavy enough that it is priced by weight rather than volume.

Sheds on skids or a gravel pad are simpler. The structure comes off, the pad stays or gets raked out, and there is nothing to break. Sheds on posts sunk in concrete are in between, because each post footing has to come out of the ground.

Then there is what is underneath. Sheds that have been in place for a decade or more are usually home to something. Wasps in the eaves in late summer, mice, occasionally something larger under the floor. It rarely stops the job but it does change the day, and it is worth a look before the crew arrives.

Where the material goes

Wood has been banned from Massachusetts landfills since 1 July 2006, though it may still go to a municipal waste combustion facility, which is a distinction most pages get wrong. Pressure treated lumber is handled separately because of what is in it. Metal sheds and any hardware go to scrap. Asphalt shingles are heavy and go to construction and demolition processing. It is a mixed load and it needs sorting rather than tipping.