Interior Demolition Before a Remodel: What to Know
Kitchen, bathroom, and basement tear-outs — what's involved, what it costs, and how to prep your Chicagoland home for renovation.
Key Takeaways
- • Interior demo costs $300–$800+ per room in Chicagoland
- • Includes cabinet, flooring, drywall, tile, and fixture removal
- • Pre-1978 homes: test for lead paint and asbestos first
- • We haul all debris — your contractor walks into a clean, prepped space
- • Combine with a dumpster rental for ongoing renovation debris
Before the new kitchen goes in, the old one has to come out. Before the bathroom tile gets laid, the existing floor, vanity, and sometimes walls need to go. That's interior demolition — the messy first step of any remodel that most homeowners underestimate.
We handle selective interior demo across Chicagoland for homeowners doing DIY renovations and for general contractors who need a crew for the tear-out phase. Here's what to expect.
Interior demolition pricing by room
| Room | Typical Cost | What's Removed |
|---|---|---|
| Bathroom (standard) | $300–$500 | Vanity, toilet, tub/shower, tile, flooring, drywall as needed |
| Kitchen (full gut) | $500–$800 | All cabinets, countertops, backsplash, flooring, appliances hauled |
| Basement (partial) | $400–$700 | Drop ceiling, paneling, carpet, built-ins removed |
| Single room (flooring only) | $200–$400 | Carpet, tile, or hardwood removed and hauled |
| Whole-house gut | $1,500–$3,000+ | Every non-structural surface removed, complete haul-away |
All pricing includes labor, debris loading, hauling, and disposal. No surprises — we quote before we start.
What we remove (and what we don't touch)
We remove: cabinets, countertops, vanities, toilets, tub surrounds, tile (floor and wall), drywall, drop ceilings, paneling, carpet, hardwood, vinyl flooring, baseboards, trim, built-in shelving, and non-load-bearing walls.
We don't touch: load-bearing walls (requires structural engineer), asbestos abatement (requires licensed abatement contractor), gas line disconnection (requires licensed plumber), and electrical disconnection (requires licensed electrician). We can refer qualified local contractors for all of these in DuPage and Kane counties.
Kitchen demolition: what to expect
A full kitchen gut is the most common interior demo job we handle. The typical scope: remove all upper and lower cabinets, pull countertops (granite, quartz, laminate — all handled), strip backsplash tile, pull up flooring, and remove old appliances. If the appliances are still functional, we donate them. If not, they get recycled.
The result: your contractor walks into a room with bare studs, subfloor exposed, and zero debris. Most kitchen demos take 4-6 hours for a standard Chicagoland kitchen. Larger kitchens with islands, pantries, or built-in desk areas take a full day.
Pro tip: If your remodel will take weeks, pair demo day with a 15 or 20-yard dumpster rental for the ongoing renovation debris (new drywall scraps, packaging, tile waste). We deliver the dumpster the same day as demo.
Bathroom demolition: scope and prep
Bathroom demos are fast — most are done in 2-3 hours. The scope typically includes: vanity and sink removal, toilet removal, tub or shower surround tear-out, tile removal (floor and walls), and drywall removal to studs where needed for waterproofing.
Before we arrive: shut off the water supply valves to the bathroom. If there's no shutoff in the room, the main water line needs to be turned off. Electrical should be disconnected at the breaker for any hardwired fixtures. We handle the physical tear-out — utilities must be off before we start.
Lead paint and asbestos: the pre-1978 rule
If your home was built before 1978, there's a real chance of lead paint on walls, trim, and doors, and asbestos in floor tiles, popcorn ceilings, pipe insulation, and drywall joint compound. Federal EPA rules require testing before disturbing these materials.
We are not a licensed abatement contractor and we will not demolish materials known or suspected to contain asbestos. If testing reveals hazardous materials, abatement must be completed by a licensed firm before we can begin demo. This isn't a technicality — it's a legal requirement and a health issue.
For homes built after 1978, standard interior demolition proceeds without these concerns.
DIY demo vs. hiring a crew
YouTube makes demo day look fun — sledgehammers, flying drywall, satisfaction. The reality: it's dusty, heavy, and produces 3-5x more debris than you expect. A single bathroom generates 500-800 lbs of tile, drywall, and fixtures. A kitchen gut fills a 15-yard dumpster.
DIY makes sense if you enjoy the work and have disposal figured out. Hiring our demolition crew makes sense if you want it done in hours instead of a weekend, you don't want to rent a dumpster separately, and you want the debris gone the same day.
For contractors: how we work with GCs
General contractors across Chicagoland use us for the tear-out phase so their finish crew can start on schedule. We offer priority scheduling for GC accounts, net-30 invoicing, COI on request, and can coordinate delivery of a roll-off dumpster for the ongoing build phase.
If your project also involves construction debris removal after the build, we handle that too — same crew, same account, one call.
Planning a remodel? Start with demo.
Text us photos of the space and tell us what's coming out — we'll give you a firm price for the tear-out and haul-away.