Best Demolition Contractor in Mountain View

Mountain View Building Types and Demolition Permit Rules

Mountain View fits very different buildings into a small city. Old Mountain View has wood-frame bungalows and craftsman houses on narrow lots with detached garages at the back. Monta Loma and other postwar tracts have Eichlers and similar slab homes, many with radiant heat tubing cast into the concrete. Along El Camino Real, Rengstorff Avenue and the blocks near the Caltrain line, 1960s apartments and small commercial buildings are being replaced by rowhouses and townhomes. North Bayshore and East Whisman add low-rise office and R&D buildings on large parcels.

Teardown permits are issued by the Building Division inside Mountain View's Community Development Department. Before releasing one, the city generally wants the utilities confirmed off, the asbestos survey and the air district notice. An older house may get a historic resources check, and any protected Heritage tree on the lot needs its own approval before work happens near it. On a redevelopment, the demolition usually rides on the planning approval for the new project, so the start date follows that approval.

Asbestos is the regional air district's territory (BAAQMD). Under Regulation 11, Rule 2, a building gets surveyed before demolition and the district is notified ahead of most demolitions, normally at least ten working days before work begins. Asbestos in joint compound, floor tile, flue pipe or roofing gets removed by a certified abatement firm, and we book their crew ahead of ours. We do not perform abatement ourselves.

Rental buildings carry one more step. Mountain View has tenant relocation rules that apply when occupied rental units are taken off the market, and the owner works through those with the city before a demolition date is set. We build our schedule around that timeline rather than guess at it.

What Drives Demolition Cost in Mountain View

There is no flat rate for tearing down a building here, and a number given sight unseen is a guess. Size and construction come first: a small wood bungalow comes apart and loads out very differently from a two-story stucco fourplex or a concrete tilt-up. Foundations come next. A raised floor on a perimeter footing clears quickly, while a thick slab with radiant tubing, or a basement, takes more breaking and more truckloads.

Access is the cost driver people underestimate in Mountain View. A narrow lot with houses close on both sides, no alley, cars parked along both curbs and one shared driveway means smaller equipment, more trips and some hand work along the property lines. If trucks have to stage in the street, the city may want an encroachment permit and traffic control. Overhead lines and big street trees also limit where a machine can swing.

The rest is what sits in and under the building: the survey results and any abatement, sewer lateral work, possible soil testing on former industrial land, and how much concrete and asphalt there is to break and haul. Concrete, asphalt, metal and clean wood all have recycling outlets, which helps meet CALGreen and city diversion rules and usually costs less than dumping mixed loads.