Strip-out, soft demolition and clearance: calculator for UK builders
Answer the measurements this calculation needs and JobBosh works out the materials with wastage and pack rounding, the labour hours by role, the plant, the waste and the site needs - then prices them from your own figures, a supplier's quotation or a dated price you record. Free, no account needed to start.
What it works out
- Labour: Strip out and load
- Waste: Mixed waste to skip (bulked)
- Material: Dust sheets, zip doors, floor protection, PPE
- Plant: Breaker / tool hire
- Fee: Asbestos refurbishment survey before strip-out (pre-2000 property) - laboratory fee
The questions it asks
| Question | Unit / choices | Required? | Help |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume to remove (loose) | m3 | required | A 6-yard skip is ~4.6 m3; an 8-yard ~6 m3. A full room strip-out is often 4-8 m3. |
| Non-load-bearing walls to take down | m2 | optional - default 0 (labelled assumed) | |
| Any structural removal (load-bearing wall, chimney breast)? | yes / no | optional - default no (labelled assumed) | |
| Property built before 2000? | yes / no | optional - default yes (labelled assumed) |
The norms behind it, with their sources
Coverage, productivity and wastage defaults you can edit; each carries where it comes from and is shown as assumed until your own benchmark replaces it.
| Norm | Value | Source | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strip out and load per m3 | 1.5 hr/m3 | trade practice | assumed |
| Take down a stud / single-skin wall per m2 and clear | 0.8 hr/m2 | trade practice | assumed |
| Rubble per m2 of wall removed (bulked) | 0.05 m3/m2 | trade practice | assumed |
A worked example
Answers used: Volume to remove (loose) 1 m3; Non-load-bearing walls to take down 0 m2; Any structural removal (load-bearing wall, chimney breast)? no; Property built before 2000? yes. These are the recipe's own quantities for those answers - the prices are yours, the supplier's or a quotation's, never a figure typed on a web page.
| Kind | Line | Quantity | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|---|
| labour | Strip out and load | 1.5 hr | 1 m3 x 1.5 h/m3 |
| waste | Mixed waste to skip (bulked) | 1 m3 | 1 m3 |
| material | Dust sheets, zip doors, floor protection, PPE | 1 item | one allowance |
| plant | Breaker / tool hire | 1 hire-day | 1 day per ~15 m2 of wall |
| fee | Asbestos refurbishment survey before strip-out (pre-2000 property) - laboratory fee | 1 item | needs a quotation or your figure - never invented |
Labour on this example: about 1.5 hours across the roles; at your rates it becomes money.
Site questions this work raises: Protection and cleanliness, Waste, Site access and neighbours, Parking and traffic, Utilities and welfare, Commercial and contract.
Specialists or hire it may need, drafted as enquiries from the job's facts: Skip hire.
A refurbishment/demolition asbestos survey is required before intrusive work on a pre-2000 property.
Then what
Price the lines from your crew rates and your material prices (each with its source and date), answer the site questions (parking, skip, welfare, power, water, protection), let JobBosh draft the supplier enquiries you approve, and issue a branded quotation your customer accepts on a secure link. Guest work is kept for 14 days; a free account keeps it for good.