Demolition Contractors in Memphis, TN

Demolition Contractors Memphis takes down houses, garages, sheds and carports, breaks out pools, driveways and slabs, and strips building interiors for renovation, across Memphis and the rest of Shelby County. Memphis is the county seat and, at 633,104 people in the 2020 census, the biggest city on the Tennessee side of the Mid-South. It also has a lot of buildings near the end of their useful life. Wikipedia's housing figures count 286,713 units in the city, with 10.8 percent vacant. Good demolition contractors in Memphis do more than knock a structure over: they sort out the permit, get the utilities shut off and capped, check for asbestos, haul the debris and leave a lot that drains.

The housing behind the work

Point2Homes, summarizing Census data, lists 1970 as the median year built for Memphis housing. The single biggest decade is the 1950s, at 19.9 percent of homes, and about 67 percent of all units went up before 1980. Most are single-family detached houses (59.5 percent).

That age profile shapes almost every job we price:

• Crawlspaces and piers. Many older houses sit on brick piers or a short foundation wall, with plumbing and gas lines underneath that have to be located and capped.
• Hidden materials. Buildings from before 1980 can contain asbestos in floor tile, mastic, siding, roofing and pipe insulation. A 2026 Landmarks Commission filing for a Southern Avenue house slated for demolition included an asbestos survey that found it in the floor tile and mastic and called for abatement before the house came down.
• Add-ons. Decades of carports, sheds, patios, back rooms and in-ground pools mean a single lot can hold several separate demolition items.

Permits and who issues them

In Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County, building and demolition permits run through the Office of Construction Code Enforcement in the Vasco A. Smith, Jr. County Administration Building at 160 N. Main Street. The county lists a separate Demolition line at (901) 222-8365. The suburban cities add their own step. Germantown, for example, says a demolition permit has to be filed with both the city and the county, and contractors there must hold a Germantown business tax license. Shelby County's residential permit procedures note that projects in Germantown, Lakeland, Arlington and Millington are cleared with those cities before the county issues a permit.

We confirm the requirements for your address before the job goes on the calendar and build the permit time into the schedule.

Historic districts need an extra approval

The Commercial Appeal reported in 2021 that Memphis has 18 historic overlay districts, including Crosstown and Vollintine-Evergreen, and that the Landmarks Commission reviews demolitions in them. In practice the owner needs a Certificate of Appropriateness first. Approvals posted by the county for houses in Vollintine-Evergreen and Glenview state that the certificate is not a building permit, that work cannot start without Construction Code Enforcement review, and that the certificate expires after one year if no permit is issued. If your property is in one of those districts, plan for that review before any equipment shows up.

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Condemned and code-enforcement properties

Some of our calls come from owners who have received a notice from the city. Memphis Code Enforcement says that once a structure is condemned, the owner has 30 calendar days to demolish it or the city will do so, and the cost of a city demolition is assessed against the property taxes. If you are facing that deadline, call early. Asbestos checks, utility disconnects and, in a historic district, Landmarks review all take time, and owners can petition for an extension to make repairs.

What we take down

• Houses: full tear-downs of houses and mobile homes, including foundations, piers and slabs.
• Concrete: driveways, patios, sidewalks, steps, garage floors and old slabs broken out and hauled.
• Pools: in-ground pools filled in place or removed completely, then backfilled and compacted.
• Interiors: kitchens, baths, flooring, drywall and full gut-outs for remodels and rehabs.
• Commercial: small commercial buildings, storefront interiors and site clearing.
• Garages and sheds: detached garages, carports, sheds, barns and decks.

The Memphis weather factor

Wikipedia's climate summary for Memphis lists 54.94 inches of rain a year and July highs averaging 91.9 degrees, with severe thunderstorms that bring hail, high winds and the occasional tornado, and ice storms that bring down limbs and power lines. For demolition that means two things. Storm-damaged garages, carports and trees on structures come up after nearly every rough season. And a cleared lot has to be graded to shed that much rain, or it ponds against the neighbor's foundation. We backfill with clean fill, grade it, and leave the lot ready for seed or straw.

From the first call to a cleared lot

Walkthrough. We look at the structure, the lot, access for equipment and anything that must be protected.

Written estimate. Tear-down, hauling and disposal, foundation removal, fill and grade are priced line by line.

Paperwork and shut-offs. Permit filed, asbestos addressed where present, and gas, electric, water and sewer disconnected and capped.

Demolition and hauling. Machines on site, debris loaded out, metal and clean concrete separated where it can be recycled.

Final grade. Holes filled, soil compacted and graded. Call (901) 677-1382 to set up a walkthrough.

Most of our work is in Memphis itself, from Midtown, North Memphis and South Memphis out to Whitehaven, Raleigh, Hickory Hill and Cordova. We also work in the larger towns around it: Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, Lakeland, Arlington and Millington in Shelby County, and Southaven, Olive Branch and Horn Lake just across the state line in DeSoto County, Mississippi. The rules change at each city limit. Inside Memphis, historic overlay districts add Landmarks Commission review. The suburban Shelby County cities add their own sign-off before the county issues a permit, and the Mississippi towns run their own permit offices entirely. Each town page notes what we found about local housing and permit rules.