So, I have promised some people an update on our choice of demolition company, how they are and what we think of them.
We chose Magill Demolition for reasons that have been previously discussed.
Am I upset with this choice? Not at all.
Everything about this has been easy, and mostly through email. We were a little over-excited about when they would start, and in turn a little disappointed that they turned up a few days into the “week beginning 1st June”, but that certainly was nothing to get upset with them about. They have absolutely lived up to what they have claimed that they would do, we just wanted to see progress in the first second of that week 
Instant gratification is what I’m all about!!
This morning we had our first potential hiccup with them. I went out to the block to get a pic:
You can see that the footings are still there. What you can’t see is where they have dug around the footings towards the back of the block.
So I’m just about to get back into my car to drive away, when I get called over to the backhoe operator. He shows me the footings, explains that standard house footings in this area are about 350-500mm in depth, and I’m looking into a hole deep enough to be a swimming pool and can see that our footings are STILL GOING. They are close to 2m in depth, and 350-500mm in width!! Whoever built this house had intended it to last as long as the bloody pyramids or something! So he says “Danny will be in touch – he needs to come out onsite and have a look to determine extra cost for digging this out and disposing of the extra materials”. Extra cost? Wha? How much extra cost?
Then he goes on to tell me that because the footings have to be dug out from such a depth, the land will need to be filled. The soil is no longer compacted enough then, so we either spend a fortune having the soil compacted to hold up our house, or we need to get the engineers back out to determine where they would like to fit piers to hold up the house. All of this will also cost.
Fast forward to this afternoon. Chris and I went to the block to see how they are going with the removal of the footings. It’s almost out!! No new pics, though. Danny Colangelo (my contact at Magill Demolition) is on the site, and comes over to chat to us about the changes due to the excess footings. He went on to say that the block will need a bit of fill added, so then they would be removing all the building materials and would scrape soil from the corners and sides of the block to fill in a little with all good soil – no junk materials. There may be small particles, but nothing like random bricks or anything that would impact on the guys needing to dig out the foundations for the new build. We asked him how much it is likely to cost us, as the backhoe operator had mentioned that we’d not be happy, it would cost a pretty penny, etc. Danny comes back with “I’ll have to get the extra disposal material weighed, but I’d expect around – say – $500″. I’ll verify this figure when our final bill comes in, but I have to say that it was a huge relief!!! I was expecting an extra 0 on the end of that figure!!
Danny goes on to tell us that it should all be finished tomorrow, he’ll get the excess charges done and send the final bill, yadda yadda yadda, a gazillion payment options – whatever is easiest, etc. And he’s just such a nice, nice guy. So… Now, am I upset with my choice in demolition companies? Absolutely not. Would I recommend Magill Demolition? Definitely. They were not the cheapest, but by far the best that we had been in discussions with. They have been very professional and fast to get back to us with any queries, and just overall a pleasure to deal with. We are VERY happy customers thus far!!
Add to that, Chris contacted our builders this afternoon to discuss costs for piers and such for our new foundations… Longridge expect it would only cost us between $5000 and $10000 for this work, which is another MASSIVE relief! We have heard so many horror stories about surprise footings bills, so again were expecting a much larger figure. Marco at Longridge went on to explain that the footings already quoted for our house are extremely deep, and that this would have very little impact on it. Once again feeling very happy with our choice of builders! And once again, will verify this cost once we get the final figures through!!
I started this day with the expectation of this costing us somewhere in the tens of thousands. I think I’ll now sleep much better tonight than I otherwise would have!
