How much does it cost to demolish and remove a mobile home in South Carolina?
Published cost guides put single wide demolition at roughly $3,000 to $7,000 and double wide demolition at $5,000 to $12,000, with debris disposal included. In the Midlands the landfill rate, the permit and the title paperwork are all known numbers, and this page lays them out.
These are market ranges from published guides and county fee schedules. None of them is a quote from us. We price mobile home teardown and removal after we see the home and the lot, and the estimate is free.
What do the cost guides say a mobile home teardown costs?
The spread between guides mostly reflects who is quoting. National cost sites aggregating homeowner reports land low. Demolition contractors quoting turnkey work with permits, disposal and cleanup land higher. Hometown Demolition puts a single wide at $3,000 to $5,000 and a double wide at $5,000 to $8,000. Dropcurb puts a single wide at $3,000 to $8,500 and a double wide at $5,000 to $15,000. Demo Patrol, a contractor, runs $6,000 to $8,500 and $8,000 to $13,000.
Per square foot, the guides converge on $4 to $8. Dropcurb’s size table is the most useful one for a homeowner.
| Home | Size | Total removal cost |
|---|---|---|
| Small single wide | 12 x 40 | $2,400 to $4,300 |
| Standard single wide | 14 x 70 | $3,600 to $6,000 |
| Large single wide | 16 x 80 | $4,800 to $7,700 |
| Standard double wide | 24 x 60 | $6,000 to $9,800 |
| Large double wide | 28 x 70 | $8,200 to $14,500 |
Inside those totals, Dropcurb estimates labor at 40 to 60 percent, permits and inspections at $100 to $350, landfill disposal at $40 to $80 per ton, and 10 to 15 tons of debris for a single wide. Foundation and pier removal adds $1,500 to $3,500 in the Citrus Demolition guide.
What does the Lexington County landfill charge for a mobile home?
This is the number no national guide has, and it changes how the job gets priced. Lexington County’s solid waste fee schedule, effective July 1, 2026, has two lines for a mobile home at the Edmund Landfill.
| How it arrives | Fee |
|---|---|
| Whole section, moving permit required, no appliances | $285 each |
| Torn down and delivered in pieces | $38 per ton |
| Metal, separated | $28 per ton |
| Appliances without freon | $28 per ton |
| Refrigerator, freezer or AC unit with freon | $15 each |
| Furniture and brown goods | $38 per ton |
A 10 to 15 ton single wide torn down runs about $380 to $570 in tipping fees at $38 per ton. Delivered whole it is $285 flat, but only with a county moving permit and a rig that can move it. Tearing it down costs less to transport and more at the scale. Hauling it whole costs more to transport and less at the scale. We price both ways depending on the home and the road in.
Two rules from the same schedule matter to owners. The whole section rate says no appliances, so the refrigerator, stove and water heater come out first and get billed on their own lines. And the county states that large demolition loads and all contractor generated waste go to the landfill and are charged. A mobile home teardown is not free residential drop off.
Can a mobile home be moved instead of demolished?
Sometimes, and it usually costs more. Hometown Demolition puts relocation at $2,000 to $4,000 per half to break down, move and set up. Dropcurb puts moving a double wide intact at $10,000 to $13,000 and a single wide at $3,000 to $8,000. Hauling a still movable unit to the landfill whole runs $1,000 to $2,000.
Age decides it in Lexington County. The county’s installation guidelines for manufactured housing state that mobile homes built before 1976 cannot be relocated from their current legal location. For those homes, demolition is the only path. The 1976 date is the federal HUD code cutoff, and a lot of the older single wides around Pelion, Gaston and Swansea fall on the wrong side of it.
Moving a newer home takes a moving permit from the county Assessor’s mobile home division. State law requires a certificate from the county treasurer that no taxes are owed before the permit issues, so back taxes get settled first.
What has to happen with the title before a teardown?
A mobile home is titled like a vehicle in South Carolina unless the owner retired the title and attached it to the land. That fork decides the paperwork.
If the home was de titled, it is part of the real property. The landowner owns it and can proceed. Check the deed. If the deed does not mention the home, it was likely never affixed.
If the home still carries a vehicle title, the registered owner has to be identified and a title has to be in hand before the home is destroyed. When the title is lost, the owner applies for a new one through SCDMV with Form 400 and a $15 title fee. When the owner cannot be found and the home is falling in, South Carolina has a derelict mobile home process through the magistrate court with an $80 filing fee. The landowner has the home inspected, files a petition, the magistrate holds a hearing and issues an order declaring it derelict, and removal can proceed.
After the teardown, notify the county auditor. Owners keep paying tax on a home that no longer exists because nobody told the county it was gone.
Do you need an asbestos inspection for a mobile home in South Carolina?
For a single mobile home, generally no. South Carolina’s asbestos regulation, 61-86.1, applies its demolition rules to a facility, and it defines facility to exclude residential buildings with four or fewer dwelling units. One mobile home on one lot falls outside that definition, so the ten working day notification to SCDES and the $50 demolition project license do not apply. SCDES is the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services, the agency that took over from DHEC in July 2024.
The exemption has exceptions. Clearing multiple homes in a compact area under one owner, like a mobile home park, pulls the project back into the regulation. So does a home that sits on an installation or a home being burned for fire training. A developer buying out a park is in a different posture than an owner removing one trailer. Homes built before the 1980s can still contain asbestos in floor tile or siding, so a test is a reasonable precaution even where the state does not require it.
What does the removal process look like?
The job runs in a set order. Ownership and title get sorted first. Utilities get disconnected, usually electric, water, sewer and any propane tank, with the disconnect verified before the permit is issued. Contents and appliances come out. The excavator takes the home apart, single wides in a day and double wides in one to two days, with metal separated from the mixed debris as it comes down. Debris leaves on our own trucks as part of the job. Then the piers, skirting and any slab come out, the pad gets filled and graded, and you have a clean lot.
What happens next on the lot decides the last step. A new home going on the same pad may reuse the septic system if it passes the county’s review, or need a replacement. A lot being sold gets a finish grade so it drains. We handle the grading after a mobile home comes off with the same machines on the same visit.
What should you ask before hiring someone to remove a mobile home?
Ask whether the price includes the permit, the disconnects, the disposal and the pad cleanup. Ask how the appliances and metal are handled, because those are separate landfill lines. Ask whether the home is going whole or in pieces, since that changes the fee. And ask what the lot looks like when the truck leaves. A full house demolition follows the same logic with bigger numbers.
Dirt Cheap has taken down double wides and single wides across the Midlands for years, and Michelle Gumm said it plainly in her Google review: “Contracted them to demolish a double wide on my property. They did it quickly and cleaned up great. Even brought in fill to level the area out.” Call (803) 796-4727 and we will come look at the home and put a number in writing.