Residential Demolition
We tear down houses, mobile homes, and double wides across the Midlands. Full size excavators and dozers do the work, and the lot is left graded and clean. Free estimates from our West Columbia shop.
Concrete removal in West Columbia, SC is its own job, and Dirt Cheap takes it on by itself. We break out driveways, slabs, patios, walkways and sidewalk runs. Front steps, pool decks, carport pads and shop floors come out the same way. So do footings and old foundation walls left standing after a teardown. On commercial lots we take out loading pads and small parking areas. Some calls are one cracked drive. Others are every slab on a closed business. The concrete gets broken with a full size excavator. The steel gets cut free, and the rubble is loaded out on our own trucks. Then the area gets swept and the ground rough graded for whatever comes next. The lot is left clean.
Dirt Cheap is a family owned and woman owned demolition and site work contractor. The shop sits at 4744 Edmund Hwy in West Columbia, on the Lexington County side of the Congaree River. Columbia is across the water in Richland County. Concrete removal here runs on real demolition equipment: full size CASE excavators, dozers, and a tri axle Kenworth dump truck with trailers. A hydraulic breaker handles thick or reinforced concrete. We cover about 50 miles around the shop, including Columbia, Lexington, Cayce, Irmo, Blythewood, Sumter, Aiken, Orangeburg, Newberry and Camden. Larger demolition jobs go anywhere in South Carolina. Google rates the company 4.3 from 17 reviews. Estimates are free, so call (803) 796-4727 and tell us what has to come out.
Tell us about the structure, lot or job and we will get right back to you.
Most calls start with a driveway that cracked, sank or lifted at the joints. A patio or a pool deck that has to go is next most common. After that come slabs: an old house slab, a shop floor, a carport pad, a shed pad. Sidewalk runs and front steps come out in sections. Footings and foundation walls are the heavy end, and they often sit under a foot of dirt. On commercial lots we take out loading pads, dumpster pads and small parking areas. When the building on that pad is coming down too, we handle commercial building and pad teardowns.
Old concrete fails here for reasons you can see in the dirt. Columbia sits on the fall line, where the Piedmont meets the coastal plain. Material from the University of South Carolina describes extremely rapid drainage through the sandy soils of the Carolina Sandhills. A slab on that ground settles at the corners and cracks through the middle. Red clay does the opposite. It holds water, swells and lifts a thin slab from below. Plenty of drives in the older parts of West Columbia were poured thin decades ago, and thin concrete breaks up fast. We do the same work on driveways and patios over in Cayce.
We start by marking what stays. Utilities get located before a machine touches the ground. Where the removal meets concrete that stays, we saw cut a clean line. That keeps the new edge straight and stops cracks from running into the part you keep. Then the excavator goes to work. A hydraulic breaker cracks thick or reinforced concrete into pieces a machine can lift. Thinner drives and patios come up in sheets with the bucket and thumb. Rebar and wire mesh get cut free and set aside for the metal load. The broken concrete leaves on our own trucks. A Google review from Jodi Ketchem reads: "I have had them complete two jobs and they were here right away, completed and cleaned up immediately."
Permits depend on what is coming out. Lexington County's building permit FAQ lists sidewalks, driveways and patios among the items that do not require a building permit. The same page says a permit is required any time you construct, enlarge, renovate or move a building or structure. So a plain slab or drive is simpler than a structure. The county's demolition permit fee is $21 on the schedule effective July 2026. Rules differ by city, so confirm with the county. Once the concrete is gone we sweep and rough grade the area. When the whole lot needs shaping, that is grading the lot after the concrete comes out.
Published cost guides put concrete removal at roughly $2 to $6 per square foot. Lawn Love runs unreinforced concrete at $2 to $4 and reinforced concrete at $4 to $6. Its national average is $1,380, with most jobs between $585 and $2,790. Fixr puts the national average at $1,856, in a range of $500 to $5,000. Thickness and the steel inside the slab move the number. Access matters, since a machine has to reach the concrete. Weight drives disposal. SCDOT figures reinforced concrete at 150 pounds per cubic foot, so a 20 by 20 foot drive at 4 inches runs about 10 tons. Lexington County's landfill charges businesses $20 a ton for clean concrete and $38 for mixed construction and demolition debris.
Every price starts with a look at the concrete. Someone comes out, measures the area and checks the thickness at a broken edge. We look at how a machine gets in and where the truck can sit. Distance from the West Columbia shop counts too. The number covers the breaking, the load out and the disposal together. Estimates are free, so call (803) 796-4727 and tell us what has to come out. If a new surface is going back down, our crew can pour the new driveway or patio. You can also get a free estimate scheduled.
Free, no-obligation estimates across the Midlands, from our West Columbia shop.
(803) 796-4727From the first call to clean ground, here is how it goes.
Tell us what you need gone or built: a house, a mobile home, an overgrown lot, a driveway, a septic system. Our office gets you on the schedule fast.
We come see the property, look at access and what has to leave, and give you a written number. The estimate is free and the price covers the work we agreed on.
Our crew runs the equipment on site. Full size excavators and dozers handle the teardown or dirt work, and debris leaves on our own trucks as part of the job.
The site gets graded out, filled where it needs it, and left ready for what comes next: a new build, a driveway, a septic system or just a clean lot.
Common questions about concrete removal across the Midlands. Don't see yours? Give us a call and ask.
We tear down houses, mobile homes, and double wides across the Midlands. Full size excavators and dozers do the work, and the lot is left graded and clean. Free estimates from our West Columbia shop.
Dirt Cheap tears down commercial buildings across the South Carolina Midlands. Strip malls, churches, warehouses and condemned structures come down with full-size excavators and dozers. We work out of a shop in West Columbia.
We clear wooded and overgrown lots across the Midlands, half acre house sites and multi acre tracts alike. Full size excavators and dozers take out the trees, the brush, and the stumps. Our shop is in West Columbia and estimates are free.
Grading and site prep out of our West Columbia shop. We cut building pads, level low yards, and reshape wet ground so water runs off. Estimates are free anywhere in the Midlands.
Dirt Cheap digs site excavation, utility and drainage trenches, and storm drain repairs across the Midlands. Our shop sits in West Columbia, and we run full size excavators and dozers. Estimates are free.
We repair rutted, washed out and potholed driveways across the Midlands, from short residential drives to quarter mile farm lanes. Our crew cuts the ruts out, reshapes the crown and packs the surface so water leaves the drive instead of cutting into it. We also grade new lanes and replace broken concrete drives.
Full size CASE excavators, dozers and a tri axle Kenworth dump truck. Machines sized for two story houses, commercial buildings and whole lots. A mini excavator crew cannot do this work.
One contractor takes the structure down, clears the lot, fills the low spots, grades it flat and can finish with a repaired driveway, concrete or a septic system. No handoffs between companies, no waiting on a second crew.
Cleanup is part of the job, on our own trucks. The site gets cleaned as the teardown happens, so when the machines load up and leave, the lot is done.
The shop sits on Edmund Highway, so Columbia, Lexington and Cayce are minutes away. Family and woman owned. Call and you talk to our office, not a call center.
Real reviews from real demolition, excavation and site work jobs on Google.
Storm drain repair for apartment complex fixed twice, both required a large excavation. Did both jobs quickly and for a great price. Would highly recommend.
Awesome Company. 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. Marked the septic system as required.
Stop looking. Awesome folks to deal with through and through.
Published guides put trenching at $5 to $12 per linear foot, about $500 to $1,200 for a 100 foot trench. See what moves the cost of your trench in SC.
Read more →
Published guides put a new concrete driveway at $6 to $15 per square foot, or $2,400 to $8,600 for two cars. See what moves the cost in South Carolina.
Read more →A structure that needs to come down, a lot that needs clearing, a driveway that needs help, a septic system going in? Call or send the form and we will come look at the property and price the job. The estimate is free.
Tell us about the structure, lot or job and we will get right back to you.