Interior Demolition Estimate Template
An interior demolition estimate should define scope room by room and assembly by assembly, price protection and dust control as its own line, bill disposal by load or ton, exclude hazardous materials pending testing, and state how change orders for concealed conditions are priced and approved. ShowTheReceipts turns the approved estimate into the invoice so the final bill matches what the customer signed.
Scope block — room by room
For each area, spell out what’s removed, down to what substrate, and what stays.
- Walls — finish only, or to studs, or full assembly
- Ceilings — drywall, plaster, grid and tile
- Flooring — finish, underlayment, to subfloor
- Cabinetry, fixtures, and millwork
- Mechanical, electrical, plumbing — capped or removed by others
Line items
- Selective demolition — by area or assembly
- Protection and containment — floor protection, dust walls, negative air
- Debris haul-out — stairs, elevator, or chute access noted
- Disposal — by load or ton, tickets at actual
- Recycling / salvage credit — where applicable
- Dumpster placement and permit — where street placement requires one
- Daily cleanup and final broom clean
- After-hours or occupied-building work — premium
Exclusions — the paragraph that matters
Hazardous materials pending testing, structural modification pending engineering, concealed conditions, work beyond the scoped rooms.
Vague scope always resolves in the customer’s favor. Write the boundary down.
Change order terms
State the rate and the process: found condition, written price, approval, then work continues. Nothing gets done on a verbal.
What not to do
- Don’t quote demo in a pre-1990 building without a hazardous-materials exclusion
- Don’t bury protection and containment in a lump price
- Don’t estimate disposal as a fixed number you can’t verify
- Don’t remove anything questionable structurally without written engineering sign-off
Frequently asked questions
How specific does the scope need to be?
Room by room, assembly by assembly — 'remove drywall to studs, ceiling to subfloor, kitchen and dining' rather than 'demo kitchen area'. Selective demo disputes are almost always about where the scope stopped, and vague scope always resolves in the customer's favor.
Should protection be a separate line?
Yes. Floor protection, dust walls, negative air, and covering HVAC returns are real materials and real hours, and they're the difference between a clean job and a complaint about drywall dust in a bedroom two floors up.
How do I handle a wall that might be structural?
Exclude structural modification from the estimate and state that engineering approval is required before removal. Discovering a bearing wall mid-demo is a stop-work event, not a change order you decide on the spot.
How should disposal be estimated?
By load or ton with a stated allowance, billed at actual with tickets. Interior demo volume is genuinely hard to predict from a walkthrough, so an allowance plus actuals is more honest than a lump number you'll defend later.