Blue Heron is the demolition contractor Portland homeowners and businesses trust for deck, shed, concrete, interior, and selective demolition. $2M insured.
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Planning more than demolition contractor? Read Lake Oswego demolition permits. Asbestos rules for Lake Oswego demolition permits. asbestos rules explained, including the Oregon DEQ survey requirement, City permits. How debris disposal is handled.
Every Portland project starts with the same three questions. The answers are local rather than generic. First, the permit: structural work is permitted through the City of Portland with Multnomah County rules governing utility disconnects and septic. Second, the survey: Oregon DEQ requires an accredited asbestos survey before demolition of any residential building constructed before January 1, 2004. The owner-occupant exemption does not apply to demolition. Third, the disposal: material is separated for recycling where accepted. The remainder routes to the Metro Central Transfer Station in Northwest Portland. That is what keeps the disposal line on your quote honest instead of padded.
What shapes demolition contractor here specifically is century-old housing stock. Narrow inner-city lots where permits and hand demolition matter more than horsepower. This is scoped during the walkthrough, before a number is written. The quote reflects your property rather than an average. Oregon CCB #260979p, $2,000,000 insured. 4.9 stars across 121 verified Google reviews. Call (503) 734-0317.
A Portland demolition job is rarely the whole building. Most calls are for a defined part of it: interior demolition where the shell stays and the inside comes back to studs, a garage that has outlived its slab, or a manufactured home that has to be disconnected and removed rather than knocked down. If you are still working out which of those describes the project, what we take on across the metro lists the full range.
Call or click. Free written quote.
Local crew, no travel fees.
Site prepped and protected first.
Right method, trained crew.
Debris hauled, site swept.
You approve the finished work.
Plenty of demolition work is too small for a company geared to whole buildings and too large to do yourself over a weekend. That middle ground is what light demolition means, and it is most of what we are called for.
What separates it from structural demolition is not size but paperwork. None of the above needs a City of Portland demolition permit, the 35-day notice period, or an Oregon DEQ asbestos survey of a whole building, because no building is coming down. That is the reason a small job priced by a structural crew comes back so high: you are paying for a mobilisation the work does not need.
A contractor set up for teardowns has a minimum that a one-day patio removal will never reach, so the quote either declines the job or prices it like a bigger one. We take small-to-medium residential work as the normal case rather than the exception, and quote it from a walkthrough so the number reflects the job in front of us.
If the work does turn out to be structural, that is a different scope with real rules attached, and the permit and survey requirements are set out further up this page. We will tell you which one you have before writing a number.
The code defines primary dwelling structures as one- and two-family structures, whether detached or attached. The construction year is established from building permit records held by Portland Permitting and Development, and where no permit record exists, from County tax assessor information. That is the order of authority, and it matters when the two disagree.
The rule reaches further than age alone. A primary dwelling structure designated as a historic resource and subject to demolition review, or to the 120-day delay provisions of Title 33, falls under the deconstruction requirement regardless of when it was built.
Deconstruction is not demolition performed carefully. It is a different method with a different objective, and the code polices the difference. Heavy machinery may be used to assist in salvaging materials for reuse, or to remove material that is not required to be salvaged. It may not be used to remove or dismantle building components in ways that render those components unsuitable for salvage.
The work must be carried out by a Certified Deconstruction Contractor. Section 17.106.020(A) defines that as a contractor licensed with the Oregon Construction Contractors Board who has successfully completed a deconstruction certification program recognized by the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. This is a specific credential, separate from a CCB license on its own, and a project inside the requirement needs a contractor who holds it.
Section 17.106.040(D) sets out the exemptions. Building permits to move a structure under Chapter 24.25 are excluded. So is any structure determined to be dangerous and required to be abated by demolition under Section 29.40.030. So is any structure the City Administrator determines is unsuitable for deconstruction because it is structurally unsafe or otherwise hazardous to human life, or because most of the material in it is not suitable for reuse.
A further delay can attach on top of it. Properties that are historic buildings, conservation landmarks, or contributing structures within historic or conservation districts can face an additional 60-day delay through the Title 33 zoning regulations. Those two clocks are separate mechanisms, and a project can be inside both.
What escapes the delay is as important as what triggers it, and the exclusions are specific. The delay does not apply to residential structures in commercial zones. It does not apply to residential structures in industrial zones. And it does not apply to garages or other accessory structures.
That last exclusion is the one that changes quotes. A detached garage, a shed, or a similar accessory structure is not caught by the 35-day residential demolition delay, so a garage teardown and a house teardown on the same Portland lot are governed differently and scheduled differently. Owners routinely assume the two move together. They do not.
Zoning does the same work at the other end. A house sitting in a commercial or industrial zone is outside the delay even though it is residential in form, which means the zone designation has to be confirmed rather than inferred from what the building looks like.
The City handles the first part. It mails notice to properties within 150 feet of the site within five business days after receiving the application. It also notifies the relevant recognized organizations, which includes neighborhood associations and heritage centers.
The applicant handles the second part, and the radius is twice as large. Door hangers must be placed on properties within 300 feet of the site, no earlier than two weeks before demolition and no later than 72 hours before it. That is a window with a floor and a ceiling, so hanging them too early fails the requirement just as hanging them too late does.
Site control obligations during residential demolition are addressed separately, at Section 24.55.205. Those cover the conduct of the work itself rather than the notice that precedes it.
Read together, the notice scheme means a Portland residential demolition has at least three dated obligations running before any machine arrives: the City’s mailing inside five business days, the applicant’s door hangers inside a two-week to 72-hour window, and the 35-day delay itself. A schedule that tracks only the delay will miss the other two.
Portland does it through City Code 17.106.040(A)(1). Lake Oswego does it through Lake Oswego Code Section 45.12.110, which requires that demolition of residential structures built in the year 1940 or earlier be by deconstruction only. Two jurisdictions, two unrelated ordinances, one cutoff year.
For an owner with property in both cities, or a builder working across the river, that produces a single practical rule worth carrying: for any dwelling of that age in either city, assume deconstruction and price accordingly until the permit record proves otherwise.
The similarity stops at the year. Lake Oswego attaches a separate demolition tax and its own posted-and-mailed notice period. Portland attaches a 35-day delay, a possible additional 60 days for historic and conservation properties, and a two-radius notice scheme. The trigger matches and nothing downstream of it does.
The other cities we serve do none of this. A pre-1941 house in a Washington County city is not subject to either ordinance, which is why a quote built on metro-wide assumptions rather than the specific jurisdiction will be wrong somewhere.
The construction year decides whether the job is a demolition or a deconstruction, and that single answer moves method, duration, and cost together. The structure type decides whether the 35-day delay applies at all, because accessory structures such as garages sit outside it. The zone decides whether a residential building is treated as residential for delay purposes, because commercial and industrial zones are excluded.
Where the deconstruction requirement applies, the project needs a contractor holding the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability recognized certification described in Section 17.106.020(A). We identify at quote stage whether a Portland property falls inside 17.106, so that the right credential is arranged before a schedule is committed rather than discovered at the permit counter.
Blue Heron works throughout the Portland metro from an office at 11865 SW Tualatin Road, Suite 138, Tualatin, Oregon 97062. Oregon CCB #260979p. $2,000,000 insured. 4.9 stars across 121 verified Google reviews. Reach us at (503) 734-0317, Monday through Saturday, 7AM to 7PM.
| Project | Unit rate | Typical total |
|---|---|---|
| Full house teardown | $5 to $10 / sq ft | $7,500 to $15,000 |
| Garage demolition | priced per structure | $800 to $10,000 |
| Deck removal | priced per structure | $300 to $3,000 |
| Shed removal | per structure | $500 to $3,500 |
| Hot tub removal | per unit | $150 to $600 |
| Mobile home removal | per unit | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Foundation removal | quoted separately | $1,000 to $25,000 |
| Interior strip-out | $2 to $10 / sq ft | $1,000 to $5,000 |
| Asbestos or lead present | $10 to $30 / sq ft | abatement quoted separately |
| Demolition permit | per permit | from about $100 |
These are published national market ranges from Fixr (2026), shown so you can sanity-check any bid you receive. They are not Blue Heron quotes. Our number comes from a walkthrough of your structure, in writing, all-inclusive. Full breakdown: demolition cost guide.
Verify the licence yourself rather than taking it from a website. Any Oregon contractor can be checked by number through the Oregon Construction Contractors Board in under a minute, and the record shows status, bond and insurance.
Breaking, loading, hauling and disposal, priced as one scope. In Portland the debris routes to the Metro Central Transfer Station in Northwest Portland, and clean concrete is separated from mixed debris because it recycles and mixed debris does not. A bid that leaves disposal out is not lower, it is unfinished. Slab-by-slab detail is on the concrete demolition and removal page.
The build year. A primary dwelling built in 1940 or earlier cannot be machine demolished in Portland at all, it has to be deconstructed by a certified contractor under city code, which changes method, duration and cost together. Any contractor who quotes a pre-1941 Portland house as a straight demolition has not checked. The rules by city are set out in our deconstruction requirements by city.
Light demolition services covers the work that sits below a full teardown: one room stripped to the studs, a wall opened up, a chimney breast taken out, a deck or shed removed, a hot tub lifted, a patio or walkway broken out. Most of these are a single day.
Disposal is billed by weight and material type, and a part load still pays for the trip. On a small job the haul is often a larger share of the number than the demolition itself, which is why combining two small jobs into one visit is usually cheaper than booking them separately. If you have a shed and a slab, ask for them together.
The Oregon DEQ asbestos survey does not scale down. It is required before demolition of any residential building constructed before January 1, 2004, and any commercial building regardless of age, whether the job is one room or the whole structure. Nor does the deconstruction rule: a pre-1941 primary dwelling in Portland or Lake Oswego still has to come apart by hand. See the deconstruction rules by city.
Structure down, debris hauled, site swept.
Drained, cut down, and carried out with the pad cleared.
Published market ranges and the five factors that move a quote.
BDS permits, the DEQ rule, and disposal for SE Portland.
Structural demolition in Portland is permitted through BDS, and any building from before 2004 needs an accredited Oregon DEQ asbestos survey before work starts. Both happen before a date is set, which is why a real quote follows a walkthrough rather than a phone call.
Permits inside city limits are issued by the City of Portland Bureau of Development Services rather than a county office, and debris routes to the Metro Central Transfer Station at 6161 NW 61st Ave in Northwest Portland. Neighborhoods served include Sellwood, Richmond, Woodstock, Montavilla, Irvington, St. Johns, Kenton, Hillsdale and Multnomah Village.
Portland sets its permit line by height rather than by the fact of removal. The Bureau of Development Services requires a building permit for a wood fence taller than 7 feet, masonry or concrete over 4 feet, chain link or woven wire over 8 feet, and any swimming pool barrier. If you are pulling a tall fence in order to build a new one, plan the replacement against those numbers before the old one comes out.
Two Portland rules are commonly misread. Portland’s deconstruction requirement, Chapter 17.106, applies to demolition permits for houses and duplexes built in 1940 or earlier and to designated historic resources. It does not apply to fences. Separately, Oregon requires an accredited asbestos survey before demolition of a residential building constructed before January 1, 2004, which is a structural rule rather than a fence rule. The walkthrough confirms which category your project falls into before any number is written.
A permit is often needed. The City of Portland Bureau of Development Services requires a building permit to build, tear down or change an accessory structure that is over 200 square feet, measured from the interior of the exterior walls, or taller than 15 feet, measured from the grade plane to the average height of the highest roof surface. BDS names carports explicitly as accessory structures. Many two-car carports are over 200 square feet, so measure before you assume.
Below those thresholds a building permit is generally not part of the picture, though a zoning permit may still apply. On lots over two acres the exemption runs to 400 square feet. An attached carport is part of the house rather than a stand-alone accessory structure, so ask BDS how it classifies the work before anything comes down.
Age matters as much as size. Oregon requires an accredited asbestos survey before demolition of a residential building constructed before January 1, 2004, and mid-century carports sometimes carry asbestos cement roofing panels. Blue Heron is not a DEQ-licensed asbestos abatement contractor. If a survey finds asbestos, a licensed abatement contractor handles that work first, and it is said plainly at the walkthrough rather than discovered mid-job.
Only if it is uncertified. Oregon DEQ runs the Wood Stove Heat Smart program, under which an uncertified wood stove or fireplace insert must be removed, destroyed and disposed of when a home is sold, and the removal reported to DEQ (Oregon DEQ, Buying or Selling Wood Stoves).
What counts as uncertified. A device that does not carry a DEQ or U.S. EPA certification label, usually fixed to the back. DEQ states that certification happens at manufacture and cannot be granted to a device already in use, so no label means the stove is treated as uncertified. Check for that label early, because it decides whether you have a job to do at all.
Who is responsible. DEQ addresses its guidance to both the buyer and the seller, and the sale agreement usually settles which one arranges the work. DEQ states that where the buyer accepts responsibility in writing, the buyer has 30 days after the close of sale (Oregon DEQ, Frequently Asked Questions About Wood Stoves). Confirm with your agent how your own agreement allocates it.
Assessing what the wall retains, planning for the soil behind it, removing the wall in controlled sections, and grading or replacing so the slope stays stable.
A retaining wall is doing a job, and removing it means answering what happens to the soil it has been holding. On a modest garden wall the answer is simple grading. On a wall retaining a real grade, removal without a plan means the slope moves, and moving soil takes fences, patios, and sometimes foundations with it.
Construction type drives the labor. Dry-stacked block comes apart by hand. Poured concrete with rebar takes breaking and cutting, and disposal is priced by weight. Timber walls, common in older Portland yards, are often rotted at the base, which makes them easier to remove and more urgent to address.
Blue Heron is your insured, 4.9-star local team for demolition contractor Portland. Upfront pricing, responsive local service.
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