ᐅ Demolition in Autumn or Winter – Construction Start in Spring?

Hello everyone,

we are currently planning the construction of a new single-family house. The plot is currently occupied by a basement bungalow from the 1950s, which is scheduled to be demolished as part of the new build. The new house will have a slightly larger footprint than the existing one. The house has been unheated since last year, which is not great for the building fabric (damp basement, mold growth, etc.). Therefore, we would prefer to demolish it sooner rather than later.

In the last family building project, the demolition took place in spring, followed immediately by the start of the shell construction. This time, I am wondering whether it makes sense to bring the demolition forward a bit to be able to start the shell construction right at the beginning of spring. So I have the following questions:

- Does it make sense, from a weather perspective, to do the demolition and possibly excavation work in autumn/winter?
- Could a gap between the autumn demolition and the start of construction in spring cause any problems?

I would appreciate any insights from you!

That doesn’t matter at all. The earlier you demolish, the sooner you can start construction, and the sooner you can move in.
You can also demolish in the fall and start building right away.
Waiting usually only costs time and money.

The question mainly arises because we could definitely carry out the demolition in the fall (demolition permit is obtained quickly), but might only have the building permit in the new year. However, if it doesn’t make a difference and leaving the excavation site inactive for a few weeks over winter is not disadvantageous, we would simply start with the demolition in the fall and then begin construction as soon as the building permit is granted.

quisel schrieb:

Currently, the plot has a bungalow from the 1950s with a basement, which is planned to be demolished as part of the new development. The new building will have a slightly larger footprint than the existing one. The house has been unheated since last year, which is not ideal for the building fabric (damp basement, mold growth, etc.).

Not every one-year vacancy is a demolition case, and a utility basement doesn’t only store sensitive items. I would assess the condition of the basement on a case-by-case basis before proceeding with full demolition and discarding a useful heating room and storage space that come with it.

quisel schrieb:

The question mainly arises because we could definitely start demolition in autumn (the demolition permit is issued quickly), but might only get the building permit in the new year. However, if it doesn’t make a difference and a few weeks of the excavation site being inactive over winter is not detrimental, then we would simply start demolition in autumn and begin construction as soon as the building permit is granted.

Sometimes you get a demolition permit for the house immediately, but not for the hedge that has to be removed for the excavator to access the site, because the official ornithologist hasn’t had time to confirm there are no issues. Just a side note, due to the horses in front of the pharmacy and because the devil is in the details. The slopes of the excavation can safely withstand frost. By the way, autumn in Germany is basically over now, even if the weather occasionally suggests otherwise.

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The question is whether you want to build with a basement again or not. If so, you need to properly secure the excavation pit for several months. I probably wouldn’t want to deal with that, since the demolition only takes a few days. In our case, including partial basement demolition and refilling the pit, it took 5 days. However, we had stripped the interior ourselves beforehand, which I would definitely recommend doing first, as many items often find new owners who will dismantle them themselves.

motorradsilke schrieb:

The question is whether you want to build with a basement again or not. If yes, you will need to properly secure the excavation pit for several months. I probably wouldn’t want to go through that, since the demolition only takes a few days. For us, including partial basement demolition and filling in the pit, it took 5 days. However, we had stripped the interior ourselves beforehand, which I would definitely recommend doing, as many items still find owners who want to reuse them.

The basement will be included again! No owner labor is planned – but there really isn’t anything “valuable” left or installed anymore. Regarding securing, do you mean preventing the slope from collapsing?