Emptied, sorted, documented — ready for the excavatorContents routed to reuse and stewardship, hazards flagged in writing, handover photos taken. Demolition day starts on schedule.
Your laneway house goes where the garage stands — which makes emptying that garage the first physical step of the whole project. Done months ahead as a dedicated job, it's a considered sort at cleanout prices. Done the week before demolition, it's a panic skip-fill at trade rates. We do the first kind.
Emptied, sorted, documented — ready for the excavatorContents routed to reuse and stewardship, hazards flagged in writing, handover photos taken. Demolition day starts on schedule.
Vancouver's laneway housing program puts a detached home of up to roughly 900 square feet on the back of an RS-zoned lot — almost always on the footprint the garage currently occupies. Between you and that new home sits a structure holding, in our experience, somewhere between five and fifty years of accumulation.
The timeline that works, and the one we see go wrong:
| Cleared during permitting (early) | Cleared at mobilisation (late) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the lifting | Cleanout crew at cleanout rates | Construction labour at trade rates |
| What happens to contents | Sorted: keep / sell / donate / stewardship / dispose | Skipped wholesale into the demo bin |
| Keepsakes and valuables | Found and returned | Found by the excavator, occasionally |
| Asbestos-era surprises | Flagged months ahead, feeding the hazmat assessment | Discovered demolition week, schedule slips |
| Demolition day | Starts on time | Starts with an argument |
| Typical cost | $449–$800 for a single lane garage | Invisible — buried in the build, and larger |
We don't demolish, disconnect utilities, or pull permits — that's your builder's or a licensed demolition contractor's scope. And if you're keeping the garage and building elsewhere on the lot, what you likely want instead is our standard garage cleanout or deep clean. This page is specifically the pre-demolition version: everything out, structure handed over empty.
Laneway builds concentrate where the lane grid and the lot zoning line up — which is exactly where Vancouver's oldest garages are:
Money and care. Once a crew is on site, garage contents get handled at trade rates or skipped wholesale — including things you'd have kept, donated or sold. Cleared beforehand, it's a considered sort at cleanout prices, and demolition day starts on schedule.
Most single lane garages clear for $449–$800 all in, depending on volume and lane access. Heavy accumulation or hazardous materials push it higher; we quote on site. Against construction labour doing the same lifting at day rates, the arithmetic settles itself.
We stop and flag it in writing before anything else moves. Your demolition contractor needs a hazmat assessment for permits anyway — finding out during the contents clear, months early, beats finding out the week the excavator arrives.
No — that's your builder's or a licensed demolition contractor's scope, with its own permits and utility disconnects. We do the step before: everything out, sorted and routed, hazards flagged, structure photographed and handed over empty.
During design and permitting — months before mobilisation — when decisions can be made properly. Leaving it to the week before demolition turns a considered sort into a panic skip-fill. If you're in permitting now, now is the time.
Reuse first, stewardship second, recycling third, landfill last — itemised at cost with receipts. Old lane garages are full of exactly the categories that dispose free, which keeps these jobs cheaper than people expect.
Free on-site quote. Sorted, routed, hazards flagged in writing, and the empty structure documented for a clean contractor handover.
Serving laneway projects across all of Vancouver's RS-zoned neighbourhoods.