Columbia is home base. Teardowns, mobile home removal, interior demo and concrete removal across Boone County, run by the owner.
Atlas Demolition & Site Work is based in Columbia. There is no drive time to talk about here. The equipment sits in Boone County, the owner lives here, and most of what we tear down and haul off in a given month is inside the city limits or a short run out on Route B, Highway 63 or I-70.
Chris Kurtz owns the company and runs it himself. He walks the site, writes the bid, and is on the machine or standing next to it when the work happens. We are licensed and insured with general liability, umbrella and workers' comp. Call (573) 234-6641 or get a written bid online.
Columbia has a wide spread of building stock, and we see all of it. Around the University of Missouri and the older neighborhoods east and north of downtown, the houses date to the early 1900s through the 1940s: balloon-framed, plaster and lath, limestone or brick foundations, and usually a detached garage that has leaned a little further every year. South and west of downtown, the ranch houses from the 1950s through the 1970s come down cleaner but almost always carry asbestos in the floor tile, siding or duct wrap. Newer subdivisions send us garages, decks, pools and the occasional fire-damaged house.
Typical Columbia demolition work:
A single-story house of 1,200 to 1,600 square feet is usually a two-day job for us: one day to bring it down and load, one day to pull the foundation, backfill and rough grade. Most Columbia teardowns land between 60 and 120 tons of debris depending on foundation type and how much concrete is on the lot. The full menu is on the demolition page.
Columbia has a lot of tired concrete. Strip-center parking lots from the 1980s along Business Loop 70 and Providence, church and school lots that were built for half the traffic they carry now, and thousands of residential driveways poured 4 inches thick on clay that has moved every winter since.
We handle parking lot removal for commercial owners, property managers and churches: break it out, haul it, regrade the base and hand it to the paver or our concrete crew for a new pour. Asphalt lots are the same process with different disposal. For homeowners, driveway replacement is a two-part job: we remove the old slab and prep the base, then our concrete crew pours the new drive under our contract and warranty. Patios, sidewalks, garage slabs, retaining walls and old foundations fall under general concrete removal.
We do not do concrete leveling or patch repair. If the slab is cracked and heaving, it comes out and gets replaced. A 20-by-40 residential driveway at 4 inches thick is roughly 20 tons of concrete; a half-acre commercial lot at 6 inches is closer to 900 tons, which is why lot removal is priced on a site visit and not a phone call.
Inside Columbia city limits, the City of Columbia Building and Site Development office issues demolition permits. Outside the city, in Hallsville, Harrisburg, Rocheport, the unincorporated county or anywhere else in Boone County without its own building department, Boone County Resource Management handles it. Both will want proof of utility disconnects before they sign off.
Statewide, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources requires an asbestos inspection before most structures are demolished. If the inspection finds regulated material, there is a 10-working-day notification window before the teardown can start, and a licensed abatement contractor removes the material first. We coordinate the inspection, the abatement and the disconnects (electric, gas, water and sewer cap), but we do not perform abatement ourselves.
The Columbia demolition permit guide walks through the paperwork step by step.
We bid a fixed price for mobilization, equipment and crew. Disposal is billed as a pass-through at actual loads and tonnage, which runs $40 to $90 per ton at Mid-Missouri landfills and recyclers. Because Columbia is home, there is no travel premium of any kind; the fixed price covers getting the machines to your lot. A site visit turns the typical ranges on our service pages into a firm number.
One thing that is specific to Columbia: a lot of the older houses near campus sit on small lots with alley access only. We plan the equipment and truck staging around that on the site visit so the neighbors are not boxed in for two days.
From Columbia we regularly work in Hallsville, Harrisburg, Rocheport and Centralia, plus the rural stretches of Boone County in between.
No. Columbia is where the equipment lives, so mobilization costs us the least here and that shows in the bid. The fixed price covers getting the excavator and trucks to your lot. The only thing that moves with distance is how a small job prices per square foot, and inside Boone County that effect is close to zero.
Inside city limits, the City of Columbia Building and Site Development office. Outside the city, Boone County Resource Management. Either way, the permit application needs proof that electric, gas, water and sewer have been disconnected or capped, and for most structures a Missouri DNR asbestos inspection report. We handle the coordination as part of the job.
Plan on two to three working days for a typical single-story house once permits and disconnects are done. Day one is the teardown and most of the loading. Day two is the foundation, backfill and rough grading. Larger two-story houses, full basements or heavy concrete on the lot can push it to four or five days. The permitting and asbestos steps before that usually take two to four weeks.
Usually, yes. We phase commercial lot removal so part of the lot stays open while the other section is broken out and hauled. It adds a day or two but keeps customers and tenants moving. Night and weekend work is possible for lots where daytime closure is not an option.
We coordinate it. Missouri DNR requires an inspection before most demolitions, and if regulated material turns up, a licensed abatement contractor removes it before we start. We line up the inspector and the abatement crew and build the 10-working-day notification into the schedule. We do not perform abatement ourselves.
Tell us what you need torn out or put back. We'll walk the site and send a written bid.
Get a Written Bid