Moberly sits about 40 minutes north of Columbia, straight up Highway 63 in Randolph County. It grew up as a railroad town, the "Magic City" that appeared almost overnight when the rail shops came in, and the building stock still shows it: blocks of late-1800s and early-1900s houses, brick commercial buildings downtown, and industrial sites on the edges that have changed hands several times. We work in Moberly regularly, and it is the farthest-north town where we bid work on a routine basis.

Atlas Demolition & Site Work is owned and run by Chris Kurtz. He does the site visit, the bid and the work. Licensed and insured with general liability, umbrella and workers' comp. Call (573) 234-6641 or get a written bid online.

Demolition in Moberly

A lot of Moberly's housing is a century old, and a lot of it has been vacant long enough that the city wants it gone. That is the bulk of our residential work there: condemned or abandoned houses, often with a detached garage and a collapsed shed behind them, on narrow lots with alley access. In the county, the work is farmhouses, barns and mobile homes on acreage between Moberly, Huntsville and Cairo.

  • Structural demolition of vacant houses, garages and small commercial buildings, foundation included
  • Mobile home removal across Randolph County, including units in parks and on private lots
  • Barn and outbuilding teardowns on farm properties
  • Fire-damaged houses, where the structure has to come down before it comes down on its own

Old Moberly houses are mostly balloon-framed with brick or stone foundations, so they load out fast but the foundation takes the breaker. A 1,000-square-foot house of that era is a one-to-two-day job and 50 to 80 tons. Details on the demolition page.

Working the old downtown lots means tight quarters. Many houses sit within a few feet of the neighbor, and the alleys were laid out for wagons. We usually run the Cat 308 on those lots because it fits where a bigger machine does not, and we plan the truck loading from the alley so the street stays open. When a lot backs up to another occupied house, we take the shared-side wall down by hand and machine together rather than pushing it.

Concrete and parking lots in Moberly

Moberly has more commercial concrete than its size suggests, because of the rail and industrial history. Old loading docks, shop floors, truck aprons and the parking lots at retail along Highway 24 and Morley Street are all candidates for parking lot removal. Industrial slabs in particular run thick, 8 inches or more with heavy rebar, which changes the breaking time and the tonnage; a 100-by-100 shop floor at 8 inches is close to 500 tons.

We break it out, haul it to the recycler, regrade and compact the base, and either turn it over to your paver or have our concrete crew pour the new lot under our contract. Asphalt replacement is available. Residential driveway replacement and general concrete removal for patios, walks and old foundations round it out. We do not do concrete leveling or patch repair.

Permits and disconnects in Randolph County

Inside Moberly city limits, demolition permits go through the City of Moberly's community development office. The city takes vacant-property demolition seriously and the process is straightforward if the paperwork is in order. Outside city limits, contact the Randolph County offices in Huntsville, the county seat, before assuming there is no permit; county rules are lighter than the city's but there are still requirements near roads and waterways.

Regardless of jurisdiction, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources requires an asbestos inspection before demolition of most structures. Moberly's older houses reliably have some: floor tile, pipe wrap, plaster, siding. Regulated material is removed by a licensed abatement contractor, DNR gets a 10-working-day notification, and then we start. We coordinate the inspection, abatement and utility disconnects (electric, gas, water and sewer cap) as part of every teardown. We do not perform abatement.

How pricing works

Fixed price for mobilization, equipment and crew. Disposal billed as a pass-through at actual loads and tonnage, $40 to $90 per ton in Mid-Missouri. Mobilization to Moberly is inside that fixed price, but a Moberly job needs to be worth the drive. Forty minutes each way with a lowboy is a real cost, and it is absorbed easily by a house teardown or a commercial slab and not at all by a small patio. We will say so on the phone. A site visit gives you a firm number.

The mobile home removal cost guide is a good reference for Randolph County, where that is a common job.

For commercial and industrial owners, we can bid the demolition and the slab removal as separate line items so the numbers stay clear if the building is coming down in phases or the slab is staying for now.

Process

  • Site visit in Moberly or the county, usually within the week
  • Written proposal: fixed price plus estimated tonnage
  • Permit, DNR inspection, abatement if required, disconnects arranged before mobilization
  • Demolition and hauling, with brick and clean concrete sorted for recycling where it saves money
  • Foundation or slab out, site backfilled and rough graded
Excavator and crew on a graded gravel lot after concrete removal

Also serving

Around Moberly we also take work in Huntsville, Cairo, Clark and Higbee, and on the farm ground along Highway 63 and Highway 24 between them.

Related

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you charge extra to come to Moberly?

Not as a line item. Mobilization is built into the fixed price. Distance does affect how a small job prices per square foot, because a 40-minute trip costs the same whether the crew is there for two hours or three days. A house teardown or a commercial slab in Moberly prices about the same as it would in Columbia; a small patio removal on its own does not, and we will tell you that before quoting.

Who issues demolition permits in Moberly?

The City of Moberly's community development office handles demolition permits inside city limits. Outside the city, check with the Randolph County offices in Huntsville. Both will want utility disconnects documented, and Missouri DNR requires an asbestos inspection before most demolitions regardless of which office you are dealing with.

Can you tear down a condemned house in Moberly?

Yes. Vacant and condemned houses are the most common residential job we do there. If the city has issued a demolition order, we can work directly with the owner or the city's timeline. The process is the same as any teardown: asbestos inspection, disconnects, permit, then the house and foundation come out and the lot is graded flat.

How thick are the industrial slabs in Moberly, and does that change the price?

Old shop floors and loading docks are often 8 to 12 inches with heavy rebar or mesh, versus 4 inches for a residential driveway. Thicker slabs take longer to break and weigh two to three times as much per square foot, so both the fixed price and the disposal tonnage go up. We core or probe the slab on the site visit so the bid reflects what is actually there.

Do you haul mobile homes away whole or break them down?

We break them down on site. Older units cannot be moved intact, and the frame, siding, roofing and interior go out as sorted loads. The steel frame and axles go to scrap, which offsets part of the disposal cost. Piers, skirting, decks and any slab underneath come out too, and the pad is graded when we leave.

Ready to get a number on it?

Tell us what you need torn out or put back. We'll walk the site and send a written bid.

Get a Written Bid