Demolition and Tear-Downs in Spartanburg, SC
Out of the clay and gone.
Spartanburg is the Upstate side of the business: Piedmont red clay, mill villages from the days when forty textile mills ran here, and subdivisions pushing out along every highway. The block garage behind a mill house and the barn on land a builder just bought are the calls. McKinley takes them down, hauls them off and grades the clay back.
- Free on-site estimates
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- WNC & Upstate SC
Demolition in Spartanburg
Mill-village backyards and county subdivisions
Cotton mills ran in Spartanburg from 1816, and by the early 1900s there were around forty of them, each with a village of small houses around it. Beaumont, Drayton, Converse and the rest are still there, and so are the garages, sheds and add-on porches that a century of owners put behind the houses.
Outside the city, Spartanburg County grew by about fifteen percent between 2010 and 2020 and has kept going since. Farm and timber land along the highways is being cut into lots, and the old house, the barn and the well house on it are usually the first thing the builder calls about.
The block garage behind a mill house
Mill-village lots are narrow and deep, and the garage at the back was built of block on a thin slab, often with a dirt-floored lean-to beside it. By now the roof is gone and the block is leaning. It comes down with the excavator in a controlled way, and the slab and the footings come out with it.
Access is down a narrow drive between two houses. McKinley uses the mini excavator and the tracked skid steer where the full-size machine will not fit, and stages the dump truck at the street.
Red clay: what it does when you dig it
The soil here is mostly Cecil, red clay over gneiss, the same ground that made the Piedmont farm country. It holds water, it gets slick when it is wet and it sets like brick when it is dry. Footings set in it do not want to come out, and a hole left in it stays a hole full of water.
So the finish matters. The void is backfilled with material that compacts, not with loose clay thrown back in, and the surface is graded to shed water. If the yard was already wet, that gets fixed while the ground is open; see drainage solutions in Spartanburg.
Lawson's Fork and the low ground
Lawson's Fork Creek runs across the north and east of the city on its way to the Pacolet, with the Cottonwood Trail along part of it and old mills like Glendale on its banks. Lots along it and along the smaller branches are flat and low, and the clay under them drains slowly even on a dry week.
Down there, a hole where a slab was becomes a pond. It is filled with material that compacts and crowned so water runs off, and if the lot is in the mapped floodplain, the county is asked before any more fill goes in than the hole needs. Raising a lot is a different question from filling a void.
County Building Codes, the city office and SC811
Outside the city, Spartanburg County Building Codes on North Church Street handles building permits. Inside Spartanburg city limits the city's own permitting office on South Church Street does. Call the right one before a date is fixed and ask what it wants for a demolition.
SC811 locates buried utilities under the state's Underground Facility Damage Prevention Act, which requires three full working days' notice before digging. Power, gas and water to the building are disconnected by the utility first, and private lines in the yard are not on the locate.
Hauling, one price and what is next
The estimate is free and on site. McKinley looks at the building, the clay and the route to the street, and the figure he gives you has the hauling and the grading in it. Debris leaves in the dump truck as the building comes down, so there is no dumpster sitting in the drive for a week.
Most tear-downs here are the first step of something: a gravel driveway in Spartanburg where the garage was, a house pad where the old house stood, or land clearing around a barn lot. Concrete coming out on its own is at concrete removal in Spartanburg, and the main demolition page is demolition in Asheville.
Demolition
Sheds, garages, barns, carports, decks, mobile homes and old slabs taken down, hauled off and the ground graded back.
See the serviceTalk to McKinley(828) 540-6856
Tell McKinley what is coming down, whether it is in the city or the county and how close the truck can get. He comes down to Spartanburg and gives you one figure.
Call nowWhat that covers
- Block garages. Leaning block on a thin slab, down in a controlled way and out to the footings.
- Barns and well houses. Old farm buildings off land being cut into lots, poles pulled.
- Mobile homes. To the frame, hauled, then piers, skirting and pad out of the clay.
- Decks and porches. Add-on porches and decks off mill houses, footings dug out.
Spartanburg, SC
The Upstate side of the business: Piedmont red clay, older mill-village neighborhoods and new subdivisions pushing out along every highway from the city.
Town pageAlso in SpartanburgConcrete Removal in Spartanburg, SC
See the pageAlso in SpartanburgGravel Driveway Installation in Spartanburg, SC
See the pageAlso in SpartanburgLand Clearing in Spartanburg, SC
See the pageAlso in SpartanburgForestry Mulching in Spartanburg, SC
See the pageThe serviceDemolition
Sheds, garages, barns, carports, decks, mobile homes and old slabs taken down, hauled off and the ground graded back.
Main service pageSpartanburg and the towns nearby
The same tear-down work is done west along I-85 in Greer, where it is more often an old farmstead on subdivision land than a mill-village garage, and north up Highway 9 toward Boiling Springs and Inman, where the subdivisions are newer and the calls are decks and sheds. Pacolet, Duncan and Landrum are covered from the same runs, as part of a normal week rather than a special trip. The Spartanburg service area page lists everything else M&S does on this side, from gravel drives to forestry mulching.
You get McKinley. Not a crew he sent.
You call
You call or text. McKinley comes out and looks at the job with you, on the ground, rather than pricing it off a photograph.
A number first
You get one figure before anything starts, with the hauling and the finish grading in it.
He runs the machine
Then he shows up and runs the machine himself.
Ground left usable
Voids get filled, water is given a way out, and the ground is left so you can build, pour or seed.
Photos of his work.
These are photographs from actual jobs. See more recent work. Or read about the full demolition service.
Questions people ask
Not seeing yours? Call (828) 540-6856 and ask McKinley, or read the guides.
Do I call the city or the county about a demolition permit in Spartanburg?
Inside city limits, the City of Spartanburg's permitting office on South Church Street. Outside, Spartanburg County Building Codes on North Church Street. McKinley can tell you which one your address falls under, and the office will say what it wants for a tear-down.
Can you get into a mill-village backyard?
Usually. The drive between the houses is narrow, so the mini excavator and the tracked skid steer do the work and carry debris out to the dump truck at the street. McKinley checks the route on the estimate visit.
Why does the backfill matter so much here?
Because Cecil red clay holds water. Loose clay thrown back in a hole settles and turns into a soft, wet spot. The void is backfilled with material that compacts and the surface is graded to shed water, so the yard is usable rather than a pond.
How far ahead do you need to call SC811?
South Carolina law requires three full working days' notice before digging, not counting the day of the request, weekends or holidays. McKinley puts the locate in once the date is set and does not dig until the marks are down.
Do you drive down from Asheville for a single garage?
Yes. Spartanburg and Greer are a regular part of the week, and a garage, a shed or a mobile home is a normal job. The estimate is free and on site. Call or text (828) 540-6856.
Other work he takes on
Most jobs end up being two or three of these at once, and they get quoted together.
Demolition in other towns
Gravel Driveways
A new drive cut into the hill, based in lifts and crowned to shed water.
Learn moreDriveway Repair & Grading
Washouts, ruts and potholes fixed at the cause, not just regraded.
Learn moreDrainage & Erosion Control
French drains, catch basins, culverts and riprap so the property sheds water.
Learn moreRetaining Walls
Block, boulder and riprap walls that hold a cut bank up.
Learn moreLand Clearing
Lots, building sites and overgrown acreage cleared, stumps and root mat out.
Learn moreHouse Pads & Site Prep
Pads cut, filled and compacted on ground that started at anything but level.
Learn moreFree estimate in Spartanburg.
Where it is, how long the drive is, how steep it gets and what it is doing now. We come out, walk it, and give you a real number.
- Free on-site estimates across WNC and the Upstate
- One crew from clearing through to the last load of stone
- Drainage designed in, not sold to you afterwards
Need demolition in Spartanburg?
Call or text McKinley. He walks the ground before he gives you a price.