Residential Demolition
We tear down houses, mobile homes, and double wides across the Midlands. Full size excavators and dozers do the work, and the lot is left graded and clean. Free estimates from our West Columbia shop.
Dirt Cheap is a demolition contractor working in Elgin, South Carolina. The town's roots go back to 1899 and 1900, when the Seaboard railroad came through the southwest corner of Kershaw County. The community was first named Blaney, for a New York banker who helped fund the railroad. Blaney was chartered as a town in 1908. A special election in October 1962 changed its name to Elgin, for the Elgin National Watch Company plant. Today the town covers about 1.1 square miles. The 2020 census counted 1,634 people there, about a quarter more than in 2010. The wider area is the 29045 ZIP code, home to about 28,900 people by Census Bureau survey estimates. Most of them live outside town limits. The ZIP code reaches west into Richland County.
Dirt Cheap is family and woman owned. The shop is on Edmund Highway in West Columbia, about 28 miles southwest of Elgin in a straight line. We work in and around Elgin regularly. The company runs full size CASE excavators and dozers, plus a tri axle Kenworth dump truck with trailers. Those machines are built for real teardowns, and the same ones clear and grade the lot afterward. For a site built home, see our house demolition with the slab and piers removed. We also handle mobile home teardowns with the piers and anchors pulled for single and double wides. A wooded lot starts with clearing the trees and stumps off the building site. Estimates are free, so call (803) 796-4727 and tell us what is on the lot.
Tell us about the structure, lot or job and we will get right back to you.
Across the 29045 ZIP code, about 1 in 8 homes were built before 1980, by Census Bureau survey estimates. About 1 in 7 are mobile homes. When an old home around Elgin is past saving, it comes down so the lot can be used again. The slab, the concrete steps and the block piers come out with the house. Debris is loaded out on our own trucks and goes to the landfill as part of the job. Kershaw County runs a landfill for construction and teardown debris on Park Road in Cassatt. The county's convenience centers are for residents, so contractor debris goes to the landfill.
Asbestos is the other early question on a house teardown. A private residence of 4 units or fewer is exempt from the SCDES asbestos notification. The exemption ends if the house is part of a larger project or a group of homes under one owner. It also ends for an installation, a fire-training burn, or a home that was ever used for business. When one of those applies, the SCDES rules have to be met before the house comes down. Power, water and gas also get cut off at the source by the utility first. For published price ranges, see our guide to house teardown prices across South Carolina.
Inside town limits, the Town requires a building permit to tear a building down. Its fee schedule, in effect since September 2025, lists a $150 demolition permit. Skipping the permit costs twice the fee. The Town uses SAFEbuilt, a building department services provider, for permitting, plan review and inspections. So a teardown in town starts with a call to Town Hall. A designated historic property, or a building in the downtown Design Overlay District, needs a Certificate of Appropriateness first. The Board of Architectural Review, which is the Planning Commission, decides it before any building permit is issued. An application filed at least 20 calendar days ahead is reviewed at the Board's next meeting.
If the Board denies a teardown, it works with the property owner on options like a buyer or rehab financing. Every business working inside town limits needs a Town of Elgin business license. For a commercial building downtown, see what commercial demolition costs in South Carolina. Outside town limits, most of the 29045 area is unincorporated Kershaw County. There, Kershaw County Planning and Zoning in Camden issues building demolition permits. Mobile homes have their own permit application there. About a third of the ZIP code's land lies in Richland County. Ask Richland County about a project on that side. A small piece of the ZIP code falls inside Columbia city limits, so call the City of Columbia there.
The town of Elgin grew by about a quarter between the 2010 and 2020 censuses. By Census Bureau survey estimates, nearly 6 in 10 homes in the 29045 ZIP code date from 2000 or later. Most of those newer homes sit outside town limits. Each new house starts with ready ground. On a wooded lot, our full size dozers and excavators push the trees over and dig out the stumps. The holes get filled, and the debris is loaded out on our own trucks. A lot that still has an old house or mobile home on it gets the teardown first. Then the ground is graded into a house pad, with a slope that carries rain away from it.
Rough grading shapes the cleared ground, and finish grading sets the slope the plan calls for. Our building pad and drainage grading covers both. The Columbia area sits on the fall line. Lots there run from loose sandy Sandhills soil to heavy red clay that holds water. Each kind grades and drains its own way, so we see the ground before pricing the work. Before any digging, state law requires an SC811 notice 3 to 12 full working days ahead. A new house inside town limits also needs a Town building permit. Estimates are free, so call (803) 796-4727 and tell us about the lot.
Communities & areas we serve around Elgin: Lugoff, Blythewood, Camden, Ridgeway, Dentsville, Woodfield.
Elgin ZIP codes served: 29045.
We tear down houses, mobile homes, and double wides across the Midlands. Full size excavators and dozers do the work, and the lot is left graded and clean. Free estimates from our West Columbia shop.
Dirt Cheap tears down commercial buildings across the South Carolina Midlands. Strip malls, churches, warehouses and condemned structures come down with full-size excavators and dozers. We work out of a shop in West Columbia.
We clear wooded and overgrown lots across the Midlands, half acre house sites and multi acre tracts alike. Full size excavators and dozers take out the trees, the brush, and the stumps. Our shop is in West Columbia and estimates are free.
Grading and site prep out of our West Columbia shop. We cut building pads, level low yards, and reshape wet ground so water runs off. Estimates are free anywhere in the Midlands.
Dirt Cheap digs site excavation, utility and drainage trenches, and storm drain repairs across the Midlands. Our shop sits in West Columbia, and we run full size excavators and dozers. Estimates are free.
We repair rutted, washed out and potholed driveways across the Midlands, from short residential drives to quarter mile farm lanes. Our crew cuts the ruts out, reshapes the crown and packs the surface so water leaves the drive instead of cutting into it. We also grade new lanes and replace broken concrete drives.
Real reviews from real demolition, excavation and site work jobs on Google.
Storm drain repair for apartment complex fixed twice, both required a large excavation. Did both jobs quickly and for a great price. Would highly recommend.
Awesome Company. Contracted them to demolish a double wide on my property. They did it quickly and cleaned up great. Even brought in fill to level the area out. Marked the septic system as required.
Stop looking. Awesome folks to deal with through and through.
I have had them complete two jobs and they were here right away, completed and cleaned up immediately. Great people to deal with and very pleased with the jobs. Highly recommend.
I had an emergency involving my mobile home, not only was it after hours when they made the decision to come help me. The next morning they showed up and went above and beyond their call of duty as far as the job I hired them to do. Great people, fantastic work!
Great company to work with, very responsive and will make sure the job is done right!!
A few of the questions we hear most around Elgin. Don't see yours? Call the office and ask.
A structure that needs to come down, a lot that needs clearing, a driveway that needs help, a septic system going in? Call or send the form and we will come look at the property and price the job. The estimate is free.
Tell us about the structure, lot or job and we will get right back to you.