Interior demolition
prices.

These ranges come from our own quotes: each quote counts as one value, amounts are excl. VAT and rounded. They include the labour of our masons and, unless the quote states otherwise, the removal of rubble.

Two items rest on few quotes, the lining and the suspended ceiling: read them as orders of magnitude. For floor tiles, five quotes out of eight fall between €20 and €35, two rise to €45 or €50, and a very small area, such as an entrance hall of a few square metres, costs more per square metre.

A price “per m²” means nothing until you know which square metre it refers to. For a partition or a lining, we count the surface of the wall, its length multiplied by its height. A partition 4 m long under a 2.50 m ceiling represents 10 m², i.e. €250 to €350 excl. VAT to demolish.

For floors and ceilings, it is the floor area of the room. For a full strip-out, however, we no longer reason per square metre but by fixed price, because the work depends less on the area than on what the house contains: number of partitions, type of linings, kitchen and bathroom fittings, services to be removed.

This is the first thing to check when you compare two demolition quotes: a price per m² of living space and a price per m² of partition cannot be compared.

A strip-out means emptying a home down to its walls and floors before redoing it. In our quotes, the fixed price covers the demolition of partitions, the removal of floors, the kitchen, plumbing and heating equipment, the removal of the electrical installation, often that of the linings and suspended ceilings, then the provision of sorting skips, removal to an approved sorting centre and cleaning.

On our 9 full house strip-out quotes, the fixed price ranges from €3,000 to €13,300 excl. VAT, and half fall between €5,500 and €10,000 excl. VAT. For a studio, one of our quotes provides for around €3,300 excl. VAT.

What makes the difference from one house to another:

• What is kept. Keeping a bathroom, upper-floor partitions or a fireplace reduces the fixed price, but they have to be protected during the work.
• Brick linings. Common in old houses, they are heavier to take down and remove than a plasterboard lining.
• Floors and floorboards. Removing parquet on battens, floor tiles with their screed or a timber floor changes the volume of rubble.
• Services. Plumbing, heating and electrics must be made safe before being removed.

The material. A plasterboard partition on a frame comes down quickly and is easy to sort. A partition in plaster blocks or brick produces more rubble, heavier, and takes more time.

The area. Fixed costs, protection, set-up and removal, spread poorly over a few square metres: a small isolated removal costs more per square metre than a large job.

Access. An apartment on an upper floor, a narrow street where the skip needs a public-highway occupation permit, an old town centre: everything that lengthens the rubble's route shows up in the price. Our pages on demolition in Chambéry and demolition in Annecy detail these constraints in town centres.

What is not visible. A suspended ceiling can hide an old ceiling, and floor tiles may have been laid over others. These hidden layers lengthen the removal: an honest quote says what is included if they are discovered.

Asbestos. If the building was completed before 1 January 1997, an asbestos survey by a certified operator is mandatory before the work. It is up to the client commissioning the work to have it carried out, including when the client is a private individual, and the report is handed to the contractor before the job starts. If asbestos is found in the materials to be demolished, its removal is entrusted to a certified company, before our involvement; this cost is not included in the ranges above.

The demolition permit (permis de démolir). It is not required everywhere: only in communes that have introduced it and in protected areas (remarkable heritage site, surroundings of a historic monument, registered or listed site). Processing takes 2 months, 3 months in a protected area, and the permit is valid for 3 years. The planning department of your town hall will tell you whether your project is concerned.

Load-bearing walls. Before taking down a partition, we check that it carries nothing. A load-bearing wall is not demolished like a partition: it needs a structural study, propping and a beam, and in a co-owned building a vote at the general meeting. Our guide to opening a load-bearing wall details these steps and their budget.

Our 2024-2026 quotes cover interior demolitions, strip-outs and partial demolitions, not the complete demolition of a house. We will therefore not publish a price for that case: it is priced case by case, according to the structure, access to the plot, the volume of rubble, the connections to be cut and the results of the asbestos survey.

For a partial demolition, the order of magnitude is easier to give. Example from one of our 2025 quotes: the demolition of an outbuilding, a small shelter and their walls, timber floor included, was priced at a fixed €3,500 excl. VAT.

In a home completed more than two years ago, demolition that prepares a renovation follows the rate for renovation work: 10% most often. A partition at €25-35/m² excl. VAT therefore comes to €28-39 incl. VAT, and a full strip-out to €3,300-14,600 incl. VAT. The standard rate of 20% applies when the work results in a new building in the tax sense: our guide to VAT on renovation work details the cases.

Worked example, for an apartment where the kitchen is opened up and the bathroom redone: 10 m² of partition to demolish (€250 to €350), 40 m² of floor tiles to remove (€800 to €1,400) and 12 m² of wall tiles (€240 to €480). The total comes to between €1,300 and €2,250 excl. VAT approximately, i.e. €1,400 to €2,450 incl. VAT, before the rebuilding work.

This rebuilding work has its own prices: our guides to laying floor tiles, parquet and suspended ceilings give the ranges from our quotes for each. To place demolition within the overall budget of a renovation, see our page on the price of a renovation in Savoie.

Demolition is carried out by our salaried masons, who sort the rubble on site and organise its removal. The job then continues with our other trades, plastering, plumbing, electrics, tiling, painting, under a single contract: nobody has an interest in leaving damaged walls or a poorly made-safe network behind, since it is the same company that takes over.

Demolition is only one stage of the structural work; our guide structural work: stages and prices places it among the others.