Status: finishing, September 2026. Client: Horizon Habitats. Location: 25 Nobbs Street, Surry Hills NSW. Scope: decontamination, detailed demolition of ten terrace houses behind their retained front walls, excavation and contaminated soil remediation of the rear yards.
Horizon Habitats engaged Perfect to take a row of ten old terraces in Surry Hills back to what could be kept, clean it up, and hand over a site they could build on. The front walls, chimneys and party walls stayed. Everything behind them came down. Then the ground behind the row was dug out, tested and made good so the new terraces could go up on it. Horizon is a builder we have worked with on and off for more than ten years, on jobs from the eastern suburbs to the north shore, and this was the biggest one yet.
What the job involved
- Hazardous materials removal before any demolition: asbestos containing materials and lead paint across ten houses
- Soft strip of ten terraces back to structure
- Detailed demolition of the rear two storey sections by hand and with compact plant, working against retained party walls and neighbouring properties
- Front facades, chimneys and party walls kept and protected for the builder to work off
- Bulk excavation and load out of the rear yards, with a tree protection zone worked around by hand
- Contaminated soil remediation, validation and backfill with clean imported fill
- Sediment and dust controls on a site with neighbours on three sides
- Segregation of brick, timber, metal and mixed waste for recycling
What made it hard
Nobbs Street is a narrow one way residential street. There is no room for a big machine, no room to stockpile, and nowhere to park a truck for long. Every load had to be planned around the street, the neighbours and the council conditions. The work was staged over about two years around the builder's programme, so the site was handed back and forth several times rather than being run as one continuous demolition.
The retained facades set the method. You cannot swing a machine at a two storey rear section when the front wall and the chimney a few metres away have to stay standing. The rear sections were taken down top down by hand, brick by brick where they met the party walls, then the lower sections were reduced with a small excavator once there was room to get one in. The party walls between each terrace were left in place and made safe as each rear section came off.
The ground was the other problem. Old inner city terraces sit on filled ground, and the rear yards here carried contaminated soil that had to be excavated, classified and removed before clean fill could go back in. Part of the yard sat inside a tree protection zone, so that section was excavated by hand under the arborist's direction and backfilled with clean fill rather than dug by machine.
How it was run
One Perfect project manager ran the job from start to finish with a site supervisor and a small crew, scaling up for the demolition and excavation stages and down to day labour for the remediation and backfill. Hazmat removal was completed and cleared by the licensed assessor before each stage of demolition started. Soil was tested and classified before it left site, and imported fill was certified clean before it came in.
Because Perfect Contracting and Perfect Strip Out and Demolition share the same licences, plant and people, the client had one contractor for asbestos, lead paint, demolition, excavation and remediation, instead of four subcontractors to coordinate on a site with no room for any of them.
Where the job is at
As at 19 September 2026 the demolition and excavation are complete and Horizon's new terraces are well advanced behind the retained facades. Perfect is on site finishing the last of the contaminated soil remediation in the rear yards.
If you have something similar
Terrace rows, retained facades, party walls and tight streets are where hand demolition earns its keep. If you have an inner city site that needs decontaminating and taking down carefully rather than knocked over, have a look at our demolition and detailed excavation services, or the partial demolition and propping page. Our licences and insurances are listed if you need them for your tender. Otherwise just get in touch and tell us what you are dealing with.
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Perfect Stripout & Demolition acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Traditional Custodians of the country on which we live and work. We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, present and future, and honour their connection to the land and ongoing contribution to society.