Infill Demolition Edmonton — Lot Clearing for Builders & Homeowners
Revlyn Demolition & Recycling clears infill lots across Edmonton’s mature neighbourhoods — from hazardous materials assessment through teardown, foundation removal, and backfill — as one contractor. We’ve been demolishing Edmonton buildings since 1975, we handle the permit paperwork and utility disconnect coordination, and we do our own asbestos abatement in-house. Builders get a build-ready lot on schedule. Homeowners get a teardown without the runaround.
Edmonton’s Infill Boom Starts With a Clean Lot
Since Edmonton’s new zoning bylaw took effect in January 2024, roughly a third of all new homes permitted in the city have gone into mature neighbourhoods — and a standard residential lot can now hold up to eight units. That 1950s bungalow is coming down to make room for skinny homes, a duplex, or a small multiplex, and demolition is the first trade on site. If the lot isn’t cleared on time, every trade behind it slips. That’s why infill builders who work with Revlyn keep coming back: we quote it straight, we sequence the disconnects early, and the lot is ready when we said it would be.
What Our Infill Demolition Service Includes
One call covers the full scope of clearing an infill lot — you don’t coordinate an abatement crew, a demo company, and a hauler separately:
• Pre-demolition hazardous materials assessment, and in-house asbestos abatement (including full Section 34 demolitions) when materials are found
• City of Edmonton demolition permit handling — the development and building permits, plus the asbestos documentation the City requires before it will issue them
• Utility disconnect coordination — ATCO gas line cutback, EPCOR power disconnect, and water/sewer capping, sequenced early because the gas cutback alone can take around 20 business days
• Site fencing, tree and neighbour-property protection, and dust suppression throughout the teardown
• Complete structural teardown and basement/foundation breakout and removal
• Backfill and compaction to your spec — or the excavation left open and cut clean for your foundation crew, whichever your build plan calls for
• Concrete recycling, scrap metal salvage, and beam/lumber salvage through our own recycling division
• Final grade and full site cleanup, with disposal at permitted facilities and paperwork for your project file
Built for Tight Lots and Close Neighbours
Infill demolition is not farm demolition. You’re dropping a structure a few metres from occupied homes, on a lot accessed from a narrow street or back alley, under mature trees the City expects protected. Revlyn runs equipment sized for mature-neighbourhood lots, keeps dust down with water suppression, and protects the fences, driveways, and landscaping on either side. Our crews have worked this way on residential teardowns across Edmonton for five decades — our standard is that when we leave, the only evidence we were there is that the structure is gone. On an infill project, your neighbours are your future customers’ neighbours. We treat them that way.
For Infill Builders and Developers
Builders hire Revlyn because the schedule holds. We’ve cleared lots for infill builders across Edmonton — single lot splits, duplex and row house sites, and multi-unit projects under the new RS zoning — and we can price multi-lot packages if you’re carrying several properties. Because assessment, abatement, demolition, and recycling are all in-house, there’s no schedule gap between the hazmat crew leaving and the excavator arriving, and no finger-pointing between subs if something turns up in the walls. We can run the hazmat assessment and utility disconnects while your development permit for the new build is still in review, so the lot is ready the day you are. Need screw piles for the new foundation? We install those too.
For Homeowners: Knockdown-Rebuild or Clearing a Lot to Sell
If you’re tearing down to rebuild — or clearing an older house so the lot can sell at land value — Revlyn handles the entire process, and we’ll walk you through it in plain language before you commit. Most Edmonton homes built before the 1990s contain asbestos somewhere: floor tile, drywall mud, pipe wrap, or vermiculite insulation. That’s not a crisis, but the City won’t issue a demolition permit until the structure is confirmed clear of it, so testing comes first — and unlike most demolition companies, we do the abatement ourselves instead of subbing it out. You get one quote, one crew to deal with, a clean lot, and the documentation that proves it was done legally.
How Infill Demolition Works, Step by Step
1. Site visit and quote
We walk the property, check access, look at what’s coming down and what’s staying, and give you a site-specific quote — not a guess over the phone.
2. Hazardous materials assessment
A hazmat survey identifies asbestos and other regulated materials. The City of Edmonton requires this before it will issue a demolition permit, and Alberta OHS requires it before any structure comes down. We coordinate the assessment as part of the job.
3. Permits and utility disconnects
Demolition in Edmonton requires both a development permit and a building permit — about $230 in City fees — and the City won’t issue them until the asbestos paperwork is in order. In parallel, we coordinate the ATCO gas cutback, EPCOR power disconnect, and water/sewer capping. The disconnects are the long pole in the schedule, which is why we start them first.
4. Abatement, if required
If the assessment finds hazardous materials, our own certified crews remove them under containment — or, where materials can’t be hand-stripped, we run it as a Section 34 demolition with full hazmat protocols.
5. Teardown and foundation removal
The part everyone pictures is the short part: for a typical house, the machine work takes days, not weeks. We drop the structure, break out the basement and footings, and load out debris continuously so the site never becomes a hazard.
6. Backfill, grade, and documentation
We backfill and compact the excavation — or leave it open to your builder’s spec — finish the grade, and hand over a clean lot with disposal and clearance documentation for your records.
What Happens to the Materials
Recycling is in our name, not a line on a brochure. Concrete gets crushed and recycled, scrap metal is recovered and processed, and where condition allows we salvage old-growth beams and lumber from Edmonton’s post-war housing stock rather than burying them. What can’t be recycled goes to permitted construction and demolition disposal facilities, manifested. It keeps material out of the landfill — and salvage value is one of the levers that keeps our quotes competitive.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. Demolishing a building in Edmonton requires a development permit and a building permit, and the City will not issue them until every structure being demolished is confirmed clear of asbestos. Revlyn handles the full application — we’ve taken hundreds of demolition permits through the City of Edmonton.
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The teardown itself typically takes only a few days. The timeline driver is everything before it: hazmat assessment, permits, and utility disconnects — the ATCO gas cutback alone can run around 20 business days. From go-ahead to clean lot, most projects land in the four-to-six-week range, which is why we start the disconnects the moment you commit.
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It depends on the size of the structure, whether there’s a basement, how much asbestos abatement is required, site access, and what materials we can salvage. Because Revlyn does assessment, abatement, demolition, and recycling in-house, the total is usually lower than hiring those pieces separately. We quote after a site visit — the quote is free and specific to your property.
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Yes. Garages, additions, decks, swimming pools, and partial or selective demolitions are routine work for us on infill and renovation projects alike.
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If it was built before the 1990s, plan on it — asbestos was common in flooring, drywall compound, insulation, and pipe wrap. It doesn’t stop your project; it just has to be identified and removed properly before demolition. We test, and our own certified crews do the removal.
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As early as you can — ideally while your development permit for the new build is still in review. Utility disconnect lead times are the constraint, and they can run in parallel with your approvals so the lot is cleared the day you’re ready to build.
Service Area
We clear infill lots across all of Edmonton’s mature neighbourhoods — Westmount, Glenora, Ritchie, Strathcona, Highlands, Bonnie Doon, King Edward Park, Inglewood, Calder, Hazeldean, and beyond — plus St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, Leduc, Fort Saskatchewan, and Beaumont. For projects outside the capital region, call us: we take on work across Alberta.
Get Your Free Infill Demolition Quote
Whether you’re a builder carrying three lots or a homeowner taking down one house, it starts with a site visit and a straight quote. Call Revlyn at 780-454-8167 or request a quote online — and get a lot that’s ready to build on.
