Demolition Contractor in Dunn, NC

How old are the houses in Dunn?

Dunn has 4,229 housing units by the latest Census survey, and 66 percent are detached single-family houses. The median home was built in 1973, and the 1970s added more homes than any other decade. Nearly three in ten went up before 1960, and about one in ten before 1940. Only about 3 percent were built in 2010 or later.

Building has picked up lately. Census permit data show 72 new single-family homes authorized in Dunn in 2024, up from 29 in 2023. Close to half of the occupied homes in Dunn are rented. The city's rental housing ordinance sets minimum standards for those homes.

We take down fire-damaged and condemned houses, along with detached garages, sheds, barns and porches. The debris is loaded by machine and hauled off, and the lot is left clear. If a slab or old footings stay behind, they come out with the machine too.

Downtown Dunn and its railroad grid

Dunn was laid out in 1886 as a circle around the spot where Broad Street crosses the railroad. Its streets run in a grid, and many blocks have an alley down the middle. The downtown core is the Dunn Commercial Historic District, listed on the National Register in 2009. Its brick commercial buildings date from about 1900 to the late 1950s.

Residential neighborhoods wrap around downtown on three sides, and on those lots machine access drives much of the work. An alley behind the house can give the excavator and the trucks a second way in. Warehouses and shop buildings fall under our commercial demolition work, and the slab can come out too. For a building in the historic district, check with the city planning office before any work starts.

Cumberland Street carries US-421 and NC-55 through town, and Clinton Avenue carries US-301. I-95 runs along the east side of the city, and Exits 72 and 73 serve Dunn. The state's I-95 widening takes this stretch to eight lanes and rebuilds Exits 72, 73, 75 and 77.

Dunn soils and overgrown lots

The NRCS soil survey maps close to two-thirds of Dunn in Norfolk soils, a deep, well-drained loamy sand. Low, flat spots carry Rains soils, which the survey rates poorly drained, so they stay wet longer after rain. Stream bottoms hold Bibb soils, which the survey lists as frequently flooded. Wet ground slows machine work, so the soil on a lot can shape the schedule.

FEMA's flood maps mark flood zones along the Black River and Juniper Creek inside the city limits. The Cape Fear River runs about four miles west of downtown, past Erwin. You can look up any Dunn address on FEMA's online flood map before you plan the work.

The City of Dunn sends violation notices for weedy, overgrown lots and for junk and debris. Our lot clearing work takes out brush and trees by machine, stumps included. Hauling or piling the cleared material is settled in the written quote. A lot headed for a new house can be rough-leveled once it is clear.

Who issues a demolition permit in Dunn?

North Carolina law requires a permit before a building is demolished. Inside the city limits, the City of Dunn Inspections Department takes demolition applications for homes and commercial buildings. Out in the county, Harnett County Central Permitting in Lillington has its own demolition application. If you are not sure which side of the line a lot sits on, either office can tell you.

The county's form asks whether the house uses a well or a septic tank. It also wants proof of proper disposal before the final inspection. Our debris removal work hauls teardown debris to the proper facility.

For many demolitions, the state health department's asbestos rules call for an inspection first. The property owner sets up that inspection before the teardown. When the rules apply, the state's Health Hazards Control Unit wants notice at least 10 working days ahead. State law calls for an 811 notice at least three full working days before a demolition or any digging.

811 marks public lines only, so a power line out to a detached garage needs a private locator. Those steps come first, and then the machines go to work.