House Demolition
We tear down houses and the outbuildings around them, like a detached garage or an old barn. The debris is loaded and hauled off, and the lot is left clear.
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Two hurricanes flooded Lumberton within two years. Hurricane Matthew pushed the Lumber River to a record 24.39 feet in October 2016. In September 2018, Hurricane Florence pushed it more than a foot higher. When a house that took that water is past saving, the next step is a teardown.
Hollingsworth and Son Construction is a demolition contractor serving Fayetteville, Raeford and the surrounding counties. Lumberton is part of our service area, a little over 30 miles south of Fayetteville by road. Here we take on house demolition for flooded houses and worn-out ones, with an excavator and a dozer. Call or text (910) 527-1108, and we look at the job and put the quote in writing.
Tell us about the building, lot or land and where it is. We look at the job and put the quote in writing.
Lumberton sits on the Lumber River in North Carolina's coastal plain, with a levee system along the river. In Matthew, the levee held, but water flowed under I-95 along the railroad tracks at VFW Road. City planning staff said houses in West Lumberton took two to four feet of water inside. The city's water plant flooded too, and the water supply was down for weeks.
Florence dropped about 17.5 inches of rain on Lumberton, by the National Weather Service's estimate. Thousands of sandbags on the south and west sides of town did not hold the water back. The Mayfair neighborhood just north of the city flooded up to eight feet deep. The city has since put a West Lumberton floodgate at the VFW Road railroad underpass out to bid.
Florence also destroyed homes and businesses in the low-lying parts of the city. When a building that took that water is past saving, we bring it down and haul the debris off. Shops and other small commercial buildings come down through our commercial demolition work.
After Matthew, FEMA funded a city project for 101 houses in Lumberton's flood hazard area. The plan called for the city to buy and demolish 47 of them and raise the rest. A grant approved in 2021, after Florence, pays to buy and demolish 50 homes that flooded again and again. Those parcels become open space.
Lumberton had 21,542 residents in the 2010 Census and 19,025 in 2020. Over the same years, occupied homes fell from 8,084 to 7,266, and empty ones rose from 793 to 1,265. The Census Bureau estimates about 18,955 residents in 2025, close to the 2020 count.
State law lets a city order the owner of an unfit house to fix it or tear it down. A notice and a hearing come first. In Lumberton, the Planning and Neighborhood Services office handles minimum housing cases. After a teardown, our lot clearing work clears what is left and rough-levels the ground.
More than half of Lumberton's homes were built before 1980, and the median home dates to 1976. About one in four went up before 1960. More than half of the occupied homes in the city are rented. We work for homeowners and for property owners with a worn-out rental.
A teardown can leave the slab and the footings behind. Our concrete removal work breaks them up with the machine, and our debris removal work hauls the pieces off. Then a dozer backfills the low spots and levels the ground.
Lumberton is flat ground. Federal soil maps put Norfolk loamy sand and Johns sandy loam at the top of the list in town. About 40 percent of the land in the city has soils that drain poorly. On low lots the water table sits high, so slabs and footings there sit in wet soil.
Lumberton is the Robeson County seat, but the city and the county run separate permit offices. Inside the city limits and the edge areas the city covers, its Inspections department enforces the state building code. The city's fee schedule lists building demolition as its own permit type. Outside that line, Robeson County's Community Development Department handles inspections and has its own demolition permit application.
The state's Health Hazards Control Unit runs the federal asbestos rule in North Carolina. That rule requires an inspection before a commercial building, or an apartment building with more than four units, comes down. For a single-family house, the unit recommends one, and the property owner arranges it. Where the rule applies, the unit wants notice at least 10 working days ahead, even when no asbestos turns up.
If the inspection finds asbestos, an abatement company removes it first. A city or county permit does not cover the state's asbestos step. An 811 ticket also goes in at least three full working days ahead, so the utilities can mark their lines. The offices answer what your parcel needs, and we point you to the right one.
Communities and areas we serve around Lumberton: Downtown Lumberton, West Lumberton, South Lumberton, East Lumberton, Mayfair, Elm Street, Roberts Avenue, VFW Road, I-95, US 301, Lumber River, Bill Sapp Recreation Center.
Lumberton ZIP codes served: 28358, 28360, 28359.
Lumberton is part of our service area. We look at the job first, then put the quote in writing.
(910) 527-1108 We tear down houses and the outbuildings around them, like a detached garage or an old barn. The debris is loaded and hauled off, and the lot is left clear.
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We take down small and mid-size commercial buildings with an excavator and a dozer. The debris gets hauled off, and the site is left clear for the rebuild.
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We break up old driveways, slabs, patios and sidewalks by machine and haul the concrete off. Old foundations and footings left after a teardown come out the same way.
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We clear wooded and overgrown acreage with a dozer and an excavator. The stumps come out, and the cleared material is hauled off or piled.
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We clear single lots in town, including overgrown lots and the lot left after a teardown. Trees and stumps come out by machine, and the ground is rough-leveled for what comes next.
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We dig trenches and ditches and take old slabs and footings out of the ground. Dirt gets moved and spread where the job needs it, around Fayetteville and Raeford.
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We push cleared brush into piles and rough grade the ground level. We also spread fill dirt and backfill the low spots after a teardown.
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We load demolition and construction debris by machine and haul it off the property. Brush from a clearing and broken concrete are part of the work too.
Learn MoreA few of the questions we hear most around Lumberton. If yours is not here, call or text and ask.
Tell us about the job and the town it is in. Call or text (910) 527-1108 or use the form, and we will set a time to look at it.
Tell us about the building, lot or land and where it is. We look at the job and put the quote in writing.