Why Environmental Remediation is Essential to your Demolition Project

With New Zealand’s ageing housing stock, demolitions are relatively common across the country. Purchasing an older property with plans to demolish it and build something new offer homeowners and investors a great option for securing premium land and a new structure.

However, one aspect of home demolition that’s often overlooked is the potential need for environmental remediation.

What is environmental remediation? 

Environmental remediation, in a nutshell, is the professional removal, cleaning, or containment of hazardous substances from the ground. 

That could be from soil, groundwater, or sediment, and it often means dealing with asbestos, but can also include hazardous substances such as pesticides, arsenic or lead. 

Importantly, environmental remediation doesn’t always refer to removal or cleaning. In some instances, it will be physically impossible or financially unfeasible to completely clean the soil or groundwater, or to remove all of it. In these cases, remediation can refer to containment – sealing off the hazardous substances completely. Alternatively, remediation experts can also opt for a strategy in which they add more uncontaminated soil or substances to the ground in order to dilute the contamination, therefore rendering the substances less or no longer hazardous.

Why do you need environmental remediation with your demolition? 

If you are demolishing a property, you will need to first get it checked for asbestos containing materials. If asbestos is found within the structure, you will need asbestos removal experts to safely remove the hazardous substances from the site. 

Similarly, environmental remediation is often necessary for demolition projects, especially those for older properties that may contain asbestos or other hazardous substances. This is also common for properties that have housed commercial factories.

Remediation is important to ensure the safety of everyone on site, from the demolition crews for the old property, to the construction crews of the new property, to the families or workers who will eventually live or work on the property. 

An Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) will let you know if there are any contaminants in the soil, sediment, or groundwater on a property that need to be removed, contained, or dealt with before work can commence.

PROES: Asbestos removal and remediation experts 

Nobody wants the extra hassle of environmental remediation on a work site, but when it’s necessary, you want it to be completed as efficiently, safely, and cost effectively as possible. 

For that, there’s PRO Environmental Services (PROES). 

Our team is composed of asbestos removal experts and environmental cleaners. We have countless years of experience in removing and containing hazardous substances from residential and commercial properties across the lower North Island, in places such as Kapiti, Palmerston North, Whanganui, greater Wellington, and more.

If you need asbestos removal or environmental remediation for your demolition project, we’re happy to offer a free, no-obligation quote. In the meantime, you can also read some of our case studies to see the kinds of jobs we’ve completed, and get a feel for our professionalism and dedication to timeliness.