Hastings, East Sussex
Demolition and Groundworks in Hastings
Demolition, strip out and groundworks in Hastings from a contractor with its yard at St Leonards-on-Sea. Own plant and fleet. Call 01424 830613.
Working in Hastings
Demolition & Groundworks in Hastings
Hastings is an old coastal town built across a set of steep valleys, and that shapes almost every job that happens here. The seafront and town centre sit low, the ground climbs sharply to The Ridge and to the cliffs above the Old Town, and the streets in between are narrow, terraced and often one way. Work in Hastings is rarely a case of turning up with a big machine and plenty of open space around it. It is about getting the right plant into the right place without bringing the street to a stop.
Access is the other half of the picture. The A21 is the main route north, running up past Battle and John's Cross towards Tonbridge and the M25, and it is single carriageway for much of that run. Along the coast the A259 carries traffic between Bexhill, the town centre and Rye, while the Combe Valley Way link road takes some of that pressure off by joining Bexhill through to Queensway. The A28 heads inland through Westfield towards Ashford. For a demolition or groundworks job it means lorry movements, muck away timings and delivery windows need thinking about as carefully as the work itself.
The building stock covers a wide range. Hastings and St Leonards have long Victorian and Edwardian terraces running up the hillsides, big seafront properties chopped into flats, and the older stock around Warrior Square and Burton's St Leonards. The Old Town is older again, timber framed and tightly packed on lanes that were never built for vehicles. Commercial and industrial space sits mainly on the estates at Ivyhouse Lane, Castleham, Ponswood and Churchfields, much of it put up in the second half of the twentieth century and now being cleared, extended or reworked. Both ends of that range carry their own issues: lime mortar, timber and asbestos in the old stock, steel portal frames, tanks and thick hardstanding in the newer.
Planning for most of this goes through Hastings Borough Council, with East Sussex County Council as the highways authority for anything that touches the road. Development in the town is mostly infill, conversion and replacement rather than open greenfield sites, so demolition here usually happens with a neighbour on one side and a live road on the other. Our yard is at Upper Wilting Farm in St Leonards-on-Sea, so we are not travelling far to look at a job or to move plant and lorries on and off site.
Our services
What We Deliver in Hastings
Our eight divisions are Demolition, Strip Out, Groundworks, Site Enabling and Remediation, Haulage and Muck Away, Sea Defence, Piling, and Underpinning. On a Hastings project that matters because the stages join up without a gap. The same outfit that takes the building down clears the arisings, treats the ground, puts the piles in and forms the foundations, using our own plant and our own lorries rather than waiting on hire or on someone else's programme. There is no argument about who left what in the ground, and one number to ring when something changes on site.
On the ground
What Hastings Sites Actually Need.
Sandstone, Clay and Steep Ground
Hastings sits on the Hastings Beds, a mix of Ashdown sandstone and Wadhurst Clay, and the two behave very differently. Sandstone can be firm at one level and running sand at the next, with springs showing up as soon as the ground is opened, while the clay shrinks and swells with the seasons and moves under old shallow footings. Add slopes as steep as the ones dropping off The Ridge and down into the Old Town and you end up with retaining walls, temporary works, piling and underpinning on jobs that looked straightforward on a drawing. We put trial holes in early rather than guess at it.
Water Runs to the Valleys and the Sea
The town centre occupies the old Priory valley, where streams were culverted long ago and ground was made up to level the floor of it. Heavy rain still finds those low routes, and the seafront and the Combe Haven side towards Bulverhythe carry tidal risk on top of that. On older industrial ground around Ponswood and Castleham there is a fair chance of fuel, oil, tanks or buried material, so we plan for testing, sensible segregation and proper disposal instead of discovering it halfway through a dig. Drainage design and a workable water strategy save a lot of trouble later.
Old Fabric, Tight Streets, Close Neighbours
Large parts of Hastings and St Leonards fall inside conservation areas, and the Old Town in particular is full of listed and locally listed buildings on lanes too narrow for a lorry. Terraced housing means party walls, shared drains and someone living on the other side of the brickwork. Anything built or refurbished before 2000 may hold asbestos, so surveys come first. On these sites the answer is usually smaller tracked machines, more hand demolition, dust and noise control that actually works, and telling the neighbours what is happening before it happens rather than after.
Where we work
Areas We Cover Around Hastings
Hastings Old Town
The oldest part of town, timber framed and full of listed buildings, on lanes like All Saints Street where a full size lorry simply will not fit. Suits strip out, careful demolition and small plant rather than anything heavy handed.
Ore
Terraced streets climbing the hill east of the town centre, with the Ore Valley one of the few parts of Hastings where larger redevelopment sites come up. Site clearance, enabling works and groundworks for new housing.
Clive Vale
Steep Victorian terraces between Ore and the Old Town, with tight rear access and shared boundaries. Mostly underpinning, drainage, small demolition and groundworks for extensions rather than anything on a big scale.
Hollington
Post war estates and later housing on the north west side of town, close to the Churchfields and Castleham industrial estates. Access is better than most of Hastings, so bigger machines and full size lorries are usually workable.
Silverhill
A busy junction on London Road, close to where the A21 comes down into the town, with shops, flats and small commercial units packed around it. Strip out, alterations and small demolition, nearly always with traffic management.
Bohemia
Large Victorian villas between the town centre and St Leonards, a lot of them split into flats. Typically strip out, structural alterations, underpinning and drainage work rather than full demolition.
St Leonards-on-Sea
Burton's seafront and the Victorian streets behind it, much of it in conservation areas and a lot of it converted into flats. Careful strip out, structural work and underpinning. Our yard is on this side of town.
Baldslow
Up at the top of the town near The Ridge, where the A21 meets the A28, with newer housing and more room around it. One of the easier parts of Hastings to get plant and tippers into.
Fairlight
Cliff top village east of Hastings where erosion, landslip and ground movement are genuine considerations. Private drives and soft verges, so access planning and drainage matter more than machine size.
Westfield
Village on the A28 north east of the town, with larger plots, farm buildings and barn conversions. Good for demolition of old agricultural structures, site clearance and groundworks for new builds.
Who we work for
Clients We Look After in Hastings
Commercial and Town Centre
Shops, offices, hotels, pubs and seafront buildings across the town centre, Silverhill and the St Leonards front. We strip out interiors ready for refit, take out floors and structure where an opening or a change of use needs it, demolish where a building has reached the end, and then carry out the groundworks, drainage and external works that follow. Traffic management, hoarding and phased working so a neighbouring business can stay open are part of the plan from the start.
Industrial and Site Enabling
The estates at Ivyhouse Lane, Castleham, Ponswood and Churchfields hold a lot of ageing steel framed units, workshops, slabs and yards. We take down frames and structures, break out hardstanding, remove tanks and redundant services, deal with contaminated ground through our Site Enabling and Remediation division, and leave a clean platform. Piling, new hardstanding, drainage and service routes follow on with the same team, so a developer or occupier deals with one contractor from clearance through to ground level.
Residential and Private Clients
Homeowners, landlords and housebuilders across Hastings, from taking down a garage or an old rear extension to clearing a whole plot for a new house. Victorian terraces here often need underpinning where shallow footings have moved on the clay or on the slope, and older drainage rarely matches the drawings. We handle the demolition, the muck away, the foundations and the drainage, and we keep the site tidy and the neighbours informed, which matters far more on a terraced street than on an open site.
FAQs
Hastings Questions
The things people in Hastings ask us most. If your question is not here, call 01424 830613 and we will answer it straight.
Do you cover Hastings?+
Yes. Our yard is at Upper Wilting Farm, St Leonards-on-Sea, TN38 8EG, so Hastings is a short run for our plant and lorries rather than a long haul with mobilisation costs attached. We work nationwide, but this stretch of the East Sussex coast is home ground for us.
Do you deal with Hastings Borough Council for the permits and notices?+
Yes, that is part of the job. Demolition needs formal notice to the local authority before it starts, and the council can attach conditions covering how the work is done. Noisy work can need separate consent. Anything on the highway, such as a hoarding, a skip, scaffolding or a road closure, goes through East Sussex County Council as the highways authority. Notice periods apply, so it is worth speaking to us early.
My house is mid terrace. What happens with party walls and the neighbours?+
Terraced and semi detached streets are the norm across Hastings, so party wall matters come up on a lot of our jobs. That is a legal process between you and your neighbour, usually handled by a surveyor, and it needs settling before work starts. Once an award is in place we work to it, protect and weather the exposed wall as we go, and let the people either side know when the noisy days are coming.
The building is from the 1960s. Is asbestos going to be an issue?+
Possibly, and it has to be checked. Anything built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and plenty of Hastings housing and industrial stock falls into that bracket. A refurbishment and demolition survey is carried out first so everyone knows what is in the building. Licensed material is removed by a licensed contractor under proper controls, with the paperwork kept, and demolition only starts once that is done.
Where does the muck and demolition waste go?+
We move it with our own lorries through our Haulage and Muck Away division, so removal is built into the job rather than something you have to chase a third party about. Material is segregated on site where there is room, hardcore and concrete are crushed or reused where it makes sense, and the rest goes to permitted facilities with waste transfer documentation for your records.
The street is narrow and steep. Can you actually get plant in?+
Usually yes, but it changes how the job is done. We size the machines to the access rather than the other way round, so on the Old Town lanes and the steeper terraces that can mean small tracked plant, hand demolition of the upper sections, and lorries booked in one at a time with a banksman on the road. If parking needs suspending or the road needs closing, we arrange that with the council before we start.
Recent Work
If you have a project in Hastings, whether that is a strip out in the town centre, a house coming down in Ore or Clive Vale, a unit to clear on one of the industrial estates, underpinning on a Victorian terrace or coastal work along the front, we are happy to come and look at it. Call 01424 830613 or send the drawings over and we will tell you straight what the job involves, how we would get the plant in and how we would deal with the ground. Our yard is only a short run away, at St Leonards-on-Sea.
Planning Work in Hastings?
Tell us what you need moving, clearing or building and we will come back with a straight answer and a fair price.