West Sussex, South East England
Demolition Company and Groundwork Contractors in West Sussex
Demolition company and groundwork contractors in West Sussex, from Chichester to Crawley. Strip out, piling, site enabling and civils. Call 01424 830613.
Working in West Sussex
Demolition & Groundworks in West Sussex
West Sussex is a regular run for The Blackford Group. From our yard at St Leonards-on-Sea the A27 takes us along the coast to Shoreham, Worthing, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis and Chichester, and the A23 and the A272 take us up through Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath to Horsham, Crawley and East Grinstead. We are a demolition company and a groundworks contractor with eight divisions in-house, and our work in the county runs from strip outs and structural demolition in the coastal towns to bulk excavation, enabling works and civils packages on the housing and commercial sites inland. Lancing College, where we carried out the asbestos removal, strip out and demolition around the swimming pool refurbishment, is on our projects page.
The county has two very different halves. South of the Downs is the coastal plain, flat, densely built and growing, with Chichester, Bognor, Littlehampton and Worthing strung along it and Shoreham Port at the eastern end. North of the Downs is the Weald: Horsham, Crawley, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and East Grinstead, where most of the large housing allocations sit and where the ground is clay rather than chalk or gravel. The Downs themselves are the national park, with strict planning and villages where access is the first thing to think about.
Planning runs through seven councils, Chichester, Arun, Worthing, Adur, Horsham, Mid Sussex and Crawley, with West Sussex County Council as the highways authority and the South Downs National Park Authority covering the Downs. A demolition needs a Section 80 notice to the district or borough before it starts, highway licences for skips, hoardings and closures come from the county, and anything in the national park or a conservation area comes with conditions. We handle all of that as part of the job.
Because the M23 and the A23 put Crawley and Gatwick within easy reach of London, a lot of West Sussex work is commercial and industrial: units on Manor Royal and around the airport, distribution sheds off the motorway, business parks at Burgess Hill and Horsham, and the port and its hinterland at Shoreham. Those jobs run on a programme other people depend on, which is why we bring our own plant and our own tippers rather than waiting on a hire desk.
Our services
What We Deliver in West Sussex
Our eight divisions are Demolition, Strip Out, Groundworks, Site Enabling and Remediation, Haulage and Muck Away, Sea Defence, Piling, and Underpinning, with bulk excavation and civil engineering packages under the groundworks banner. On a West Sussex project that means the strip out, the demolition, the muck away, the remediation and the groundworks run as one programme with one supervisor, instead of four firms and four mobilisations along the A27.
On the ground
What West Sussex Sites Actually Need.
Chalk, Gravel and Brickearth on the Coast
The coastal plain between Chichester and Worthing sits on raised beach gravels and brickearth over the chalk, with the chalk itself rising into the Downs a mile or two inland. The gravels dig well and drain well; the brickearth is a fine silty soil that softens quickly when it is wet and needs care under foundations and slabs. Along the harbour at Shoreham and the river mouths at Littlehampton and Arundel the ground turns to soft alluvium with a high water table, which is where piling and designed drainage come into it.
Weald Clay North of the Downs
Horsham, Crawley, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and the housing land around them sit on Weald Clay, with Hastings Beds sandstone and clay at East Grinstead and the Greensand around Midhurst and Petworth. Clay shrinks and swells with the seasons and the trees, so foundation depths are set by the engineer from the ground investigation rather than a rule of thumb, cut and fill has to be managed for moisture, and winter earthworks need a plan for mud on the highway. We read the ground investigation before we price and put in trial holes where the records are thin.
The National Park, Conservation Areas and the Port
The South Downs National Park covers a large part of the county and brings its own planning authority, conditions and expectations about how a site is run. Chichester, Arundel, Petworth, Midhurst, Steyning and the old centres of the coastal towns have conservation areas and listed buildings, and Shoreham Port and the Crawley estates bring industrial ground with the tanks, slabs and contamination that go with it. Each changes the method rather than the outcome, and it is priced in from the start.
Where we work
Areas We Cover Across West Sussex
Chichester
The cathedral city on the coastal plain, with a historic walled centre, conservation areas and a ring of housing growth around it. Careful strip out and demolition in the centre, and bulk excavation, roads and drainage for the new estates on the gravels and brickearth outside the walls.
Bognor Regis and Littlehampton
Seaside towns with older seafront stock, holiday parks and a spread of industrial and retail ground behind them, plus large housing sites between the two along the A259. Demolition, site enabling and groundworks on flat, low lying ground with a high water table.
Worthing
The largest town on the coast, tightly built between the sea and the Downs, with Victorian terraces, seafront flats and older commercial buildings coming up for redevelopment. Strip out, demolition with neighbours close by, and foundations and drainage on chalk and beach deposits.
Shoreham-by-Sea and Lancing
A working port, the airport, the industrial ground along the harbour and the housing and college land at Lancing. Site clearance and remediation on former industrial sites, piling on soft ground by the harbour, and strip out and demolition on institutional sites. Lancing College is one of our projects.
Crawley and Gatwick
The county's biggest concentration of commercial and industrial property, on Manor Royal and around the airport, with post war housing across the neighbourhoods. Strip out and demolition of ageing units, slab break out, remediation and groundworks for what replaces them, usually on a programme with a hard end date.
Horsham
A growing market town on the Weald with large housing allocations to the north and west and business parks on the edge. Bulk excavation and cut and fill on clay, adoptable roads and drainage, piling mats and groundworks for new estates and commercial units.
Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath
Mid Sussex towns on the A23 and the A272 corridor with major housing growth, science and business parks and older industrial estates. Site enabling, earthworks, roads and drainage on Weald Clay, and demolition of redundant commercial buildings in the town centres.
East Grinstead
On the county boundary with Surrey and Kent, a historic High Street with tight access and newer housing around it. Careful demolition and strip out in the centre, groundworks and underpinning on the clay and sandstone of the High Weald.
Midhurst, Petworth and the Downs Villages
Inside the South Downs National Park, with estates, farms, listed buildings and lanes that decide the size of the machine. Demolition of agricultural buildings, site clearance, drainage and access, and groundworks for replacement dwellings, all under the park's planning conditions.
Arundel and the Arun Valley
A historic town on the river with flood risk along the valley floor and chalk on the slopes. Careful work around listed buildings, drainage designed for the water table, and foundations that suit chalk on one side of the street and alluvium on the other.
Who we work for
Clients We Look After in West Sussex
Commercial and Industrial
Units on Manor Royal and around Gatwick, distribution and business parks along the M23 and the A23, the port and industrial ground at Shoreham, and retail and office buildings in Chichester, Worthing and Horsham. Strip out, structural demolition, slab break out, remediation and the groundworks and slabs for what replaces them, run to a programme the main contractor depends on.
Housing and Development
The large allocations around Horsham, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Chichester and the coast between Bognor and Littlehampton. Bulk excavation and cut and fill, piling mats, adoptable roads and sewers, plot drainage and foundations, phased so plots are released in the order the housebuilder needs them.
Institutional, Residential and Private Clients
Schools and colleges such as Lancing, hospitals and estates, and homeowners, landlords and small builders across the county, from a garage coming down to a whole plot cleared for a new house, with underpinning where footings have moved on the clay and drainage that never matched the drawings.
FAQs
West Sussex Questions
The things people in West Sussex ask us most. If your question is not here, call 01424 830613 and we will answer it straight.
Which parts of West Sussex do you cover?+
All of it. Chichester, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Arundel, Worthing, Shoreham and Lancing along the coast, and Crawley, Horsham, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, East Grinstead, Midhurst and Petworth inland. We work nationwide beyond the county for the right job, and our yard at St Leonards-on-Sea puts the whole of Sussex within a normal working day.
Have you worked in West Sussex before?+
Yes. Lancing College, the public school near Shoreham, is on our projects page: asbestos removal, the strip out of the swimming pool and the demolition of external buildings as part of its refurbishment. Much of our other West Sussex work is commercial and housing groundworks that does not make the gallery but runs on the same methods.
Do you handle the council notices and highway licences?+
Yes. Demolition needs a Section 80 notice served on the district or borough council before it starts, skips, hoardings and closures need licences from West Sussex Highways, and anything inside the South Downs National Park or a conservation area comes with its own conditions. We arrange them and build the lead times into the programme.
Can you work on a site near Gatwick or on Manor Royal to a fixed programme?+
Yes, and a lot of commercial work in Crawley is exactly that: a unit stripped, taken down and the ground made ready for a new build by a date the main contractor has already committed to. Our own plant and our own lorries are what make the dates hold, and the site is run under CDM 2015 with a written sequence rather than an optimistic one.
The site is on clay and the trees are close. Does that change the foundations?+
Usually yes. On Weald Clay the engineer sets foundation depths from the ground investigation, the tree species and their distance, and near mature trees that can mean deep trench fill or a piled solution rather than a standard footing. We build to that design, and we flag it straight away if the ground opened up does not match what the drawing assumed.
How do you price a job in West Sussex?+
From a site visit and whatever exists already: drawings, structural reports, asbestos surveys, ground investigation. You get a written quote setting out what is included, what is excluded and what would change it, with the muck away priced honestly against the actual waste classification rather than left as a provisional sum.
Recent Work
If you have a project anywhere in West Sussex, whether that is a unit coming down in Crawley, a strip out in Worthing, a site to clear in Horsham, groundworks for a new house near Chichester or work on a school or estate in the Downs, we are happy to come and look at it. Call 01424 830613 or send the drawings over and we will tell you straight away whether it is a job for us and roughly what it will take.
Planning Work in West Sussex?
Tell us what you need moving, clearing or building and we will come back with a straight answer and a fair price.