Why the usual comparison fails
Most people compare demolition contractors on the number at the bottom of the quote. That number is only comparable if every quote carries the same scope, the same disposal, the same protection and the same schedule — and they almost never do. The questions below are what actually predicts whether the job finishes on the date, at the number, with the building intact.
1. Are liability insurance and a WCB clearance on file before you mobilize?
A general contractor or property manager will need the certificate for their own file, and a site that requires prequalification will not let a crew through the gate without it. Our answer: yes — liability insurance and WCB documentation are provided before we mobilize, not after you ask.
2. Can you hold a winter date?
Every demolition-only contractor is busiest when the ground is soft and the weather is easy, which is exactly when a commercial schedule usually needs them least. Our answer: Zebra Demolition is backed by an established Edmonton landscaping company. When the ground freezes the same experienced crews and the same owned equipment move onto demolition full time, so winter dates are staffed and ready to mobilize. Interior work runs the same in January as in July.
3. Is the equipment owned or rented?
Rented equipment is a schedule dependency: your start date becomes the rental yard's availability. Our answer: we run our own equipment. Nothing numeric is published here because nothing numeric has been independently verified — ask, and you get the straight answer for your specific scope.
4. Are hauling and dump fees in the number?
This is the most common way a low quote becomes a high invoice. Our answer: hauling and tipping fees are built into the quote. There is no separate disposal invoice after the job.
5. How do you handle asbestos?
Alberta OHS requires that asbestos-containing materials with the potential to release fibres be dealt with before demolition, so anything built before the mid-1990s should be assessed. Our answer: Zebra Demolition is not an asbestos abatement contractor. Where an assessment finds asbestos, a qualified abatement contractor does that work and we schedule behind their clearance. Any contractor who tells you they will "just deal with it" during the demolition is telling you something important.
6. Have you worked inside an occupied building?
A strip-out on one floor of a trading office tower is a logistics problem wearing a demolition costume: sealed dust barriers, negative air where the air handling demands it, protected routes, booked service elevators, agreed noise windows and daily clean-down. Our answer: yes — it is the normal shape of commercial work, and we put that logistics into the scope before the work is awarded, not on the morning of day one.
7. Who walks the site, and who runs the crew?
If those are two different people who never speak, the quote and the job will be two different things. Our answer: the person who runs the crew is the person who walks the site and prices it.
8. What does "broom-clean" mean, in writing?
The words are on every quote and they mean something different to everyone. Our answer: swept, debris out, fasteners pulled or ground flush, protection removed, and the next trade able to start without clearing anything first. We have written the full definition up in what broom-clean actually means.
9. What happens when the building surprises everyone?
It will. A wall build-up nobody drew, a live line that was supposed to be dead, a slab thicker than the survey. Our answer: we stop, we show you, and we price the change before touching it. On older buildings where drawings do not exist we quote a range up front rather than pretend the unknown is known.
What we will not tell you
This site publishes no review counts, no star ratings, no years-in-business figures and no project totals, because none of them have been independently verified. If a contractor's homepage leads with a number, ask where it came from.