Everything has to come back out the way it went in
The defining constraint of a strip-out is not what you are removing. It is that you cannot drop it.
In a house demolition, material falls into a pile and a machine loads it. In a strip-out the structure is staying, the floor beneath is staying, and often the tenancy next door is trading. Every sheet of plasterboard, every metre of partition, every ceiling grid and every length of redundant conduit is carried out by hand, down a corridor or a lift, into a bin.
That is why strip-outs are labour-heavy relative to their apparent scale, and why access — lift availability, loading dock hours, corridor width — matters more here than machine size ever does.
The three kinds of strip-out we quote
Commercial make-good. A lease is ending and the tenant has an obligation to return the premises to a defined condition. The scope comes from the lease and any schedule of condition, and it is worth reading closely: what a landlord asks for and what the lease actually requires are not always the same thing. Common through Wollongong's Crown Street and Keira Street commercial buildings and the industrial estates around Unanderra and Port Kembla.
Retail and office changeover. A new tenant is coming and the old fit-out has to go, usually quickly and often around the trading hours of neighbouring tenancies. Speed and clean handover matter more than anything else here.
Pre-renovation residential. A house is being substantially renovated and the interior is coming back to frame. This is partial demolition as much as a strip-out — internal walls may go, and if any of them are load-bearing that needs engineering input before anyone swings anything.
Working in an occupied building
Most commercial strip-outs happen while somebody else is still trading, which imposes a set of constraints that shape the whole program:
- Hours. Often after-hours or weekends only.
- Noise and dust. Containment, negative pressure where required, and sequencing the loud work.
- Protection. Lift protection, floor protection through common areas, and a defined route to the bin.
- Building rules. Loading dock bookings, security access, and notice to other tenants.
None of this is difficult. All of it needs to be known before the price is set.
Asbestos in a strip-out
Older commercial and residential buildings hide asbestos in places people do not expect: vinyl floor tiles and the adhesive under them, wall and ceiling linings, and insulation around services.
The rule does not change. Survey first on any pre-1990 building, and any removal is carried out by a separately licensed asbestos removalist — never as part of the general strip-out. The asbestos page explains the sequence.
Services have to be isolated first
Every strip-out involves live services, and getting them isolated properly before anything comes out is the part most often rushed.
Electrical circuits serving the fit-out need to be isolated and made safe by a licensed electrician — not simply switched off at a board somebody else may switch back on. The same applies to any gas supply, and to water and waste connections serving removed fixtures, which need capping rather than being left open.
In a commercial building this frequently extends to fire services. Sprinkler heads, detectors, emergency lighting and exit signage are often integrated with the fit-out being removed, and they are regulated systems — isolating or modifying them generally requires the appropriate licensed trades and, in an occupied building, coordination with the building's fire safety arrangements.
None of it is difficult. All of it takes longer than people assume, and it belongs in the program rather than in the first morning.
Waste, and why sorting pays
Strip-out waste is mixed by nature — plasterboard, timber, metal, carpet, ceiling tile, cabling. Sorted on site, a good proportion of it is recoverable, and metal in particular has value that offsets disposal.
Mixed into one bin, all of it goes out at the mixed-waste rate, which is the most expensive stream there is. A quote that assumes sorting will produce a different number to one that does not, and it is worth asking which you have been given.
Related: site clearing and concrete removal. We work across Shellharbour, Dapto and the northern suburbs as well as Wollongong itself.
Call 02 4214 4202 or send the details through.
Frequently asked questions
What is a strip out?
Removing the internal fit-out of a building while the structure remains — linings, partitions, ceilings, floor coverings, joinery, and redundant services. It is what happens when a tenancy changes over, when a commercial lease ends with a make-good obligation, or before a substantial home renovation.
How much does a commercial strip out cost?
It is priced by area and by what is coming out, and as a 2026 planning guide most Illawarra commercial strip-outs fall in a range of roughly $40 to $120 per square metre, with fit-outs that are heavily serviced or hard to access sitting above it. A residential strip-out before renovation is usually quoted as a fixed sum rather than by area.
Can a strip out be done while other tenancies are occupied?
Frequently, and it changes the job. Working in an occupied building means restricted hours, dust and noise controls, protection of common areas and lifts, and often after-hours work. All of that is manageable and all of it affects the price, so the building's rules need to be established before quoting rather than discovered afterwards.
Do strip outs involve asbestos?
They can, and in older buildings they frequently do. Internal linings, vinyl floor tiles and their adhesives, and services insulation are all places asbestos turns up in pre-1990 buildings. The same rule applies as for any demolition: survey first, and any removal is carried out by a separately licensed asbestos removalist.
What is a make good, and does it include the strip out?
A make-good clause in a commercial lease usually requires the tenant to return the premises to an agreed condition at the end of the term, which commonly means removing the fit-out and repairing damage. What is actually required depends entirely on the lease wording and any agreed schedule of condition — read it carefully, because make-good scopes are frequently disputed and the cost difference is significant.