Our teams are currently on site at a former TGI Fridays restaurant on Cross Street in Sale, Greater Manchester, carrying out a full soft strip back to shell and core. The unit has stood empty since the restaurant closed, and the strip out is the first phase in bringing the building back into use.

It is a job that looks straightforward from the pavement and is anything but. A town-centre plot, a busy A-road on one boundary, live neighbouring businesses on another, a shared car park, and asbestos containing materials identified inside the building. That combination is exactly why a demolition contractor with a proper planning process earns its money long before the first ceiling tile comes down.

The Site: A Town-Centre Unit With No Room to Spare

Cross Street is one of the main routes through Sale, and the restaurant sits directly on it with a shared surface car park to the rear. There is no compound space to speak of, no back lane, and no option to spill materials onto the footpath while a wagon is loaded.

The first job on any site like this is establishing a hard boundary. Ours went up in double-clipped Heras fencing with clearly designated drop-off points for the roll-on roll-off bins, agreed with the principal contractor before any plant arrived. Every vehicle entering or leaving is controlled by a banksman, and a photographic dilapidation survey of the pavement and road was carried out before works started so that the condition of the public highway is recorded from day one.

Scope of Works

The instruction is a full soft strip out back to shell — everything that is not structure comes out, and nothing gets left for the follow-on trades to work around.

Asbestos Removal First

Asbestos containing materials identified in the demolition and refurbishment survey are removed before any general strip out begins. On this project the works are non-licensed, carried out by UKATA-trained operatives under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

The removal area is segregated with barriers and signed, materials are removed by hand using controlled wet techniques rather than being broken up, and all waste is double-bagged in UN-approved red inner and clear outer bags before going into a dedicated skip. Every load leaves site under a serial-numbered hazardous waste consignment note. If anything suspect turns up that was not on the survey — and on buildings of this age it sometimes does — work stops in that area, it gets sealed off, and nothing restarts until it has been tested and cleared.

We cover this in more detail in our guide on whether demolition contractors can remove asbestos prior to demolition, and you can read more about our asbestos removal services.

Soft Strip Back to Shell

With the asbestos clearance signed off, the strip out proper begins. Doors and door casings, ceiling tiles and grid, skirtings, false walls and ceilings, floor finishes, sanitary ware, lighting, cabling, fire alarm and all remaining tenant fit-out come out in sequence.

Restaurant units carry far more fit-out per square metre than most people expect. Behind the plasterboard there is commercial kitchen extract, grease-laden ductwork, walk-in cold room panels, bar servery framing and a dense run of services — and all of it has to come out cleanly without contaminating the hardcore and concrete arisings underneath. That is the whole point of stripping soft before anything structural happens, and it is why we treat soft strip as a discipline in its own right rather than a warm-up act.

Where materials sit at height, they are walked down to deck level rather than dropped, which keeps operatives away from leading edges and keeps the debris under control.

Insulated Panels and Site Clearance

Internal insulated panels to walls, columns and ceilings are removed top-down using a 360 excavator fitted with a grab attachment, with operatives working from below to receive them straight into a 40-yard skip. Once the building is back to core and shell, a final inspection is arranged with the construction team before handover, and the plot is left clear. Our full site clearance service covers that last phase on projects where the plot has to be handed over ready for the next contractor.

96% of Waste Diverted From Landfill

Everything that comes out of the building is segregated on site into separate piles before it goes anywhere near a skip. Timber, metals, plasterboard, ceiling grid, cabling and general arisings are kept apart, loaded by excavator and grab into 40-yard bins, and taken to a licensed waste transfer station for recycling. Waste transfer notes are raised for every load leaving site.

Segregating at source rather than sorting later is the single biggest lever on recovery rates, and it is why we consistently divert around 96% of demolition waste from landfill. On larger structural jobs we take it a step further with on-site concrete crushing, turning demolition concrete into recycled aggregate that stays on the plot instead of being carted away and replaced with virgin stone.

Working Safely in a Live Town Centre

The building may be empty, but the street is not. Neighbouring businesses are trading, the car park is in use, and there is footfall past the boundary all day. Keeping our works invisible to everyone outside the fence line is part of the job.

• Agreed working hours — Monday to Friday 07:30 to 16:00, Saturday mornings only, with no working on Sundays or bank holidays.
• Dust suppression — dampening down at source with water suppression whenever conditions call for it, with the works reviewed daily.
• Noise control — sound-reduced plant where practicable, stationary plant sited away from sensitive boundaries, and monitoring against agreed levels.
• Exclusion zones — temporary zones established around active work areas and adjusted as the strip progresses, with emergency vehicle access never obstructed.
• Clean highway — every wagon controlled by a banksman, with any mud or debris drawn onto the road cleared immediately.

The measure of a good town-centre strip out is that the businesses either side of you barely notice you were there.

The Standards Behind the Work

All works on this project are carried out with reference to BS 6187:2011, the code of practice for full and partial demolition, under a site-specific demolition phase plan prepared in accordance with CDM 2015. Asbestos works follow CAR 2012 and current HSE guidance.

Every operative is inducted before starting, briefed daily on the risks and controls for the tasks in hand, and holds the relevant cards and certification for their role. Plant is inspected daily before use and taken out of service the moment a defect is found. It is not glamorous, but it is the reason we have never had a prohibition notice served on us.

If you want the plain-English version of how these projects are structured, our guides on strategic demolition planning and soft strip versus full demolition are a good place to start.

Why Restaurant and Retail Units Need a Specialist

Hospitality and retail strip outs come with their own quirks. Landlord dilapidation obligations set the finish standard. Handover dates are usually tied to a lease event that will not move. Units are frequently in shopping parks or high streets where other tenants are trading through the works. And the fit-out is dense, services-heavy and full of surprises behind the linings.

We have delivered this type of work up and down the country — including a former Pizza Hut on Phoenix Leisure Park in Crewe, a former Burger King in Nottingham, and a Toys R Us strip out and demolition in Stoke-on-Trent. You can see the full range on our retail and hospitality demolition services page, or browse our projects.

Demolition and Strip Out Across the North West

Sale sits within our core operating area. We work regularly across Greater Manchester and Cheshire, from our base in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent — including a previous asbestos removal and soft strip project at a former mill in Hyde. We also deliver commercial demolition and industrial demolition nationwide, with a 24-hour emergency demolition response.

Family-run since 1982, and still doing it the same way: plan it properly, do it safely, and leave the site clean.

For a free site visit and fixed-price quotation, get in touch or call 0800 222 9772.