Residential demolition and earthworks done right in Cape Coral, Florida

Who New Wave Demolition is

New Wave Demolition is a residential demolition and earthworks contractor based in Cape Coral, Florida. Owner-operator Lavan Culkins runs the business on a simple idea: most homeowners booking a tear-down or excavation are doing it once in their life, and they deserve a contractor who treats their property like it matters. The crew tears down houses, garages, sheds, and outbuildings, removes pools, concrete, and old foundations, clears land for new construction, and grades and preps sites so the next phase of work has a clean place to start. Every job is run by a Lee County crew that lives in the area, knows the soil, and has spent decades doing this work in Southwest Florida.

A Cape Coral company, working for Cape Coral neighbors

Cape Coral is one of the fastest-growing cities in Florida, and that growth means a steady churn of older homes coming down to make way for new builds, of canal-side lots needing pool fills, of properties recovering from storm damage, and of families ready to clear and prep land they bought years ago. New Wave Demolition was built specifically to serve that work in Lee County. The company is locally owned, locally insured, and works almost entirely inside the triangle bounded by Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and Bonita Springs.

That local focus means short response times on quotes, real familiarity with the permitting offices in Cape Coral and Lee County, and a working knowledge of the canal grid, the soil profile, and the pace builders move at in this market. When the schedule says a foundation goes in next Monday, the lot needs to be ready by Friday, and a regional crew with a Tampa or Naples address is harder to count on for that.

What New Wave Demolition handles

The work splits roughly into three buckets: structural demolition, earthworks, and site prep. Most projects involve more than one.

• House and structure tear-downs (single-family residences, additions, attached and detached garages)
• Garage, shed, and outbuilding demolition
• Concrete and slab removal (driveways, sidewalks, patios, old foundations)
• Pool removal, partial pool fills, and screen enclosure removal
• Land clearing and lot clearing for new construction
• Excavation, site grading, and rough grading to spec
• Site preparation for builders, foundations, pads, and driveways
• Hauling and debris disposal at licensed Lee County facilities

Common questions Lee County homeowners ask

Most of the calls New Wave gets are first-time demolition or excavation projects. The questions tend to repeat:

• How long does a residential demolition take? A standard single-story tear-down with no asbestos abatement runs one to three days on site, plus permit lead time.
• Do you handle the permits? Yes. The crew pulls Cape Coral and Lee County demolition and right-of-way permits as part of the quote.
• What happens to the debris? Everything is hauled to licensed disposal facilities. Concrete, metal, and clean wood are recycled where possible.
• Can you grade and prep the lot for our builder? That is most of the work. The crew often hands a finished pad off directly to a builder’s foundation team.
• How does pool removal work? Two paths: full removal (pool out, hole filled and compacted, pad ready for new use) or partial fill (deck and shell broken up in place, hole filled to grade).
• What about asbestos or hazardous materials? If a structure is pre-1980 the crew arranges a survey first and brings in a licensed abatement partner before demolition begins.

The New Wave approach: owner on every project

What separates a good demolition contractor from a bad one is rarely the equipment. It is whether the person quoting the job is the same person running the job. With New Wave, that is the same person. Lavan walks every property before the quote, runs the equipment when needed, and is on site for the start of every tear-down or major excavation. The fleet is owned outright, not rented project to project, so the schedule does not slip when a third-party rental yard is short.

That structure also means the price you get is the price you pay. There are no surprise change orders for “unforeseen conditions” that a smaller, owner-run crew with thirty-plus years of Lee County experience would have spotted on the walk-through. The trade-off is that New Wave only takes on as many projects as the crew can run well, so the calendar fills up, especially during the dry season.

How to start a project with New Wave Demolition

Three ways to begin: phone, web form, or email. Phone is fastest. Calling (941) 385-3230 during business hours puts you straight through to the team and usually produces a same-day or next-day site visit in Cape Coral and Fort Myers. The contact form on this site captures the basics (project type, address, timeline, scope) and routes to the same inbox the team works out of every morning. Free phone estimates are standard for straightforward projects. On-site walk-throughs are scheduled for anything involving a structure, a pool, or a non-trivial grading job.

Why hiring a local demolition specialist matters in Lee County

Southwest Florida has its own rules for this kind of work. Soil here is sandy and water-tabled, which changes how foundations come out and how fill is compacted. Permitting in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and unincorporated Lee County each follows its own rhythm and inspector preferences. Hurricane recovery work has its own complications: damaged structures often need an engineer’s letter before they come down, and FEMA-related debris flows into specific facilities. A regional contractor headquartered three counties away handles those wrinkles on a learning curve. A locally based specialist handles them as a default.

That is the case for hiring local. New Wave Demolition is not the only crew in Lee County, but it is one of a small number of owner-operated outfits where the person quoting the job is the same one running it.

Visit, contact, and service area

Office: Cape Coral, Florida
Phone: (941) 385-3230
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 7 AM to 6 PM Eastern
Service area: Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Lehigh Acres, Estero, Bonita Springs, and the rest of Lee County, Florida.