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When demolition is handled correctly in a pre-1960 Cheltenham home, you’re not just clearing space — you’re removing decades of risk. Asbestos-containing materials, lead paint, and hidden mold are common in the housing stock throughout Elkins Park, Glenside, Melrose Park, and Cedarbrook. A contractor who can only swing a hammer has to stop the moment any of that turns up. You end up managing two or three separate companies, paying for delays, and coordinating a mess that was never supposed to be your job.
With us, the process doesn’t stop. Testing, abatement, and demolition happen under one roof with one team. That means your kitchen gut, basement overhaul, or full interior demo moves forward on schedule — without a surprise phone call telling you the project is on hold until an abatement crew can fit you in.
For homeowners near the Tookany Creek who’ve dealt with flooding, our one-stop model matters even more. Water damage in a pre-1960 home almost always means mold behind the walls and hazardous materials in the materials being torn out. Getting that handled by the same team that does the gut-out isn’t a convenience — it’s the only way to do it without creating more problems than you started with.
EJS Environmental Services LLC has been doing this work in Montgomery County for twenty years. That’s not a tagline — it’s the reason we know what to expect when we walk into a pre-1960 home in Wyncote or a flood-damaged basement in Elkins Park. We’ve seen what’s inside these walls. We know how to handle it, and we know how to keep your project moving when we find it.
We’re fully licensed, bonded, and insured. Our team includes a Certified Lead Inspector and Risk Assessor, and we operate in full compliance with EPA and HUD regulations. Pennsylvania requires a state-issued license for asbestos removal — we hold it. Most contractors who market themselves as demo crews in this area don’t. That’s not a knock on them. It just means they can’t legally finish the job when your Cheltenham home shows them what it’s made of.
We also offer free estimates, cash discounts, and a beat-any-legitimate-estimate guarantee — because you shouldn’t have to choose between the right contractor and a fair price.
It starts with a free estimate and a walkthrough of the space. Before anything gets torn out, we evaluate what we’re working with — because in Cheltenham’s housing stock, that evaluation determines everything. If testing is needed for asbestos or lead, we handle it in-house. You don’t call a separate company, wait for results, and then call us back. We do it, we assess it, and we tell you exactly what we found and what it means for the scope of work.
Once the evaluation is complete and any hazardous materials are identified, remediation happens before demolition begins. That’s the correct order, and it’s the legal order under Pennsylvania and federal regulations. Cheltenham Township also requires a signed contract with every permit application, so our documentation is in order before the first wall comes down. If your project disturbs 250 square feet or more of ground area, we’re also familiar with the township’s stormwater management review requirements under its two-watershed framework — that’s not something every out-of-area contractor will flag for you.
From there, demolition proceeds with HEPA filtration systems running throughout the job. When the work is done, the space is clean — not just visually, but environmentally. We do a final walkthrough with you so you know exactly what was removed, what was found, and what the space is ready for next.
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The demolition work we do in Cheltenham covers the full range of what older homes in this township actually need. Interior gut-outs for kitchens, bathrooms, and basements. Full-floor demolition before a rebuild. Post-flood gut work in homes affected by Tookany Creek flooding, where water-damaged walls almost always mean mold and frequently mean hazardous materials underneath. Emergency response for situations that can’t wait — we’re available by phone 24/7, and we mean it.
Every project in Cheltenham gets the same core approach: licensed on-site supervision, HEPA filtration throughout, proper documentation for township permit requirements, and in-house handling of any asbestos, lead, or mold that turns up. Homes in Laverock and Wyncote with estate-style construction, properties near the historic districts in Elkins Park, smaller row-style homes along Cheltenham Avenue near the Philadelphia border — the scope and character of the work varies, but our standard doesn’t.
We also serve general contractors and remodeling companies working in the area. If you need a reliable sub for gut-out work before your build-back begins, we’re the team that handles whatever the house produces — without stopping your project or creating liability on your end. One call, full scope, done correctly.
Yes, permits are required for demolition work in Cheltenham Township, and the township has a few specific requirements worth knowing before you start. Every permit application must include a signed copy of the contract or proposal between the contractor and the property owner — that’s a Cheltenham-specific requirement, not something every municipality asks for. There’s also a $35 demolition disconnecting fee for utility disconnection, plus building permit fees that run $45 for the first $1,000 of estimated project cost and $30 for each additional $1,000.
Cheltenham also maintains an official registered contractor list, and working with a contractor who is properly licensed and registered matters here. If your project involves any exterior work or ground disturbance of 250 square feet or more, you’ll also need a stormwater management review under the township’s two-watershed framework — one covering the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford watershed and one covering the Wissahickon Creek watershed. That’s a layer of environmental review that catches a lot of homeowners off guard. A contractor who knows the local permit process will flag this for you upfront, not after work has already started.
It’s not always legally required for every single project, but in a home built in the 1950s in Cheltenham, testing before demolition is the right call — and in many cases it’s a practical necessity. Asbestos-containing materials were standard in residential construction through the late 1970s. In a pre-1960 home, you’re likely looking at asbestos in floor tiles, ceiling tiles, pipe insulation, joint compound, and plaster. You don’t know what’s there until you test, and you can’t legally disturb it without proper abatement if it is there.
Under Pennsylvania’s Asbestos Accreditation and Certification Act — Acts 194 and 161 — asbestos removal requires a state-issued license from the PA Department of Labor and Industry. Most general contractors and demo crews don’t hold this license. We do. So when we test your Elkins Park or Glenside home and find asbestos-containing materials, we don’t stop work and hand you a problem. We handle it in-house, keep the project on schedule, and document everything correctly. That’s the difference between a contractor who can start a job and one who can actually finish it.
The honest answer is that it depends on the scope and what the house reveals during the process — and in Cheltenham’s pre-1960 housing stock, what a house reveals matters a lot. A straightforward bathroom gut in a home with no hazardous materials is a different job than the same bathroom gut in a 1940s Wyncote home where asbestos floor tiles and lead paint turn up during demo. The scope can shift, and a contractor who quotes you a rock-bottom number without accounting for that possibility is setting you up for a surprise invoice.
What you can expect from us is a free, transparent estimate before any work begins. We walk the space, assess what we’re working with, and give you a number that reflects the actual job — not an artificially low opener. We also offer cash discounts for qualifying projects and a beat-any-legitimate-estimate guarantee, so if you’ve gotten another quote from a fully licensed, comparably credentialed contractor, bring it. We’ll look at it. The goal is to make sure you’re getting the right contractor at a fair price, not just the cheapest crew available.
With a demo-only contractor, the answer is usually: work stops. They’re not licensed or equipped to handle it, so they have to pause, refer you out, and wait for a separate abatement company to come in before they can continue. That costs you time, coordination, and often more money than you expected.
With us, the answer is different. We’re EPA and HUD compliant, our team includes a Certified Lead Inspector and Risk Assessor, and we handle mold remediation in-house. If lead paint or mold turns up during a gut-out in your Melrose Park or Cedarbrook home, we assess it, remediate it, and keep the project moving. No handoffs, no delays, no scrambling to find a second contractor. This is especially relevant in Cheltenham, where flooding from the Tookany Creek has pushed water into basements and crawl spaces in older homes for years — creating exactly the kind of hidden mold and compromised materials that show up mid-demo. Knowing your contractor can handle it before you start is worth more than any low quote.
Yes — and this is one of the more common calls we get from Cheltenham homeowners. When the Tookany backs up after a heavy storm and water gets into a basement or first floor, the damage doesn’t wait for a convenient appointment window. Saturated drywall, soaked insulation, and standing water in a pre-1960 home create a mold timeline that moves fast. The longer the gut-out waits, the worse the remediation scope gets.
We’re available by phone 24/7 and offer emergency response service. We can assess the damage, determine what needs to come out, handle any hazardous materials found in the affected areas, and complete the gut-out so remediation and rebuild can begin as quickly as possible. For homeowners in Elkins Park and downstream areas who’ve dealt with this more than once, having a contractor you can call at any hour — one who handles the full scope without requiring you to coordinate multiple companies — makes a genuinely stressful situation a lot more manageable. That’s not a sales pitch. It’s just how the work needs to go when timing matters.
We offer cash discounts on qualifying projects, and we back every estimate with a beat-any-legitimate-estimate guarantee. In a township like Cheltenham — where median home sale prices sit around $215,000 and a lot of renovation projects are being done by buyers who purchased older homes specifically to update them — we understand that the total cost of a gut renovation adds up quickly. You’re already managing permit fees, contractor costs, and the uncertainty of what an older home might reveal. We don’t think you should also have to overpay for the demolition and abatement piece.
The cash discount exists because it’s a real cost savings on our end, and we pass that along directly. The beat-any-estimate guarantee exists because we’re confident in our pricing and want you to feel that confidence too. What we’d ask is that the comparison be apples to apples — a quote from another fully licensed, PA state-certified, EPA-compliant contractor covering the same scope. If that quote beats ours, we’ll match it. Most of the time, once you compare credentials alongside the number, the conversation looks a little different.
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