Turning Old Into New
Metro Interior Demolition clears obsolete spaces, making them ready for new purpose
On TV, demo day is the most fun part of renovation projects. New homeowners come in, swinging sledge hammers and ripping out cabinets by hand.
In the real world, Metro Interior Demolition, LLC (MID) workers go in with a detailed plan. They carefully dismantle walls and ease down ceilings. Their goal is to destroy the interiors of older buildings as quickly and cleanly as possible.
“We leave a clean slate,” says Vella Juarez, MID’s Owner and President.
Metro Interior Demolition was launched in 2006 to help take older residential, commercial and industrial buildings and prepare them for a new life. It can be a complete clean out, clearing out fixtures, walls and ceilings, or a more limited demolition. They clean up the debris and haul off the recyclables, sometimes in as little as one night.
“We try not to inconvenience anybody. We try to be as stealthy as possible,” says Vella’s husband and MID Co-Owner, Leobardo Juarez.
The company may be working on the 49th floor with executives working on the 50th floor. The crews must be quiet, keeping debris and dust to a minimum. Often, areas are sealed off with plastic to protect the rest of the building.
If the work is being done at night, elevators, halls and other facilities must be cleaned before the crew leaves.
“It’s a very awesome industry that we’re part of,” Vella adds. “You come into a building and get to see what was there and come back in a few months and see all these great new things.”
Looking for a New Start
Vella and Leobardo were looking for a new business opportunity after they moved from Alabama to Georgia. Vella has a degree in business administration and a strong background in administering construction businesses. Leobardo has worked in demolition since he was 17. They thought the Atlanta area looked good and “took a leap of faith.” Seeing the booming building industry, they decided to create their own demolition firm. They started with just the two of them and then picked additional team members from crews that did particularly well.
While MID is capable of performing exterior demolition work, interiors have also been a good business, which is why they concentrated their efforts in this niche.
“You want to give the best service rather than be a jack-of-all-trades,” Vella says.
Revenue has risen to about $1 million from a start of $84,000 the first year. They’ve done small jobs to contracts that exceed a million dollars. They have a core crew and then hire others as needed.
MID serves clients primarily in Atlanta but also works in other parts of Georgia, as well as in Florida, Alabama and South Carolina. The company has completed jobs for Grady Memorial Hospital, several major retailers and has worked on downtown Atlanta skyscrapers. They worked on a three-year-long project for the University of Florida in Gainesville clearing out 1.5 million square feet of space.
Recently they’ve been busy taking down the Georgia Dome. The old home of the Atlanta Falcons is being replaced and MID has been working on dismantling the interior, including taking out all 77,000 seats.
“Atlanta is really moving, really booming,” Vella says.
Turning Trash into Profit
A lot of what’s pulled from older buildings is still usable and is repurposed to keep it out of landfills.
In 2011, Vella started a secondary company, VELLEO Recycling Co., to take advantage of the recyclable materials the MID team is hauling off. Metal and wood are recycled, along with other fixtures that can be reused.
“We throw very little away unless it’s absolute trash,” Vella says. “We recycle, repurpose all that we can.” Things that can’t be recycled are crushed at the recycling plant. The firm is a major LEED recycler, she says, and is part of Armstrong Ceiling Solutions’ ceilings recycling program as well as a member of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Growing the Business–and Growing Personally
One of the company’s biggest obstacles has been getting its name out. They’ve done little advertising, depending instead on happy clients to tell others about their services.
MID now has a strong client base and is able to be selective about the jobs it takes, Leobardo says. But like all businesses, it still is looking for new clients to push growth.
Vella is particularly proud of her success as a female entrepreneur. MID is a certified woman- and minority-owned business and a Small Business Enterprise certified through the city of Atlanta’s Small Business Administration program.
She is happy that those in construction can see that women can be a valuable part of the industry.
“In the early days, I had my boots and hard hat on, and then I also did the office work,” she remembers. Men sometimes looked at her like she was in the wrong meeting. She stuck with it and learned what she needed to know to confidently talk about the projects.
“I do know what a soffit is. I do know you can’t take out a load-bearing wall,” she says. “It’s just the professionalism of knowing what you’re doing and having the confidence to handle the situation.”