Can a Teenager Work Demolition or Excavation?

Under federal law, most demolition and most deep excavation work is off-limits before 18. Two Hazardous Occupations Orders do the work: Order 15 at 29 CFR § 570.66 for wrecking, demolition, and shipbreaking, and Order 17 at 29 CFR § 570.68 for excavation. The Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #43 summarises both.

This is general information about the federal floor, not legal advice. State rules can be stricter, and the stricter standard is the one that governs.

Who these orders apply to

Sixteen is the basic federal minimum age for most nonagricultural employment. Fact Sheet #43 states that 16- and 17-year-olds may work unlimited hours in any occupation other than those the Secretary of Labor has declared hazardous. Orders 15 and 17 are two of those hazardous declarations. They are written as findings that the named work is particularly hazardous for minors between 16 and 18.

Anyone under 16 sits under a broader floor. Fact Sheet #43 notes that the Hazardous Occupations Orders also ban 14- and 15-year-olds from the work they cover, and that Child Labor Regulation No. 3 separately keeps most 14- and 15-year-olds out of construction occupations. Once a worker turns 18, the federal youth employment provisions no longer apply.

Order 15: wrecking, demolition, and shipbreaking

Order 15 is blunt. Section 570.66(a) finds that all occupations in wrecking, demolition, and shipbreaking operations are particularly hazardous for the employment of minors between 16 and 18 and detrimental to their health and well-being.

The regulation defines those operations as “all work, including clean-up and salvage work, performed at the site of the total or partial razing, demolishing, or dismantling of a building, bridge, steeple, tower, chimney, other structure, ship or other vessel.”

Three pieces of that definition matter for parents:

1. All occupations. The ban is not limited to people swinging a hammer at a load-bearing wall. Clean-up and salvage at the site are named.
2. Total or partial. Partial razing or dismantling is enough. The structure does not have to come all the way down.
3. Ships and vessels. Shipbreaking sits in the same order as house demolition.

Fact Sheet #43 adds a parent-facing clarification: HO 15 “does not apply to remodeling or repair work which is not extensive.” That line is DOL’s summary of when ordinary remodel work sits outside the razing and dismantling definition. Extensive tear-down work does not get that comfort. When the line is unclear, ask the state labor office before the first day on site.

Order 15 contains no apprentice or student-learner exemption subsection. Fact Sheet #43’s list of Hazardous Occupations Orders with limited apprentice and student-learner exemptions is HOs 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 17. HO 15 is not on that list.

Order 17: excavation and trenching

Order 17 is more detailed. Section 570.68(a) names four groups of occupations as particularly hazardous for persons between 16 and 18:

1. Excavating, working in, or backfilling trenches, except manually excavating or manually backfilling trenches that do not exceed four feet in depth at any point, or working in trenches that do not exceed four feet in depth at any point.
2. Excavating for buildings or other structures or working in such excavations, except manually excavating to a depth not exceeding four feet below any ground surface adjoining the excavation, working in an excavation not exceeding such depth, or working in an excavation where the side walls are shored or sloped to the angle of repose.
3. Working within tunnels prior to the completion of all driving and shoring operations.
4. Working within shafts prior to the completion of all sinking and shoring operations.

The four-foot figure is a hard depth test in the trench and building-excavation exceptions. A trench that is three feet at one end and five feet at another fails the “at any point” language for the trench exception. Manual work is part of the exception wording for several of those carve-outs; machine excavation is not what those exceptions describe.

Section 570.68(b) states that the section does not apply to apprentices or student-learners under the conditions in 29 CFR § 570.50(b) and (c). That matches Fact Sheet #43’s inclusion of HO 17 on the limited-exemption list. The exemption is not automatic. Among other conditions, the apprentice must be in a recognized apprenticeable craft, the hazardous work must be incidental to training, intermittent, for short periods, and under direct and close supervision of a journeyman, and the apprenticeship must be properly registered. Student-learners need a written school-employer agreement that meets the regulation’s list.

Roofing is a different order

Work on or about a roof is Hazardous Occupations Order 16, not Order 15 or 17. That order has its own article at can a 17 year old work on a roof. A teen who is lawfully off the roof can still be barred from the demo crew or the deep trench on the same site.

What this looks like for one family

The following example is illustrative rather than a real household.

Jonah is 17. A general contractor offers summer work as a “site laborer” on a small commercial remodel. The written description mentions hauling debris from an interior gut and hand-digging for a short footing trench.

His mother reads Orders 15 and 17 before anyone answers. The footing trench is specified at three feet, hand-dug, with no machine. That depth fits Order 17’s trench exception if it never exceeds four feet at any point. The interior gut is framed as cabinet and finish removal in a building that is staying up. Fact Sheet #43’s “remodeling or repair work which is not extensive” language is the relevant DOL summary, but the crew also mentions “taking out a load-bearing wall and half the rear addition.” That second description sounds like partial dismantling under Order 15, which has no apprentice carve-out and covers clean-up at the site.

Until the employer puts the scope in writing and keeps Jonah off any razing or dismantling site work, she treats the offer as unsafe under Order 15. Jonah takes a different summer job stocking materials at a supplier yard with no excavation and no demo. Dull, and lawful.

How do I check my state?

Fact Sheet #43 states that when both federal and state youth employment laws apply, the law with the stricter standard must be obeyed. Section 570.50(a) says the same about higher federal, state, or municipal standards. A looser state rule does not weaken Order 15 or Order 17. A tighter state age or construction rule can close doors the federal exceptions appear to leave open.

Start with the Department of Labor’s Selected State Child Labor Standards Affecting Minors Under 18 in Non-farm Employment table (as of July 15, 2025 on the page checked for this article), note the table’s date, and treat it as a pointer. Then call your state labor office if the job involves demolition, shipbreaking, tunnels, shafts, or any trench near the four-foot line. The broader age and hours map sits in child labor laws, explained for parents. Work-permit questions are in work permits for teens.

If the worry is safety rather than age, what your teen can do if a job feels unsafe covers the different route for that.

Wage and Hour Division complaints about child labor are free and confidential. This page is not a substitute for advice from your state labor department or a lawyer when real pay or a real injury is on the line.