Garage Clearance in Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch

Getting your garage back in a single visit

Garages in Dorset rarely hold cars. They hold the last fifteen years of good intentions — the exercise bike, the paint tins from a decorating job in 2014, a workbench inherited from a father-in-law, boxes that came from the last house and never got opened. Most people know exactly what needs to happen. The problem is that it's a weekend of lifting, three trips to the tip, and a car that smells of damp cardboard afterwards.

We do the whole thing in one visit. Rob turns up with the van, you point at what's going, and it goes. Most single garages are cleared in two to three hours, and you get a swept floor at the end rather than a pile of dust and cobwebs where the shelving used to be.

Garage clearances start at £140, with larger or heavily packed spaces charged at £40 an hour for one person, or £65 an hour for two. That covers the labour, the loading, the disposal and the sweep-up — you don't pay tip fees separately on top.

What drives the price

Two things really: how much volume comes out, and how much sorting is involved.

Volume is the main one, because the cost of disposal is per load rather than per item. A garage that's stacked to the roof takes more van space than one you can still walk through, and heavy waste (rubble, soil, old paving slabs) costs more to dispose of than the same volume of light junk.

Sorting is the other. If everything is going, we can work fast. If you want us to pull out the things worth keeping as we go, that takes longer — which is fine, we just need to know in advance so we allow the time. Plenty of people book us for the second version, especially when clearing a parent's garage and there might be tools or keepsakes worth saving.

A rough steer on what people actually pay:

• Part garage — one corner, some boxes, a few bulky items: £140–£180
• Standard single garage, walkable, everything going: £180–£280
• Packed single garage, floor-to-ceiling: £280–£400
• Double garage or garage plus shed and loft: quoted on a look

We'll always give you a fixed figure before we start. If you send a couple of photos on WhatsApp to 07879 168 829, we can usually price it accurately without a visit.

What we take, and the few things we can't

The short version is that almost everything goes. Old furniture, white goods, freezers and fridges, mowers and strimmers, bikes, tools, workbenches, timber offcuts, garden waste, general household junk, broken electricals, carpet, bagged rubbish, and the mystery boxes nobody has opened since the move.

There are a small number of things that need specialist disposal and that we can't legally take in the van: asbestos (common in older garage roofs around Dorset — corrugated sheeting especially), gas bottles and pressurised cylinders, liquid paint in bulk, solvents, oils and chemicals, and car batteries. If you're unsure whether that roof sheet is asbestos, don't disturb it and don't break it — send us a photo and we'll tell you whether it needs a licensed specialist. Half-used tins of dried-out household emulsion are usually fine; a stack of full solvent tins is not.

Where it all ends up

This is the part most clearance companies stay quiet about. We work recycling and donation first, landfill last — not as a slogan, but because it genuinely costs less to divert waste than to dump it, and that saving is what keeps our prices where they are.

Usable furniture and working tools go to local charity and reuse outlets where they'll take them. Scrap metal — and garages produce a lot of it — goes to a metal recycler. Green waste goes for composting. Clean timber gets chipped. What's genuinely left over goes through a licensed transfer station where it's sorted again before anything reaches landfill.

We're registered with the Environment Agency as a licensed waste carrier, and we'll provide a waste-transfer note on request. That matters more than most people realise, and it's worth understanding why — see our waste removal page for the full explanation of the legal duty that sits with *you* as the householder, not just with the person carting it away.

Lofts, sheds and the rest of the property

Garages are rarely the only problem. If you're already booking us, it's far cheaper to do the loft and shed in the same visit than to book separately later — the van is here, the labour is here, and the disposal run is happening anyway.

Loft clearances take a bit more care because of the access. We'll bring everything down ourselves; you don't need to have pre-emptied the hatch. Sheds are usually quick, though if the shed itself is coming down too, mention it when you book so we allow the extra time and van space.

If the job has grown beyond one outbuilding — a full property before a sale, or a house being emptied after a bereavement — end of tenancy and property clearance is the better-fitting service, and it's priced differently.

Why people use a man with a van rather than a skip

For garage jobs specifically, a skip is usually the worse deal. You pay for the skip whether you fill it or not, you may need a council permit if it has to sit on the road, it blocks your driveway for several days, and — the part people forget — you still have to carry everything out and lift it in yourself. A garage clearance done properly involves a lot of heavy, awkward, dusty lifting. That's the actual work.

Hiring a man with a van means the lifting is included, the price is fixed, nothing sits outside your house for a week, and the job is finished the same day. For anything up to roughly two skips' worth, we're generally cheaper as well as easier.

Where a skip does win is a long renovation where you're filling it gradually over a fortnight. If that's your situation, we'll tell you so.

Booking a clearance

1. Send photos on WhatsApp or use the quote form — a couple of shots from the door is usually enough
2. Get a fixed price back, normally within a couple of hours
3. Pick a day — we can often do same-week, and same-day if the diary allows
4. We clear, load and sweep, and you get the space back

We cover the whole BH area for clearances, from BH1 in the town centre out to Christchurch, Poole, Broadstone and the villages beyond. Older properties around Westbourne, Winton and Parkstone tend to have the tightest garage access — narrow rear lanes and up-and-over doors that no longer open fully — which is worth mentioning when you book so we bring the right kit.

Loft clearances

Lofts are the job people put off longest and regret least once it's done. Most Dorset lofts hold thirty years of the same things: boxes that came from the last move and were never opened, a cot, a artificial Christmas tree, paint tins, suitcases, and insulation that has been walked on until it's flat.

We do the climbing. You do not need to get everything down before we arrive — that is the part most people dread and the reason the job never happens. We go up, pass down, and bag as we go. Bring a torch and expect dust.

Two things worth knowing before you book a loft clearance. Boarded lofts are quicker and cheaper than joists-and-insulation, because we can move around properly rather than balancing. And hatch size decides everything — a standard 562 mm hatch means furniture has to come apart up there, which takes time. Tell us the hatch size and whether it's boarded, and the quote will be accurate rather than hopeful.

Loft clearances across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and the BH postcodes. Anything reusable goes to a charity shop rather than the tip where we can — a lot of loft contents are perfectly good and simply in the wrong place.

Shed and outbuilding clearances

Sheds are a different job again, and usually a dirtier one. Expect rusted tools, half-empty paint and creosote tins, broken garden furniture, rotten timber and — often enough that we plan for it — a wasps' nest or a rat that has been living rent-free since spring.

What we take: timber, furniture, tools, general junk, garden waste, and the shed itself if you want it gone. What we cannot take: asbestos, which shows up in older shed roofing sheets more often than people expect. If a corrugated roof sheet looks like cement rather than metal or plastic, do not break it and do not let us — that needs a licensed asbestos contractor, and we will tell you rather than take a chance with it.

Old fuel, paint and chemicals need separating for legal disposal. We handle that as part of the job rather than tipping it in with everything else — we're a registered waste carrier with the Environment Agency, and the paperwork matters if anything is ever traced back.

Shed clearance in Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and across Dorset. If the shed is coming down as well as out, say so when you call — dismantling a 8x6 is usually under an hour, but a concrete-panel garage is a different quote entirely.

What a clearance costs

Clearances start at £140 and are priced on volume and time rather than a flat rate, because a half-empty single garage and a loft packed to the hatch are not the same job. Disposal is charged at £35 per quarter van load on top, which is what the tip actually charges us.

The honest guidance: send photos before booking. A garage, loft or shed is very hard to price over the phone from a description, and every quote we give from a photo is one we can stand behind on the day.