Most house clearance in Consett starts as an email rather than a phone call, and usually from somebody who is nowhere near the town. One came into the office about a County Durham property where the person arranging it wanted to know one thing before anything else: would we take the whole house on, contents and all. The reply that went back said what we tell everybody. We can clear the property no problem. That is always the shortest part of the answer.
The rest is the detail people actually want. When you book a clearance the team turns up at nine in the morning and the house is usually cleared that same day. Nobody needs to bag anything up first. The lads go through cupboards, wardrobes and drawers themselves, take up carpets and underlay where that is wanted, and sweep right through at the end if you ask them to. If the property turns out to be cluttered, or part of it is, they carry on and do extra loads rather than down tools, and if it honestly needs a second day we say so and come back for it. Everything that leaves goes to licensed recycling stations, or to a charity where the stuff is still good enough for somebody else, and a waste transfer note follows if you want one for your records. Fridges and freezers count as hazardous waste and travel separately from the rest, which catches people out every time.
And if you would rather not be there at all, you needn't be. We pick the key up from an estate agent or a neighbour and email photographs of the empty rooms afterwards. The office spelled out the other half of that in the same reply: "On request we can pick up the items of sentimental value and get them posted to you." A tin of photographs, a clock, a christening mug. Those come out first and travel in the cab, not in the load.
Where we work from here
Consett sits high, on the edge of the moor, and DH8 runs out with it to Ebchester and Medomsley, with Lanchester just over the boundary on the road towards Durham. We work the whole of County Durham from the same diary: Stanley and Chester-le-Street to the east, Crook, Willington, Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor to the south, Ferryhill, Shildon and Newton Aycliffe beyond that, Barnard Castle out in Teesdale, and across to Seaham, Peterlee, Wingate and Trimdon on the coast side. That covers the DH districts, the DL ones down towards Darlington and Richmond, SR where the county runs into Sunderland, and TS at the Teesside end.
Three of those have pages of their own, written by the same crews: house clearance in Bishop Auckland, house clearance in Chester-le-Street and house clearance in Newton Aycliffe.
There has been no passenger train into Consett since the line shut, and the old trackbed is now the cycle path carrying the coast-to-coast route past Hownsgill and away towards Sunderland. So the nearest platforms are Chester-le-Street and Durham on the East Coast Main Line, and when somebody is coming up for the day to hand over keys we start those jobs at nine and get the keys back to them before the last train south.
How a house clearance in Consett runs on the day
Arrival is nine. The team leader walks the property with you before anything is lifted, you say what goes and what stays, and after that you are free. Plenty of people meet the crew, point out the two or three things that are not to be touched, walk off round the estate or into town for a couple of hours and come back to an empty house. You are not required to stand there all day. If the family has already emptied a room in the meantime, say so on the walk round rather than leaving the lads to guess.
Most of a Consett house clearance is one day, front door to swept floor. What stretches it is rarely the volume inside the house. It is the carry. A loft with a hatch and no ladder, a back lane blocked by wheelie bins on collection day, a garage that has not been opened since the works closed. Tell us about those on the phone and the right van and the right number of men set off in the first place.
What cannot go in the van on a Consett clearance
On the upholstery point — sofas, armchairs, footstools, anything padded with fabric or foam — the rules changed a few years back and soft furnishings can no longer be tipped in with general household waste. They are kept apart from the moment they leave the house and taken to a site permitted to handle them. Same principle with fridges and freezers, which have to be degassed properly. Aerosols, gas bottles, engine oil, old tins of paint from the back of a shed, anything carrying a hazard symbol — none of it can ride in a mixed load, and we'd sooner say so on the phone than leave a shelf of it in your garage after we've gone.
Asbestos is the other one. Garage roofs and old flue panels turn up round here more than you'd think, and that is a licensed job for somebody else, not a job for a furniture van. We will tell you what we can see and stop there.
When you're not local
A fair share of house clearance in Consett is probate work, and the person arranging it is very often two hundred miles away. Executors ring from Kent, from the Midlands, from abroad. That is normal and it changes nothing about how the day runs. Access can be a keysafe with the code passed over the phone, or a key collected from an agent or a neighbour, and nobody has to be at the house at all. We photograph the property empty and send the pictures on, so somebody two counties away can see the carpets and the skirting boards for themselves rather than take our word for it.
Probate house clearance has its own rhythm. Nothing can be done until the papers are in order, then suddenly the sale is moving and the house has to be empty by a date. If a solicitor is handling the estate, or somebody holds power of attorney for an owner who has gone into care, we correspond with them direct and keep the family out of the back-and-forth. Where there is something heavy and awkward in a probate property — a piano, a motorised riser chair, a full loft, a workshop of tools — flag it when you first ring, because it decides which crew comes.
We keep the waste transfer paperwork for every probate clearance and hand it over without being asked twice. Executors are the ones who may have to account for what happened to a houseful of belongings, and a numbered ticket is worth more than a promise.
Garage and loft clearance in Consett, and the housing round here
A garage and loft clearance is a booking in its own right here, and often the only part left once the family have been through the rooms. Consett's stock tells its own story. Terraces built for the steelworkers at Blackhill and Leadgate, with a back yard, a coal house and a loft hatch nobody's opened since the seventies. Post-war semis on the Moorside and Delves Lane side. Older stone houses out at Shotley Bridge and Castleside, deeper than they look from the road. A lot of bungalows, which is why we clear so many of them. And the newer estates on the old works land, where the drives take a Luton van with room to spare. The terraces are the awkward ones — no off-street parking, a back lane half blocked, everything carried out through the front. We walk the route before we start rather than find out halfway through a wardrobe.
Sheds, garages, lofts and grown-over gardens are all part of it, and a house filled to the ceiling over twenty years is no trouble to us. Hoarder house clearance is slower, needs more loads and sometimes more than one day, and it is booked differently for that reason — but we've seen the state of plenty and passed comment on none of them. End of tenancy work is the opposite problem: a flat clearance with a deadline on it, keys due back, and everything from a stud wall of shelving to the fridge to be gone by Friday.
Little things make more difference up here than people realise. The wind comes straight off the tops, and a house stood empty since autumn is colder inside than out. Somebody putting the heating on the day before makes a long clearance a lot more civilised.
What happens to the contents
Furniture, crockery, books, tools, unopened bedding — if it's still usable it goes to a reuse project or a charity shop in the area rather than to the tip. Metal, wood, cardboard, electricals and textiles are separated out at the yard. Whatever's genuinely finished goes to a permitted transfer station and comes back to us as a weighed and numbered ticket, which we keep. Our waste carrier registration with the Environment Agency is CBDU419679, and Durham County Council, like every authority, will hold the householder responsible if rubbish from their address ends up dumped in a field. Ask any firm for their number before you let them load. It takes ten seconds to check.
We have been doing this since 2007, which in a town this size means the same crews have been back down the same streets more than once.
Common questions about house clearance in Consett
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor? Yes. On a probate house clearance we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly rather than sending anything to a relative personally, and the payment can come out of the estate. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for up front — the invoice follows once the property is empty.
Do we have to be there while you clear the house? No. Meet the team leader at nine for the walk round if you can, then go. Or don't come at all — a key from an agent or a neighbour, a keysafe code over the phone, and photographs of the empty rooms sent on afterwards.
Do we need to empty the drawers and cupboards first? No. That is our job. Cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, the loft, the shed. Carpets and underlay come up too if you want them gone, and the floors are swept at the end.
Can you do a probate house clearance before the property is sold? Yes, and most of ours are exactly that. We can deal with the solicitor or the executor direct, and the waste transfer paperwork goes to whoever is accounting for the estate.
What won't you take? Asbestos, gas bottles, aerosols, engine oil, chemicals and anything with a hazard symbol. Fridges, freezers and upholstered furniture we do take, but they are handled and disposed of separately by law.
How do I get a figure for a house clearance in Consett? Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page and you'll be given a figure back.
How to get a quote
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page — room by room, cupboards open, drawers pulled out, the loft if you can get up there. You'll be given a figure on that, and the team leader confirms it after the walk round on the morning. If something has been hiding behind a door, you're told before anyone lifts it. Arrival is nine, and most houses in Consett are emptied and swept by the end of the day.
