Most house clearance in Burntwood begins with the same phone call: somebody has a set of keys, a house with forty years of belongings still in it, and a date they have to be out by. We have been doing this since 2007, we are fully insured, and our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679. Burntwood sits in WS7, ten minutes off the A5, and a crew can be at a door here for nine in the morning.
Not every job is a straight clearance, mind.
Take one that ran across October and November 2025. It was booked by a building contractor, and we never met the man who booked it — the whole thing went through email, with a quantity surveyor on their side handling the detail and somebody in their office sorting the invoicing. Three-bedroom house, nobody living in it. The brief was a strip-out rather than a clearance: two downstairs rooms taken right back, ceilings included, plus the staircase and the ceiling over it. Their schedule had the dining room down as item one. We put seven working days against it — the 16th, 22nd, 23rd and 31st of October, then the 4th, 5th and 6th of November — because that kind of work in an old house is not a one-day affair, and pretending it is only lands everybody in an argument later on. The team met their site man at half past eight on the first morning.
Before we sent anybody we asked the dull question we ask about every empty property: is there electricity and water on. The answer came back plainly enough: "Yes there is water located on the bottom floor of the property and there is also power". That matters more than it sounds. Ceilings come down wet and heavy and the dust travels, so a working tap on the ground floor is the difference between a controlled job and a mess in every room. And a stairwell with no light in it at the end of October is not somewhere anybody should be standing on a ladder. Where a property has neither, we bring our own lighting and water with us and we say so when we book, instead of finding out at half eight on the first morning. The invoice for that one went to the company direct, which is normal for us — contractors, agents, executors and solicitors are all billed after the work, not before it.
Most weeks, though, it is the ordinary thing. A bungalow, three rooms and a loft, keys collected from a relative and the house wanted empty by the Friday.
Working in Burntwood itself
Burntwood is a straightforward place to load a van, and that's not something we say about most of the West Midlands. The town grew out of the Cannock Chase coalfield — Chasetown, Chase Terrace, Boney Hay and Highfield all running into one another — and most of what we clear is post-war semis, sixties and seventies estates, and a lot of bungalows. Which means driveways. It means you can usually reverse to within twenty feet of the front door instead of walking a wardrobe two hundred yards to a loading bay. No permit zones, no parking suspension to arrange with the council, no lift to book.
The awkward part is usually inside rather than out. Boarded lofts with a hatch you can just about get a shoulder through. Garages down the side of the house with a door that hasn't opened in a decade. Conservatories full of things that were put there temporarily in about 1998.
The kinds of house clearance Burntwood people ask us for
Probate house clearance Burntwood
Most of it. Somebody has died, the house has to be emptied before it can be valued or sold, and the person organising it is usually a son or daughter working full time somewhere else. We do probate clearances every week and there is a fuller explanation on our probate house clearance page. Nothing gets thrown until it has been looked at — paperwork, photographs, jewellery boxes, the back of every drawer. If you want the family papers kept, say so on the phone and they will be boxed and left in one place rather than posted through a van door.
Flat and bungalow clearance in WS7
Sheltered schemes and warden-assisted flats come up a lot around Burntwood, and they have their own rules: a lift that is too small for a three-seater, a bin store nobody wants blocked, a manager who needs telling before a van sits outside. That is all normal work, it just needs a call to the scheme first.
Garage, loft and shed clearance in Burntwood
Plenty of people don't need the house doing at all. It's the garage, or the loft, or a shed that has been shut since the last owner. We will do that on its own — and one item, a wardrobe or a piano, is a job too.
End of tenancy clearance
Landlords and letting agents in WS7 usually want the same thing: property empty, swept through, and back on the market. If a tenant has gone and left furniture behind, that comes out and the rubbish removal side of it goes with the same van.
Hoarder house clearance Burntwood
Houses packed solid don't put us off. Nobody on a crew pulls a face at a hallway you have to turn sideways for, and we don't discuss what came out of a property with anybody but the person who booked it. Where there's a floor nobody has seen for years, or vermin, tell us beforehand so the right kit comes — see hoarder house clearance for how those days are run.
Flat clearance, garage and loft clearance, and where it all goes
A flat clearance is its own sort of day — a shared stair, a lift that may not take a wardrobe, and a van that has to sit where it does not block residents. Garage and loft clearance is a booking in its own right too, and often the only part left once the family have been through the rooms. Furniture that somebody else could still use doesn't get thrown. If a wardrobe, a table or a decent armchair comes out sound, we'd sooner it went to a charity shop or a reuse scheme locally than through a crusher, and the teams are used to putting things aside for that.
The rest is booked into a permitted transfer station and weighed in against our waste carrier registration, CBDU419679, with a waste transfer note to follow. Getting our copy of that paperwork over to an executor sometimes takes a few days, so if you're an executor who needs it for the file, ask and we'll chase it.
Mattresses are handled on their own, because foam and springs have to be sent down a different route from ordinary household waste. Fridges and freezers are the same — the gas has to be drawn off under regulation before the shell is scrapped, which is not something you can do at the tip yourself. Upholstered furniture falls under the POP rules, so sofas, padded chairs and their cushions are separated out and sent for incineration rather than recycled.
Chemicals are the exception we can't stretch. Tins of paint, a part-used gas bottle, weedkiller and engine oil from the back of a shed — none of that travels with a household load and it has to be routed separately.
What it costs and why
The honest answer is that nobody can tell you down the phone in ten seconds, because it depends on what is actually in the house — and the loft, and the garage, which is where people forget to look. So we ask. Rooms, bedrooms, whether the loft is boarded and full, whether there are fridges or mattresses, whether the shed still has half a garden centre in it.
Ring 0800 046 5555 with that, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you'll get an answer that holds. The quote is free and there is no obligation attached to it. We'd far rather tell you straight before the day than surprise you at the door, and we don't take anything up front — the invoice follows the work.
Probate, executors and paying later
A good share of house clearance Burntwood work comes through families sorting out an estate, and the money is rarely sitting ready on the day. We can invoice an executor, an administrator or a solicitor's firm directly, and a probate clearance can be paid from the estate once things are settled. There is no deposit taken before the work.
Executors are often at a distance — two or three counties away, sometimes further, able to get here for one morning and no more. That's a normal booking for us. Somebody hands over a key at nine, goes and gets a coffee in Lichfield for the day, and comes back to an empty house. If nobody can be there at all, we can work from photographs and a written list of what is to be kept, and the keys go back where you tell us.
The area we cover from here
Burntwood sits in WS7, with Chasetown, Chase Terrace, Boney Hay, Highfield, Gentleshaw, Cannock Wood, Farewell and Hammerwich all inside the same district. We work the whole of the surrounding WS postcodes: Brownhills in WS8, Walsall Wood and Aldridge in WS9, Cannock in WS11, Hednesford, Heath Hayes and Hazelslade in WS12, Lichfield in WS13 and WS14, and Rugeley and Armitage in WS15. Tamworth and Willenhall are the same working day for us as well. This is Lichfield District, Staffordshire — Lichfield District Council empties the bins, Staffordshire County Council runs the household waste recycling centres, and neither of them will take a full house.
Four of those have pages of their own, if you have landed here for the wrong town. house clearance in Lichfield three miles east, house clearance in Walsall down the A461, house clearance in Tamworth across the A5, and house clearance in Willenhall, which is smaller and out the other side of Walsall.
Burntwood hasn't had a railway station of its own since the old South Staffordshire line lost its passenger service. If you're travelling in to meet us, the practical options are Lichfield City or Lichfield Trent Valley, or Cannock and Hednesford on the Chase Line up from Walsall and Birmingham New Street. Plenty of people who've inherited a house here do exactly that — train in for nine o'clock, hand over a key, go and get a coffee in Lichfield for the day.
By road we come in off the A5 Watling Street or the M6 Toll at junction T7, then the A5190 through the middle of town, or the A461 across from Walsall.
Getting it in the diary
The team meets you at the property at nine in the morning and the aim is always to have the house done that day, though a big four-bedroom with outbuildings can honestly run to two. Nothing needs boxing up first — cupboards, wardrobes and drawers get emptied by the crew. We're fully insured and registered as a waste carrier, and payment is taken after the work by card, transfer or cheque, not before.
Ring 0800 046 5555 with the postcode, the number of bedrooms and roughly what's still in the loft and the garage, and we'll tell you what we think it'll take.
Common questions about house clearance in Burntwood
Do you cover all of WS7?
Yes — Burntwood itself, Chasetown, Chase Terrace, Boney Hay, Highfield and Hammerwich, and the WS districts around them.
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor directly?
We can. For probate work the invoice goes to the executor, the administrator or the solicitor's firm, and it can be settled from the estate. Nothing is taken before the work.
How long does a house clearance in Burntwood take?
Most are a single day, starting at nine. A four-bedroom with a full loft, a garage and outbuildings is honestly two, and we will say so when we book rather than on the day.
Do we need to sort or pack anything first?
No. Cupboards, wardrobes, drawers and lofts are emptied by the crew. Tell us what is to stay — papers, photographs, a particular chair — and it gets put to one side.
What won't you take?
Paint, oils, weedkiller, gas bottles and other chemicals can't travel in a household load. Fridges, freezers, mattresses and upholstered furniture we do take, but they are handled under their own regulations rather than tipped with the rest.
Will I get paperwork for the waste?
Yes. Everything is weighed in at a permitted transfer station against registration CBDU419679, and a waste transfer note follows. Executors who need it for the file should ask and we'll chase our copy through.
