Most of our house clearance work in Chippenham arrives the same way. Somebody rings who does not live in Wiltshire any more, about a house they grew up in and now have to empty, usually with a solicitor or a sale pulling at the other end of it. We have been clearing properties since 2007, we are licensed for it, and we know the town — SN14, the estates on the rim, the tighter streets down towards the Avon. Below is one clearance in detail, and then the ordinary shape of the rest.
A house clearance that came down to the width of a gate
The booking was for a Tuesday in the middle of March 2024, and it took the best part of thirty emails across two threads to get there. That is not unusual and it is not a complaint. Somebody arranging a clearance is normally doing it around their own job and around a relative — this one was being organised on behalf of the customer's father — and dates move about before they settle.
The first thing we needed to know was what would fit up the drive. She answered it better than most people manage: "We have a new Audi Q4 and we get it through the gate if that helps?" It did help. If a family car is about the limit of the gateway then a Luton is not going through it, and that changes the whole day: the van stands where it can, and the carry-out becomes the work rather than the loading. Much better said on the phone than discovered at eight in the morning with the van already outside.
She had thought further ahead than that, too. Before the day she wrote out where the nearest public toilet was — the town centre was under a mile off — and where the crew could get something to eat round the corner. Hardly anybody thinks of that. It is a small thing and it makes for a better day.
Then there was the neighbour. A man turned up while the crew were working and wanted to come through and have a look round the house, and he was sent on his way. We do that everywhere and we do not make a performance of it: nobody goes in or out of a property we are clearing except the people the customer has named. She was pleased about it, and she said so afterwards: "well done to the team for turning the “nosey" neighbour away - I know EXACTLY who he is and he is interfering and should not be setting foot over the gate!!"
She left feedback afterwards as she had promised she would, and signed off wishing the office well after somebody here had been off sick. Both of those were remembered.
The kinds of house clearance we do in Chippenham
Probate house clearance in Chippenham
Probate is the bulk of it. A probate house clearance in Chippenham usually starts months after the death, once the grant is through and the estate agent has a date in mind, and it is almost never the person who lived there who is arranging it. Executors ring from Bristol, from London, from Scotland. We can work from photographs and a room-by-room description, meet whoever holds the key, and get the property emptied in the day wherever it is possible. The paperwork can go to the solicitor or the executor dealing with the estate rather than to you personally, which is what most families want. Anything that turns up in drawers and pockets — documents, jewellery, photographs, a bundle of letters — is set aside for the executor, not loaded. More detail on the probate side sits on our probate house clearance page.
Flat clearance in SN14
Flats catch people out more than houses do. A one-bed that somebody has lived in twenty years fills up quietly: fitted wardrobes packed solid, the cupboards above the kitchen units, a hall cupboard with a vacuum in it and two decades of carrier bags. Then there is the building itself — a height barrier over the residents' car park, a permit bay, a bin store you have to walk round, a lift that will not take anything long. For a flat clearance in SN14, tell us the floor, tell us the lift, and tell us what stands between the front door and where a van can legally wait.
Hoarder house clearance in Chippenham
Badly overfilled houses are not a problem and never a surprise. Rooms with a path worn through them, a garage stacked to the roof, a landing you turn sideways to get along — the crew have done a great many hoarder house clearance jobs and they simply get on with it, without a remark on the day or afterwards. If there is decaying food, animal mess or anything verminous, say so when you ring so the right kit comes out. The hoarder house clearance page explains how those days are run.
End of tenancy and landlord work
Managing agents and landlords ring us for end of tenancy clearance in Chippenham when somebody has gone and left the place furnished. Those are usually quick, usually a fixed date, and usually want a waste transfer note at the end of it for the file. We can lift carpets and underlay at the same time if the property is being turned round.
Garage and loft clearance in Chippenham
Half the volume in a house is in the parts nobody has opened for years. Garage and loft clearance in Chippenham is often booked on its own — a garage you cannot get the door of fully open, a loft with boxes that went up when the children left home. Lofts want a proper look before we quote, because a loft "with a few boxes" and a loft boarded end to end are different days. Ring 0800 046 5555 and describe it honestly; nobody is judged.
House clearance Chippenham: the order of the day
The crew are usually on site early. A walk round with whoever is letting them in, a note of anything that is staying, photographs before a single item is moved, then start at the far end of the property and work back towards the door. Furniture goes out first while the stairs and the landing are still clear, then the soft items, then the long tail of small stuff that always fills more van than anyone expects.
Nothing needs boxing or bagging in advance. The crew empty the drawers, the wardrobes and the cupboards themselves, lift carpets and underlay where you want them gone, and brush through at the end. If a second load is needed we would far rather run it the same day than a week later, because the person with the key has usually got a train to catch.
Getting a van to the door in Chippenham
Chippenham itself is mostly straightforward. The estates on the edge — Pewsham, Monkton Park, Cepen Park, Derriads, Frogwell, Sheldon and Hardenhuish — have driveways and verges, and a Luton stands up without anyone complaining. The older streets near the town centre and the river are tighter, and a terrace with no off-street parking wants an early start, before the day's cars have filled the kerb. Rowden Hill and the streets around Lowden are the ones we ask about first.
The town sits on the A350 with junction 17 of the M4 a few minutes north, and Chippenham station is on the Great Western main line — Bath Spa and Bristol one way, Swindon, Reading and Paddington the other. Useful if you are coming in for the day to hand over a key and going straight back. We work the villages the same as the town: Langley Burrell, Kington St Michael, Biddestone, Yatton Keynell, Sutton Benger, Christian Malford, Stanton St Quintin, Lacock. Narrow lanes and a farmyard turn are normal out there and we plan the vehicle around them.
Where a Chippenham house clearance ends up
Upholstery goes out as POP items. POP is short for persistent organic pollutants — flame retardants that went into sofa and armchair foam for decades and are now controlled. In practice it means anything padded and sittable-on has to be kept apart from the rest of the load and destroyed at a site permitted to take it. It cannot go on the general pile at a tip and it cannot be pulled apart for recycling. Nobody enjoys the extra handling. The alternative is a sofa dumped in a lay-by off the A350, which is worse for everybody.
Televisions and electricals go the WEEE route, which is separate again. Fridges and freezers are a third stream, because the gas has to be drawn off before the cabinet is broken up, so they are counted one by one rather than by the vanload — tell us if there is a chest freezer in the garage as well as the fridge in the kitchen.
Furniture in decent order we would rather move on than tip. Wiltshire has a reasonable number of reuse shops and furniture projects, and a sound wardrobe or an undamaged table will usually find a taker, so long as upholstered pieces still carry their fire labels. Books, crockery, garden tools and unopened household goods are easy to place. Whatever cannot be reused goes over a weighbridge at a permitted transfer site and the tickets come back with the driver, so there is a record of every load that leaves your address. Wiltshire Council runs the household recycling centres and the bulky waste rules across the county, which at least keeps things consistent from one town to the next.
What cannot go in the van
Some things cannot travel in a mixed load. Paint, solvents, gas cylinders, oils, half-used chemicals off a garage shelf, anything with asbestos in it — those need their own route, and we will tell you on the phone rather than leave them standing on the drive with an apology on the day. Same with a fuel tank, a car battery or a shed full of old weedkiller. If you are only after a van-load of general junk rather than a full clearance, house rubbish removal is the page you want.
The Chippenham patch, and the towns next door
Chippenham sits in SN14 and SN15, with Corsham in SN13, Calne at SN11 and Melksham at SN12 next door. We work right across the county from here: Devizes and the Pewsey vale, Marlborough out east, Malmesbury to the north, then Bradford-on-Avon, Westbury and Warminster in the BA districts, Salisbury and Tidworth down in SP, and over the Dorset border for Shaftesbury and round about.
Two of those have pages of their own. House clearance in Trowbridge covers the county-town side of the work, and house clearance in Melksham covers the smaller job a few miles down the A350. Anywhere else on that list, ring and ask — it is all the same working day from here.
Getting a price for house clearance in Chippenham
You get a proper quote before anyone sets off, and it is free and puts you under no obligation. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 with the address, the number of bedrooms, and a rough idea of what is staying and what is going, or send photographs through the form on this page.
Photographs matter a great deal when nobody local can meet us. Sale particulars work surprisingly well for this — one executor sent the marketing pack through because none of the three people handling the estate lived anywhere near the property, along with a note of which pieces the buyers wanted left in place. That was enough to plan the day honestly.
We are registered with the Environment Agency as an upper-tier waste carrier, CBDU419679, and the team are insured for the work and for being inside your property.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Chippenham
Do you clear the villages as well as the town?
Yes. A house clearance in Chippenham and a clearance out at Biddestone or Langley Burrell are the same day's work to us. Tell us about the lane and the turning space when you ring.
Can the solicitor or executor deal with the paperwork instead of me?
Yes, and it is very common on a probate house clearance in Chippenham. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly rather than sending anything to you personally, and the payment can come out of the estate rather than out of a relative's own pocket. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for up front: the invoice follows once the property is empty. We provide the waste transfer note for the estate file as well.
Do we need to sort or pack anything first?
No. The crew empty wardrobes, drawers and cupboards themselves. Just tell us clearly what is staying — an armchair, a vacuum, the light fittings — and mark it or point it out on the morning.
Can you do it if nobody can be there?
Usually. Somebody has to let the crew in and lock up, but that can be a neighbour, an agent or the estate agent holding the key, and we will only admit the people you have named. Everything else can be agreed by phone and photographs.
What if the drive or the gate is too narrow for the van?
It happens, and it is fine as long as we know first. The van stands where it can legally wait and the crew carry. What we cannot do is find out on the morning, so measure it or describe it — a gate a family car just squeezes through tells us everything.
How much notice do you need?
Less than most people expect. Some weeks we can be with you in a few days; around bank holidays and at the end of the month it is longer. If you have a completion date, say the date when you ring.
Ring 0800 046 5555 with the address, the number of bedrooms, and what is staying. We will give you a price and a date.
