We have been doing house clearance in Banchory and the rest of Deeside — Grampian, as the region was called — for years now. The firm has been at this work since 2007. Most of what comes to us in this town follows a death, a move into care or a sale that has to complete by a fixed date. Some of it is straightforward. Some of it starts with a question about a freezer.
The chest freezer was the first thing the team asked about. It was still full of food when the customer emailed ahead of the job — "there is a chest freezer full of food. Can you tackle that?" — and the answer was yes, though it meant handling the contents separately from the appliance itself before the unit could go for degassing.
Another clearance of ours, back in September 2021, ran to two loads inside a single day. The house clearance team filled the van, went and emptied it, and came back for the rest before the day was out. A first load and a same-day second, which is a lot of house to shift between one morning and one evening. Two mattresses came off that job as well. Mattresses travel their own route rather than going in with the general load. The rest went out through the regulated recycling and disposal side.
The thing worth repeating about that one is that the person who instructed it was nowhere near the property. Not at their own home either. They wrote to us part way through to say as much: "I away from home for afew days yet and will attempt another means of payment once I am home next week". That is not unusual and it is not a problem. A fair share of the people who book us are dealing with a house they are not standing in, sometimes a long drive away, sometimes with a week's work in between.
Finding the house is half the job out here
One instruction we get over and over on Aberdeenshire bookings is one that anyone living in this part of Deeside will recognise: ring ahead when the van is close. The sat nav takes drivers to the wrong house and the place is well off the road. Delivery drivers, we are told, already know. Between Banchory and the villages up the Dee — Aboyne, Ballater, Strathdon — half the properties are steadings, converted farm buildings and houses down long unnamed tracks where the postcode covers a wide area rather than pointing at one door.
So we build the phone call into the plan. Our crews ring twenty minutes out, get the "past the second cattle grid, blue gate" instructions, and turn up where they're meant to be rather than blocking a neighbour's yard. On a house clearance with a fixed day's work ahead of it, an hour lost to circling a back road is an hour that comes off the clearance.
What we've cleared across the AB postcodes
Banchory sits in the AB31 district, on the north bank of the Dee, with Aberdeenshire Council as the local authority. AB31 is a wide district for the size of its town. As well as Banchory itself it takes in Crathes and Inchmarlo just along the river, Durris and Strachan on the south side, Glassel to the north. Torphins, Lumphanan and Finzean out to the west, up the Feugh and along the road toward Deeside's upper end. A house clearance in Banchory town and a house clearance out at Finzean are the same booking as far as we're concerned; what changes is the drive and the width of the last mile.
Housing here is not one thing either. There are Victorian granite villas on the older streets, post-war bungalows with a garage and a loft that have both been filling since the seventies, newer estate houses on the edges of the town, farm cottages and steadings out in the parishes. Sheltered flats where a flat clearance is a half-day rather than a full one. The granite houses tend to have deep lofts and stone-floored cellars. The bungalows are easier on the crew's backs and harder on the estimate. Everything in them has been pushed into the garage.
If you're in Banchory itself, or in Milltimber and Peterculter on the road in toward Aberdeen, or out at Westhill, Alford, Aboyne or Ballater, that's the same run for us. Stonehaven and Laurencekirk to the south, Inverurie, Insch and Huntly to the north-west, Ellon, Turriff, Macduff, Banff, Peterhead and Fraserburgh further out — all reachable, all done. Ballindalloch out on the Speyside edge is a longer drive and we'd say so on the phone. Some of those places have pages of their own on this site: house clearance in Aberdeen for the city, house clearance in Inverurie for the Garioch side, and house clearance in Huntly further north-west.
Getting to Deeside
There's no railway at Banchory any more — the Deeside Line closed to passengers in 1966. The old trackbed is the walking and cycling route you'll know if you live here. The nearest working station is Aberdeen, with Stonehaven and Portlethen the next ones down the coast on the Dundee line. Practically speaking, that means everything comes in by road on the A93. It means a clearance van is the only realistic way of moving a houseful of furniture out of this town.
It also means we plan the day around the drive. Crews start at the property for nine in the morning wherever we can. The aim is to have the house emptied inside that day. Where a property genuinely won't go in a day. A farmhouse with outbuildings, or a place where the loft and the garage have been filling up for thirty years — we say so before you book rather than discovering it at four in the afternoon.
To get a house clearance in Banchory into the diary, ring 0800 046 5555 or send a description of the property and a few photographs through the form on this page.
Reuse first, tipping last
Furniture and household goods that are still usable get offered on to reuse routes rather than tipped. Anything that still has wear left in it deserves a second household. We'd rather spend the extra twenty minutes sorting it than throw the lot in one skip. What genuinely can't be reused goes to a permitted waste facility with paperwork attached to each load. There's a documented trail from the door of the house to the point of disposal.
We hold waste carrier registration CBDU419679. Some of what comes out of a house is regulated separately and can't just travel with the general load. Fridges and freezers have to be degassed under controlled conditions. Is a separate process from everything else on the van. Upholstered seating — sofas, armchairs, futons, bean bags — falls under the persistent organic pollutant rules. Mattresses go down a separate bulky-waste route of their own rather than mixed in with ordinary bulky waste. Televisions and monitors go through the electrical stream. None of these are add-ons we've invented; they're what the regulations require of a registered carrier.
There are also things we simply cannot lift into a van. Half-used tins of paint, garden chemicals, weedkiller, gas cylinders, asbestos sheeting. Those need a specialist route and we'll tell you what it is rather than quietly leaving them in the shed. Chemicals are the one customers ask about most, and they're right to: the containers at the back of a garage are usually old, usually unlabelled by now, and they can't go in with a general load. If there's a heap of it, say so at the quoting stage and we'll have an answer ready before the van arrives rather than after.
The way a quote is built
We work from a description of the property. How many bedrooms, whether the loft, the garage, the shed and the garden are in or out, and whether there's anything heavy or awkward involved. A piano, a chest freezer, a workshop full of tools. Photographs help more than adjectives do, and the form on this page takes them. The estimate comes back free and puts you under no obligation.
For estate work we can invoice the executors, the solicitor acting for the estate or whoever the grant names, so a family member doesn't have to carry it personally. The estate itself can settle it. We allow a long window, because Confirmation in Scotland takes as long as it takes. We've waited months on Aberdeenshire estates while the paperwork went through the courts, without chasing anyone weekly over it.
If you'd rather talk it through than type it out, 0800 046 5555 is the only number we use.
Estate clearances and difficult houses
A good share of our house clearance work in Banchory and across Aberdeenshire follows a death. A probate clearance needs handling differently to a house move. Documents, photographs and anything that looks like it matters get set aside for the family rather than bagged. We'll leave named items where you've asked us to. If you want to be there for the first hour and then go, that's fine. If you'd rather leave a key with a neighbour or in a key safe and come back to an empty house, that works too. We've done plenty of clearances where we never met the customer at all. That last arrangement is the usual one for probate house clearance in Banchory when the executor lives in the central belt, or in England, or further off than that.
Probate work also runs to a different clock. The house often can't be touched until Confirmation is through. Then it has to be empty by a date the solicitor has already given the buyer. We'd rather hear from you early, before the grant. The dates are pencilled in and nobody is ringing round on a Friday. There's more on how we handle probate house clearance on its own page.
Houses that have got badly out of hand don't put us off either. Rooms packed floor to ceiling, corridors down to a foot wide, a garage nobody has opened since the nineties. We turn up, we work through it methodically, and there's no commentary from the crew. What we do need is honesty at the quoting stage about anything verminous or medically hazardous. The team arrives with the right kit and the right number of days booked. A hoarder house clearance is a different job from an ordinary one and it is booked differently.
End of tenancy clearances are their own thing again. A landlord or a managing agent wanting the place empty and swept between tenants, usually at short notice, usually with a deadline attached. Garage and loft clearance on its own is common here too, where the house is staying in the family and only the accumulated part has to go. And if it is only a room's worth of furniture and bags, that's rubbish removal rather than a full house clearance in Banchory, and we'll say so rather than book a bigger day than you need.
Gardens, sheds, greenhouses, summerhouses and lofts all count as part of the clearance if you want them included. Just say so when you book, because it changes how many loads we plan for.
Common questions about house clearance in Banchory
Do you cover the villages around Banchory as well as the town?
Yes. AB31 covers a lot of ground, and Crathes, Durris, Strachan, Glassel, Torphins, Lumphanan and Finzean are all on the same run as the town. Tracks, cattle grids and gates are normal out there; tell us about them when you book and the crew will ring ahead on the day.
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor for a probate house clearance?
We can. We invoice the executors, the solicitor acting for the estate or whoever the grant names. The estate can settle it directly. We're used to Confirmation running long in Scotland and we don't chase weekly.
What can't go in the van?
Paint, garden chemicals, weedkiller, gas cylinders and asbestos sheeting all need a specialist route. We'll tell you what that route is. Fridges, freezers, mattresses, upholstered seating and televisions can go. Each of them travels a regulated stream of its own rather than in with the general load.
Do I need to be at the property while you clear it?
No. Plenty of our house clearance Banchory jobs are done with a key from a key safe, a neighbour or the solicitor. The customer never meets the crew. If you'd rather be there for the first hour to point out what stays, that suits us as well.
How long does a house clearance in Banchory take?
Most houses go in a day, with the crew on site for nine. A farmhouse with outbuildings, or a place where the loft and garage have thirty years in them, may need two. And we'll tell you that before the booking rather than at four in the afternoon on the day.
Do you clear the garage, loft and garden as well as the house?
Yes, if you ask for them at the start. Gardens, sheds, greenhouses, summerhouses, garages and lofts change how many loads the day needs. They belong in the description rather than as a surprise on the morning.
To arrange a house clearance in Banchory or anywhere across Aberdeenshire, ring 0800 046 5555, or send a description of the property through the form on this page and we'll come back with a figure and the dates we can do.
