The corner unit came out first, and it came out in pieces. Somebody had built it into the alcove for a television that stopped existing about twenty years ago — chipboard behind the veneer, screwed to the wall through the skirting. It was never coming down the stairs whole. That was a house in CH2, north of the centre, one load, done and gone the same afternoon: a teak sideboard, a nest of tables, a barometer that had hung in the hall long enough to leave a clean ring on the wallpaper. Nothing remarkable about the day at all, and that is honestly most of what house clearance in Chester looks like. One van, one house, a family who wanted the keys handed over by Friday.
We have been doing this since 2007, and the ordinary jobs still outnumber the difficult ones by a long way.
What a full house clearance actually involves
Here is a whole one, start to finish, because people ask what they are agreeing to when they book a house clearance and nobody ever tells them.
A Friday in the February of 2022. Three-bedroom semi-detached, loft, small shed, no garage — the customer's own description of it, written back to us in a line: "3 bedroom semi detached / loft / small shed / no garage". That is exactly the level of detail we need before we can put a van and a team against a date, and it is why the booking email asks the questions it does.
The questions are always the same, and there are about ten of them. Full address of the property to be cleared. The date you want it done. The size of the property and the outside areas — loft, garage, shed, and whether the garden is in or out. A contact name and telephone number for the team on the day. Who will be at the property to let us in and to instruct the men. Whether there is anything hazardous or verminous inside, and we spell out what that means rather than leaving it to guesswork: decaying food, faeces human or animal, bodily fluids, animal carcasses, a death in the property, needles. Any special requirements — a stairlift to be dismantled, a piano sitting in a ground-floor room. Anything to be left. Carpets in or out. Curtains in or out. Fridge or freezer.
On this one the answers came back clean. Nothing hazardous, nothing verminous. No stairlift, no piano, no special requirements at all. Carpets to be cleared, yes. Curtains to be cleared, yes. And then the one line that made the day different from every other three-bed semi we have ever emptied:
"1 X picture to be left on dining room wall"
One picture. Everything else in the house was to go, and that one frame was to stay exactly where it was hanging. We wrote it on the job sheet, the men were told before they went through the door, and the first thing the foreman did in that dining room was put a strip of tape on the floor under it so nobody stripping the walls out could get careless. It is a small thing. It is also the sort of thing that, if you get it wrong, is the only part of the day anybody remembers.
The people who instructed us did not live locally — a long drive away, another county entirely — and they came over for the day themselves to give the team access and to say what was what as the rooms emptied. That is common on a house clearance and it works well when the person can travel. When they cannot, we do it on photographs instead.
The order of the day on a house like that runs the same way most times: soft contents and loose items first so the rooms open up, then the furniture down the stairs while there is still room to swing it, then the loft, then the shed, then the carpets. Carpets come up last for a reason — the gripper rods, the underlay and the dust are the messiest ten minutes of the day and you do not want to be walking wardrobes over the bare boards afterwards. Curtains and tracks come down with them. Then a brush through, room by room, and the keys back to whoever is holding them.
What the van meets in Chester itself
Inside the walls it is tight. The streets around the Rows were laid out for carts, half of the centre is pedestrianised for most of the day, and loading bays around Northgate and Foregate get contested from about eight in the morning. If the property is in CH1 and the front door opens onto the street, tell us when you book and we will start early. The Victorian villas in Curzon Park, the semis out through Hoole and Upton, the newer estates in Blacon and Vicars Cross, the cottages in Handbridge across the Dee, and out east in Christleton — they all want different handling.
A garage on a 1930s plot in Newton is a straightforward barrow run, and garage and loft clearance on its own — without the house — is a normal booking here: the loft above a Hoole semi has usually been filling since the seventies. A flat clearance is the opposite problem. A third-floor flat with no lift near the station is a stair job, and we would rather know that on the phone than find it at nine o'clock. Tell us the floor, the lift and where a van can legally stand, and the right number of hands turns up.
CH3 takes in Great Boughton, Waverton, Tarvin and Tattenhall, where the plots get bigger and the sheds get fuller. CH4 covers Saltney, Lache and Dodleston. CH88 and CH99 are non-geographic numbers used for large-user post rather than houses, so nobody ever books a house clearance in one — but they belong to the city's postcode area and it is worth saying so, because people do type them in.
Probate house clearance in Chester, and executors at a distance
A good share of the house clearance work we do in Chester is probate work, and a good share of that is instructed by somebody who is not in Cheshire at all. An executor in another county, a son abroad, a solicitor handling the estate from an office you will never visit.
So: we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. You do not have to be the relative who fronts it out of their own account and then tries to claim it back later — payment can come out of the estate, and that is the normal way a probate house clearance is settled. There is no deposit to pay before the day, and the quotation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
If you would rather not be there at all, we will take the key from a neighbour, a solicitor or an agent and email you photographs of every room once it is empty. On probate jobs we can also send the waste transfer note through for the file, which is sometimes exactly what the solicitor is waiting on.
Where we go, and the paperwork
Chester sits in Cheshire West and Chester, and this page is about the city's own districts: CH1, CH2, CH3 and CH4, through the centre and out to Saltney. The towns beyond them are inside a working day of us as well, but each is its own place with its own page rather than a line on a Chester list — house clearance in Ellesmere Port down the estuary, house clearance in Neston out on the Wirral side, and house clearance in Northwich east along the A556. Chester General is the obvious landmark — if a probate property is a short walk from the station we usually park up beyond the Hoole side rather than fight the forecourt. Northwich, Frodsham and Winsford stations mark the eastern half of the patch.
Anything sound enough to be used again we hand to a local charity shop or a reuse project rather than tip it, and furniture in decent order tends to go that way. What is left travels to a licensed transfer station and comes back as a transfer note, which we will send you if you want it on file. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679, and we are insured for the work.
Upholstered sofas and armchairs have to be handled and burned separately under the POPs rules, so they travel apart from the rest of the load. Fridges and freezers are hazardous waste and go to a dedicated route. Tins of paint, gas canisters and fire extinguishers cannot ride in a mixed load at all — flag them when you book and we will deal with them properly instead of leaving them standing on your driveway.
Houses that have got badly out of hand are not a problem for us and never have been. A hoarder house clearance takes longer, needs different kit, and the team goes in masked and gloved from the front door. We turn up, we get on with it, and nobody on the team passes comment.
People ask whether we will take the garden as well as the house — the kettle barbecue still on its wheels, the pond pump, the roll of liner and the plastic pond sunk into the border. Usually we will, and it is far better mentioned at the start than raised on the day.
Getting a figure
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 with the postcode, the number of bedrooms, and whether there is a loft, a garage or a shed in the reckoning. Or send photographs of the rooms through the form on this page — for a house clearance in Chester that is often quicker than describing it, and it means nobody has to stand on your doorstep talking you upwards. You will have a proper figure back before anybody is booked in.
Common questions about house clearance in Chester
How much does a house clearance in Chester cost? Ring us on 0800 046 5555 or send photographs of each room through the form on this page, and we will give you a figure. There is no charge for the quotation and no obligation to take it.
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor? Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, payment can come from the estate, and there is no deposit to pay beforehand.
Do you take carpets and curtains? We can, but tell us when you book — it changes the shape of the day. Carpets come up at the end, once the rooms are clear.
Can you clear a property in Chester if I live too far away to attend? Yes, and a lot of our work is exactly that. We collect the key from a neighbour, a solicitor or an agent, and email photographs of every room once the house is empty.
Can I ask for something to be left behind? Always. Put it in writing when you book — a picture on a wall, a bike in the garden, a chest of drawers going to family — and it goes on the job sheet before the team sets off.
Which areas around Chester do you cover? The city and its CH1 to CH4 districts, plus Neston, Ellesmere Port, Tarporley, Winsford, Northwich, Frodsham and down to Malpas. If you are not sure whether you fall inside it, give us the postcode and we will tell you straight away.
