Most house clearance in Llandudno is booked by somebody who isn't standing in the house. It is the north Wales coast — Clwyd, as the county was — and half the owners live somewhere else. That's the shape of the work here. A date set by a solicitor, a key sitting in a safe by the front door. A family somewhere else entirely wanting to know what happens between nine in the morning and the van pulling off the kerb. Abacus has been clearing houses since 2007, and LL30 is a run we do most weeks. Here's one from this July, told properly, so you can see how a day actually goes.
A house clearance booked from photographs
This one arrived the way a good many of them do now: a set of pictures and a written description, no site visit beforehand. We looked at what we'd been sent and estimated two loads and one day's work. We also said what we always say about photographs, because it matters more than people expect — not everything can be seen or assessed from a picture. A cupboard nobody opened, a loft hatch nobody looked into, the weight of a load, a queue at the recycling centre or the charity depot, how far from the door the van ends up parked. Any of those can stretch a day. We'd rather flag that at the start than spring it on somebody at four in the afternoon.
On the morning the team went round the property, went through the items that were to come out, and got the go-ahead to carry on as estimated. Five mattresses came out of it. Three pieces of upholstered furniture were separated out as POPs items and kept off the general load. A flatscreen television was in good enough condition to be donated rather than stripped down for recycling, so that's where it went. Two loads, one day, exactly as estimated — which doesn't always happen, and is worth saying when it does.
The customer followed the whole thing from a distance, by email, and wrote partway through: "Thank you, all looks to be going well and I will await the invoice when all finished." An ordinary enough sentence. But it's the whole job in one line: somebody trusting a crew they've never met to empty a house they can't get to.
Why padded furniture is kept apart on every Llandudno house clearance
That upholstery rule catches nearly every family we work for in Conwy, so it's worth explaining properly. Since the start of 2023, anything padded. Settees, armchairs, dining chairs with a fabric seat, footstools, beanbags, some office chairs — has to be kept apart from the general load and burned in a permitted facility rather than shredded and mixed in with everything else. It isn't a rule we invented and it isn't one we can work round. It's also why a settee can't be passed on to a reuse scheme once it's been set out for disposal as waste, even when there's plenty of life left in it. Count the soft seats before you ring us and you'll already know half of what the day involves.
What a day looks like on the Orme side
Llandudno, LL30, is not an easy town to park a Luton van in, and we'd rather say that than pretend otherwise. The tall Victorian terraces off Mostyn Street and the guest-house streets running up towards Church Walks have basement kitchens, four floors and stairs that turn twice. Nothing goes out of a window. Everything comes down by hand, room by room, and a four-storey former guest house is a two-day job whatever the volume looks like on paper. Round the West Shore it's gentler — bungalows, driveways, a van can sit on the frontage. Llanrhos and Bodafon are straightforward. Penrhyn Bay, out under the Little Orme, is mostly post-war semis and bungalows with room to work. Craig-y-Don has the double yellows. Deganwy and Llandudno Junction, LL31, are usually no trouble at all.
We come in off the A55 and down through the Junction, so the run out to Conwy, house clearance in Colwyn Bay, Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan is short. Inland is longer but we do it: Llanrwst, Trefriw, Betws-y-Coed and Dolwyddelan up the Conwy valley, where the lanes narrow and a tipper sometimes has to stop at the gate while the last forty yards go by barrow. Abergele too, and further east along the coast there's a separate page for house clearance in Prestatyn.
Well inland, and a different day out altogether, is house clearance in Wrexham. If you're arriving by train, the terminus is a couple of minutes' walk off Mostyn Street, and plenty of the executors we deal with come in that way for the day, hand over a key and go home again. Waste in this county is Conwy County Borough Council's patch, and their household sites won't take trade loads — which is exactly why people ring us instead of hiring a van and finding out the hard way.
The kinds of house clearance we take on in Llandudno
Probate house clearance in Llandudno
A good half of what we do in LL30 is probate house clearance: a house that's been in one family for forty years, an executor holding the key, and a sale that can't move until the place is empty. Probate work has its own rhythm. The house has usually been shut up for months, the paperwork is slower than anyone wants, and the executor is often the one member of the family living furthest away. We work to the solicitor's timetable rather than our own, and if probate hasn't completed yet, say so at the start and we'll plan around it. There's more on our probate house clearance page about how the estate side of it works.
Garage and loft clearance in Llandudno
Garage and loft clearance is the part people forget to mention and then find on the morning. Half the older properties above the West Shore have a loft that's been filling since the seventies and a garage the door of which hasn't opened in years. Both take longer per square foot than a bedroom does, because everything comes down a ladder or out past a car. Tell us whether the loft and the garage are in scope when you first ring — it changes the number of loads, and it's the single most common reason an estimate moves.
Flat clearance and end of tenancy work in LL30
Llandudno has a great deal of converted property: former guest houses split into flats, top-floor conversions with a shared stair and no lift, holiday lets that turn over at the end of a season. Flat clearance in LL30 is mostly a carrying job rather than a volume job. For end of tenancy work we'll strip the place back to bare, sweep through and leave it ready for the agent's inspection. If it's only a few items rather than a whole flat, that's a rubbish removal job instead — see house rubbish removal.
Hoarder house clearance in Llandudno
Houses that have filled up over twenty years don't shock anyone on this crew. There's no lecture, no faces pulled in the hallway, and nothing gets said outside the van. If there are vermin or spoiled food involved, tell us in advance — it changes the kit we bring and the number of loads, and finding out at 9am is worse for everyone. Our hoarder house clearance page sets out how we work through a property like that.
Keys, curtains and the things we won't touch
Tell us where the key is and where you want it left — back in the safe, posted through the letterbox, handed to a neighbour. If a second set turns up during the clearance, it goes back to you with the first, in an envelope, rather than staying with us. Anything of value that surfaces in a drawer or a coat pocket goes back to the family; that has meant a special delivery envelope more than once.
Curtains are the thing we get asked about most, and the honest answer is: it depends what's holding them up. Curtains off a pole, fine. A lounge rail bolted through into the plaster is a different matter, because we don't remove fixtures and fittings — the day we start pulling brackets out of a wall is the day we're paying for the replastering. Blinds screwed to a window frame, fitted wardrobes, boilers, gas fires: same answer. Ask us before the day and we'll tell you straight whether it's coming out or staying put. Medical aids — a frame, a chair, a raised seat — usually go back to the council's collection service rather than on our van, and we'll stand them out at the front for it.
Paint, thinners, engine oil, gas canisters, asbestos sheeting off an old garage roof — none of that travels in a mixed load. Some of it we can take with the right paperwork, some has to go by the council's hazardous route. Ammunition and fireworks, which do turn up in the lofts of houses round here, stop the job until the police have been called.
Licences, paperwork and who we invoice
Abacus is registered with the Environment Agency as an upper-tier waste carrier under CBDU419679, and we're insured for the property we're working in as well as for the goods on the van. Every load is weighed and documented at a permitted transfer station, and the Waste Transfer Note comes to you by email once the site issues it. Sometimes a fortnight later, which we'll warn you about rather than leave you wondering. Furniture, books, china, tools and unopened bedding still worth having are offered on to reuse schemes and charity shops in the county before anything else is considered.
On the money side there's one thing to say and we'll say it plainly: we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come out of the estate. No deposit is taken from UK customers, and the invoice follows the work rather than coming before it. What a clearance will take is not something we'll guess at in writing — ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you'll get a figure. It's free and it commits you to nothing.
Common questions about house clearance in Llandudno
What does a house clearance in Llandudno cost? Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page. With The number of bedrooms, whether the loft and garage are in scope and what the parking is like, and we'll give you a figure. Photographs help far more than descriptions. Nobody turns up to negotiate on your doorstep.
We're dealing with a probate house clearance — can you invoice the solicitor, or can it be paid from the estate? Both. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come from the estate once things settle. There's no deposit, and the invoice comes after the work. Tell us at the start that's the arrangement and we'll set it up that way.
Do you clear the garage and loft as well as the house? Yes, but say so when you first ring. Garage and loft clearance changes the shape of the day more than anything else on the list, and an estimate given without them isn't much use to either of us.
How long does a house clearance in Llandudno take? Most three-bedroom houses in LL30 are a single day. A four-storey terrace or a former guest house off Church Walks is usually two, because of the stairs rather than the volume. Delays at the recycling centre or the charity depot, and how far the van has to park from the door, both count against the day.
What won't go on the van? Paint, oils, solvents, gas bottles, asbestos and anything else classed as hazardous, plus fixtures and fittings bolted to the building. Padded furniture goes, but separately, under the POPs rules. Fridges, freezers, televisions and monitors go too — they're handled as electrical waste rather than tipped.
If you've a house to empty in Llandudno, the Junction, Conwy or anywhere up the valley, ring 0800 046 5555 with the address, the number of bedrooms and a rough idea of what's still in it, or send the photographs through the form on this page. We'll tell you the loads and the days — and if the job isn't one for us, we'll say that as well.
