Most weeks, house clearance in Cheltenham — the Cotswolds start at the top of the town — is ordinary work — a property emptied between nine and four, a waste transfer note in the post afterwards, and nobody having to think about it again. This page opens with one that did not go that way, because you learn more from those than from the easy ones.
The extension lead was the problem. Two heavy machines running off one drum, uncoiled, in a house up on the Hatherley side of Cheltenham in GL51 — and the customer's husband, who manages electrical work for a living, spotted how close it had come to going up. He was right to say something. We were there in October 2024 to strip woodchip paper off walls and ceilings, two days booked. By the end of the second afternoon there was water marking a ceiling on the floor below. No protection had been put down over the boards, and the plasterboard behind the old paper turned out to be in a state that made the whole job largely academic.
His email afterwards was measured rather than angry. The sentence that mattered was this one: "At no point did anyone suggest the power/heat of their kit could severely damage the wall to the extent the plasterboard has to be completely replaced (so making the wallpaper stripping completely pointless)." On the lead he was blunter and, being the man he is, entitled to be: "I am electrical manager so can assure you it was very close to catching fire." He also listed the 9.30 start, the long lunch, and the hour or more that two of the lads spent away from the property.
That is not the job most firms would put at the top of a page. It is the one worth putting there. Steam is wet work, boards want covering before a machine comes through the door, and on older Cheltenham interiors layers of paper often turn out to be the only thing holding tired plasterboard together. Somebody should have said so on the first morning. Worth knowing before you book anyone, us included. We have been at this since 2007 and the days that teach you anything are all like that one.
The clearances themselves
Stripping walls is a sideline. Most of what we get called out for is house clearance in Cheltenham proper: the whole contents of a property carried out to the van, room by room, and the place left swept and empty for whoever comes next.
Over in Charlton Kings, GL53, we cleared a property for an owner who lived in Surrey and was never going to be standing in the hall while it happened. One load out, three mattresses among it, and a clean through the house once the rooms were bare. That is usually what people want when the property is going on the market and nobody local can see to it. Mattresses don't go in with general household waste at the transfer station. They come off the van separately and are broken down for their springs and foam. So it helps to say how many there are when you ring, rather than when we arrive with a full van and three of them still on the beds. Photographs went over as the rooms emptied, because when the person paying is a couple of counties away that is the only way they see the job at all.
Probate house clearance in Cheltenham
A fair share of the work here is probate house clearance: a house standing empty while an estate is settled, an executor who may live nowhere near Gloucestershire, and a solicitor asking when the keys can be handed on. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the trustee directly, and probate house clearance can be settled out of the estate rather than out of somebody's own pocket — we are used to waiting until the estate is in a position to do that. Papers, jewellery, coins and medals are very often in among the contents, in drawers nobody has opened since the nineties. Tell the team first thing. They set anything of that sort aside as they go, not afterwards.
Flat clearance in GL50 and GL52
Flat clearance round the centre, Montpellier, Lansdown and the Pittville side, is its own animal. Stairs and no lift. A communal door somebody has to hold open, neighbours coming past with shopping, and a permit bay outside that a Luton has no business occupying for four hours. Sheltered schemes and retirement courts come up regularly, and the wardens in those generally know the drill better than we do.
End of tenancy clearance in Cheltenham
Landlords and managing agents ring for end of tenancy clearance: whatever the last tenant left behind, out, so the place can be let again. Usually half a day. Tell us up front if the white goods or the sofa are staying — those are the two things people assume we are taking and then change their minds about on the doorstep.
What we cover round here
Cheltenham itself is GL50, GL51, GL52 and GL53, and we work across the lot of it — Montpellier and Lansdown, Pittville and Prestbury, Charlton Kings and Battledown, Leckhampton, Up Hatherley, Benhall, Whaddon. North of the town we go out to Bishop's Cleeve and Winchcombe in GL54, and on to house clearance in Tewkesbury, GL20. South and west, house clearance in Gloucester has its own page and its own districts; Churchdown and Brockworth sit between the two towns and are a normal run for us. East over the hill, house clearance in Cirencester and the villages around it sits on the same diary as Cheltenham. Down the M5 the same vans do house clearance in Bristol, which is the bigger city in this direction and the one plenty of people search for even when the house is up here. Gloucestershire in general is well within a day's run for us.
We come off at junction 11 — junction 10 only works if we're heading down from the north. If you're arriving by train, Cheltenham Spa station sits over on the Lansdown side rather than in the centre, a good walk from the Promenade. Executors travelling in from Bristol or Birmingham for the day often plan on it being closer than it is. Meet the team at the property for 9am and you'll want a taxi from the platform.
Parking, steps and the Regency stock
The town's grand terraces are lovely to look at and a nuisance to empty. Basement kitchens reached down area steps. First- and second-floor conversions with no lift, sash windows you can't get a sofa through, and permit bays where a Luton has nowhere legitimate to sit. If you're in one of those, tell us at the quote stage. We can plan for a longer carry, or you can arrange a bay suspension with the borough council — either works, but a team discovering the problem at nine in the morning eats into the day.
Charlton Kings and Prestbury are mostly kinder: driveways, garages, room at the kerb. The estates out at Hatherley and Benhall usually have somewhere to put a van without anyone getting cross about it.
Garage and loft clearance in Cheltenham
Garage and loft clearance is the part people underestimate, and it is the usual reason a job that looked like a morning turns into a full day. The inter-war and post-war semis out at Benhall, Warden Hill and Up Hatherley mostly have a single garage down the side. Forty years of a garage — a seized mower, bike frames, tins, boxes that went in during a move and never came out — fills more of a van than the front room does. Lofts in the conversions nearer town are reached by a hatch and a ladder nobody has been up since a previous owner. What's above the hatch is rarely nothing. When you ring, count the loft and the garage as rooms in their own right. If the garage door is seized or the key went missing years ago, say so and we'll bring the tools for it.
What we do with what comes out
Furniture and household goods still worth having are offered on to charity shops and reuse schemes in the area before anything else happens to them — that's the first stop, not an afterthought. What's left is tipped at a permitted transfer station and weighed in, and the waste transfer note comes back to you afterwards. It can take a fortnight or so to land, because it comes from the site rather than from us. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679, and you're entitled to ask any firm quoting you for theirs before they load a single box. If someone can't produce one and your things end up dumped, the council can come after you as well — the householder's duty of care means checking the licence before you let anyone load.
Two categories need calling out. Sofas, armchairs and other upholstered seating are handled under separate rules now — the treated foam can't be mixed in with general household waste and has to go through its own controlled route, which is why we ask on the phone how many sofas and armchairs there are. And there's a short list we simply can't put in the back of a furniture van: paint tins with anything still in them, gas cylinders, solvents, car batteries, anything with asbestos in it. Say so on the phone and we'll tell you where in Gloucestershire it goes.
Cost, and how the day runs
We won't put a figure on a page, because a figure written down a year ago is no use to a house we haven't seen. What we do instead is straightforward: send a handful of photographs through the form on this page, or ring and describe the rooms, and you get a proper quote for your house clearance in Cheltenham — free, and it commits you to nothing. Photographs help enormously, particularly of the loft hatch, the garage and anything large.
Where a solicitor or an executor is dealing with an estate, we bill them directly and we're used to waiting until probate is in a position to settle. It happens on a good proportion of our Gloucestershire work.
Teams start at 9am and aim to finish the property that day. Where it can't be done in one, the team leader tells you before they leave rather than after, and comes back the following morning.
Hoarder house clearance — properties that have got badly on top of somebody — is ordinary work for us. Rooms packed floor to ceiling, no clear route to the back door, kitchens that need a mask on: we've done plenty and nobody makes a face about it. If cash, papers or jewellery might be buried in among it, say so and the team will set anything of that sort aside for you as they go.
Getting it in the diary
Ring 0800 046 5555 or send the details through the form on this page with a few pictures. Tell us the town, the postcode district, how many bedrooms, whether there's a loft, garage or shed in the mix, and whether the van can get near the door. One or two working days' notice is usually all we need for Cheltenham, Tewkesbury or Gloucester, though we'll hold a specific date for you if you have one in mind.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Cheltenham
How much notice do you need for a house clearance in Cheltenham?
One or two working days is normally enough across GL50 to GL54. If you need a particular date — a completion, a handover to an agent, a family member travelling in — tell us when you ring and we'll hold it.
Can you invoice a solicitor or the executor?
Yes. We invoice solicitors, executors and trustees directly, and probate house clearance can be settled out of the estate. Give us the firm's details when you book and we'll deal with them from there.
Do I have to be there on the day?
No. A good deal of our Cheltenham work is done with keys left with a neighbour, an agent or in a keysafe. We photograph the rooms as they empty and send them over, and the keys go back where you tell us at the end of the day.
Do you clear garages, lofts and sheds as well as the house?
We do, and garage and loft clearance is often the bulk of it. Count them as rooms when you describe the property so the right size of van and the right number of people turn up.
What can't you take away?
Paint with anything left in the tin, gas cylinders, solvents, car batteries and anything containing asbestos. Upholstered seating goes through a separate controlled route rather than in with general waste. Tell us on the phone and we'll point you to the right place in Gloucestershire for the rest.
Are you licensed to carry waste?
Yes — waste carrier registration CBDU419679, and we'll show it to you. You should ask the same of anyone else quoting, because under the householder's duty of care the council can come after you if your things are fly-tipped by whoever loaded them.
