Most of the house clearance in Teddington we get asked for is booked by somebody who doesn't live at the address any more — an executor a long way off, a daughter selling up for a parent, a landlord between tenants. Teddington was Middlesex within living memory and plenty here still say so. We've been doing this since 2007, and TW11 is a short enough run from the yard that a crew can be at the door for nine. Here's one that ran longer than most.
Paint was the part nobody had budgeted for. A three-bed house, cleared over three days in the first week of August 2023, and when the lads got the garage door open and emptied the cupboard under the stairs they found tins stacked several deep. Half-used emulsion, gloss, a couple that had gone solid years back. The owner had come down from another county to be there and wanted every last one of them off the property, so the paint tins and the upholstered items went onto the list of things needing their own disposal route. We rang her the following evening to talk it through rather than springing it on her at the end. Six loads it took. Three full days, mind, which is more than most houses that size need — the loft was packed and so was the shed.
That week the Underground was on strike. Made no odds to us, our vans come in by road, but she asked twice whether we'd still be there. We were, nine in the morning on the Monday, with the parking suspension she'd sorted already coned off. A mattress went, a TV, the carpets and underlay came up, and the place was swept through. Afterwards she wrote: "Ian and Andy were great and really supportive. I cant thank them enough." On the third day her solicitor told us to stop — a family matter, nothing to do with the clearance — so some items stayed put and we invoiced for the work actually done, sent straight to the solicitor's office rather than to her.
Working Teddington from Barnes
Our office is at Rocks Lane in Barnes, SW13, so Teddington is a short run down the A316 and over Twickenham Bridge, or along the river through Richmond if the traffic's kinder. TW11 is home ground. We work Twickenham and Whitton in TW1 and TW2, Hampton and Hampton Hill in TW12, Strawberry Hill and Fulwell either side of the railway, Hampton Wick, and over the bridge into Kingston in KT1 and KT2. Out west it's Isleworth and Feltham, both an easy enough run on the same day. All of the TW11 side sits in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, in Greater London. The borough's tip on Townmead Road at Kew is the one most people round here mean when they say they've already taken a carload themselves.
Some of those places have pages of their own. Next door and a good deal busier, there's house clearance in Twickenham; smaller and further out, house clearance in Isleworth and house clearance in Feltham.
Teddington station is on the Kingston loop out of Waterloo, and there's Fulwell and Strawberry Hill a few minutes each way. If a key is being left with an agent or a neighbour near the station we can collect it — plenty of clearances we do without the owner present at all, and we email photographs of every room once it's empty.
Getting a van in
The streets shape the day here more than the contents do. The Victorian and Edwardian terraces off Stanley Road and around Church Road were never built with a Luton van in mind — permit bays end to end, cars parked tight, and the wing mirrors earn their money. Down towards the lock the roads narrow again and the riverside flats often mean carrying to a shared entrance rather than reversing to a front door. Up at the Bushy Park end and out towards Fulwell it opens out: 1930s semis, driveways, side gates, the odd garage that hasn't been opened in a decade.
Richmond upon Thames runs controlled parking across much of the borough, so on a full house clearance we'll ask whether a suspension is worth arranging in advance. It usually is. Two men shuttling forty metres from a bay round the corner adds hours to a day that would otherwise have finished at four. Where a suspension isn't practical we work it out on the phone beforehand — nobody likes surprises at 9am with a van blocking a bus route.
Not everything is a whole house
A fair slice of what we do round here is one load, not one house.
One in TW11 was a flat in a small block, done in a single load, and the person who booked it never saw the day at all — she lives out in Surrey and left us to it. Furniture, the kitchen cupboards, the wardrobes and what was in them, all of that goes out together. The one thing that came out on its own was a mattress: they don't travel in with a general load and have to be dealt with by their own route, which is why they're always mentioned separately when you ring. Not a difficult job, that one. Most flats aren't, once someone has told us honestly what's in them.
Builders' strip-out is much the same story. A bathroom firm booked a half load back in the summer of 2019 — old suite, tiles, torn-up flooring, the packaging from the new units — stacked ready in a courtyard behind a mansion block. That kind of load is heavy for its size and it goes on a tipper rather than a Luton, which is worth knowing if you're renovating one of the Teddington terraces and the skip licence is proving a headache.
Then there are the trade collections. A landscaper we've worked with more than once books a collection, tells us a quarter load, and then owns up when it isn't. His words, and I've kept them exactly: "It was 1/2 load I'm afraid, not 1/4 load. I'll send the invoice shortly". That's the honest version of the same conversation we have most weeks, and it's the reason we'd sooner see photographs than take a guess.
Flat clearance and end of tenancy clearance in TW11
Flat clearance round here splits two ways. There are the purpose-built blocks near the river and along the main roads, where it's a shared entrance, a lift if you're lucky, and a caretaker who wants to know in advance which day we're coming. And there are the conversions in the old terraces — top-floor rooms, a staircase with two turns in it, and a wardrobe that clearly went up in pieces and will be coming down the same way.
An end of tenancy clearance is its own kind of day: usually short notice, usually a deadline set by an agent, and usually a mix of a tenant's leftovers and things the landlord wants kept. Tell us which is which before the day, or leave a note on the ones to stay, and nothing goes that shouldn't. We can take keys from the agent's office and drop them back afterwards, which is how most end of tenancy work in TW11 gets done.
Garage and loft clearance in Teddington
Garage and loft clearance is the bit people forget when they describe a property to us, and it's the bit that turns a one-day job into two. The 1930s semis out towards Fulwell and Hampton Hill nearly all have a loft hatch with sixty years of boxes above it, and a fair few have a garage that stopped holding a car somewhere around 2009. Tins, tyres, a dismantled bed frame, garden chairs, a freezer that hasn't been plugged in since. It all comes out, but it wants counting in when we're planning the day, so mention it when you ring even if you haven't been up there yourself in years.
Probate house clearance in Teddington
A good share of the probate work in TW11 starts with a solicitor's office rather than a family member. The pattern rarely changes: the house has stood empty a while, a neighbour has been taking the post in, and the executor lives too far off to stand about in an empty hall for two days. So we collect keys from an agent or a neighbour, walk the property on the phone if that helps, and photograph every room once it's clear. On a probate house clearance we also set anything paper-like aside — bank statements, share certificates, old deeds turn up more often than you'd think — and box it for the executor rather than binning it. Photograph albums the same, as a matter of course.
Getting a figure for a house clearance in Teddington
The way to find out what a job comes to is to tell us what's actually there. Photographs through the form on this page are the quickest route — room by room, plus the loft, garage, shed and garden if they're going — or ring the office and talk it through. Either way you get a proper answer before anyone sets off, not a figure invented on your doorstep once the tailgate is up. The estimate is free and it doesn't commit you to anything. If what's in the property turns out to be more than what was described, we say so on the day, not afterwards.
Where a death is involved and probate is under way we can invoice the estate direct — solicitors, executors, attorneys, we've invoiced all three and the paperwork holds up. There's no deposit for UK customers. Ring 0800 046 5555 if it's easier to say it out loud than to write it down.
Some things ride separately
A few items can't travel in a general load, and it isn't us being awkward. Sofas, armchairs and other upholstered seating fall under the persistent organic pollutant rules, so the foam has to be kept apart from the mixed waste and destroyed under a controlled route. That's why they're handled separately rather than thrown in with everything else. Fridges and freezers need their gas taking out at a licensed site. Half-full paint tins, gas canisters, solvents and anything similar have to go by their own route too, so tell us what's in the garage before the day and we'll come stocked for it. Asbestos we won't touch — that's a specialist job and we'll say so plainly.
Houses that have got badly on top of someone we take in our stride. Rooms filled shoulder-high, a kitchen you can't stand in, years of it — we've walked into worse and nobody on the crew passes comment. Where it's gone verminous we say so up front and plan the day around it, because the team needs different kit and the waste needs a different destination.
Where it ends up
Anything still usable is offered on before it's binned — furniture, working white goods, books, tools. Local reuse projects and charity shops take a good deal of it, and what we can't rehome goes to a licensed transfer station where it's sorted for recycling and the paperwork follows every load. We're a registered upper-tier waste carrier, licence CBDU419679, and we're fully insured for the work and the property while we're in it. Ask for the transfer notes and you'll get them.
Photographs get taken on the walk round at the start and again at the end, for the file and for you.
Booking it
Tell us the postcode, roughly what's in the property and how many rooms, whether there's a loft, garage, shed or garden to include, and what the parking looks like outside. If something is to be kept back — photograph albums turn up in nearly every clearance and we set them aside as a matter of course — say so and it'll be left where you want it. Ring 0800 046 5555 or send the details through the form on this page and we'll come back with a figure and a date for it, anywhere in TW11 and across the rest of the borough.
Common questions about house clearance in Teddington
Can you invoice a solicitor for a probate house clearance?
Yes. Where probate is under way we invoice the solicitor, the executor or someone acting under a power of attorney direct, and the work can be settled from the estate rather than by a family member out of their own pocket. We've done it all three ways and the paperwork stands up to a solicitor reading it properly.
Do I have to be there on the day?
No, and often nobody is. We collect keys from an agent, a neighbour or a solicitor's reception, clear the property, and email photographs of every room once it's empty. If you'd rather walk it with us at the start and leave at ten, that's fine too.
How long does a house clearance in Teddington take?
Most three-bed houses go in a day, starting at nine. Where the loft, garage and shed are all full it can run to two or three — the August job above took three full days and six loads. We'll tell you which we think it is before we book it, and if we're wrong we'd rather be wrong early.
Do I need to empty the cupboards and drawers first?
No. Leave them as they are. The crew clears inside wardrobes, cupboards and drawers, takes up carpets and underlay if you want them gone, and works room to room. All we ask is that anything staying is marked or moved into one room.
What won't you take away?
Asbestos in any form — that needs a licensed specialist. Gas bottles, solvents, chemicals and half-used paint go by their own route, so flag them beforehand. Fridges, freezers and upholstered furniture we do take, but they're handled apart from the general load because the law requires it.
Do you do single loads and end of tenancy work as well as full houses?
We do. One load out of a flat, a garage and loft clearance, a builder's strip-out stacked in a courtyard, an end of tenancy clearance at a week's notice. All of it is normal work here, and none of it needs to be a whole house.
