Ring the office about a house clearance in Haverfordwest and the first question back is rarely about the furniture. Pembrokeshire, and Dyfed to anyone who was here before 1996. It is about the frontage: where the van can stand, whether there is a drive, how far it is from the kerb to the front door. That is not us being awkward. It is the thing that decides whether a house clearance takes a morning or the better part of two days.
Here is one of ours, to show how a day actually runs. A house out at Wolfscastle, SA62 — up the A40 from Haverfordwest towards Fishguard, past Treffgarne — where the person dealing with it was not in Wales at all. Everything came and went by post and email from Hampshire, a good five hours away by road. The house was emptied in two van loads inside the one day: loaded, tipped and weighed in at the transfer station, then back to the house for the rest of it. A mattress came out with it, which is handled on its own and does not go in with general waste. The only line that came back afterwards was: "thanks - I've paid that just now."
Half our Pembrokeshire work is like that. The person holding the keys is three or four hours up the road, can be here for one weekend if that. Needs the whole thing organised from a kitchen table in another county.
The other thing people ask about, and they are right to, is parking. Not cost. Parking. Owners have gone to the trouble of buying a full day parking restriction waiver from Pembrokeshire County Council so our lads could sit in a residents' bay or on the double yellows outside the front door, as long as an ambulance or a fire engine could still get past. A Luton with a tail-lift is not a car. Half the older streets in this town were laid out long before anybody imagined one.
Getting a van in, in a town built on a hill
Haverfordwest is steep. The old town climbs off the Western Cleddau up towards the castle. The terraces on those slopes have no drives, no side access and residents' cars along every inch of kerb by six in the evening. Down by the bridge and along the quay it is tighter still. We have learned to do two things: ask for photographs of the frontage before we quote, and start early. Between eight and nine you can usually get the van properly close, and by eleven on a market day you cannot.
Out of town it flips completely. A farm cottage off the A40 towards Clarbeston Road, or one of the places out west on the SA62 lanes towards Broad Haven and Solva, will have all the room in the world and a soft verge that swallows a wheel if it has been raining for a week. Both problems are solvable. Neither is solvable at ten to nine on the morning of the clearance, which is why we ask the questions in advance.
What we cleared, and where it went afterwards
Sorting is the slow part of a house clearance, not the lifting. Furniture, white goods, tools and anything else with usable life left in it gets offered on to a charity shop or a community reuse scheme before it goes anywhere near a skip. Pembrokeshire has enough of those outlets that it is genuinely worth doing. What cannot be reused is taken to a permitted transfer station, weighed in and ticketed. The transfer notes for every day and half-day worked will follow on to you afterwards, usually within a working week. Ask which charity took what and you will get told that as well. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679, and it is on the public register for anyone who wants to look it up before we turn up rather than after.
Where papers are involved we work to a list. Letters, photograph albums, old cine film, deeds, anything that looks like family gets set aside rather than loaded. If you would rather sticker what is staying before we arrive, that is the cleanest brief we can be given, and plenty of clearances leave things behind on purpose. A bed, a wardrobe, the cooker, the carpets. We would far sooner have that written down than guessed at on the day.
Upholstery, fridges and the things that need separate handling
Sofas, armchairs, padded dining chairs, mattresses and the like are kept apart from everything else on the van, and it is not fussiness. Furniture with foam or fabric in it can hold persistent organic pollutants. Since the rules changed it has to be kept out of general waste and burned in a permitted incinerator rather than shredded. Fridges and freezers are a different story with the same result: the refrigerant has to be recovered by somebody licensed to do it. An upright fridge freezer or a chest freezer travels on its own terms. None of that is optional, and none of it is something you have to arrange yourself. We only need to know it is in the house before the day.
Asking what a house clearance in Haverfordwest comes to
There is one honest answer to that, and it is not a number printed on a web page. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page. Room by room, plus the loft hatch, the garage and the shed if there is one — and you will get a figure back for your house rather than a range for somebody else's. The estimate is free, it does not oblige you to anything. You get it in writing before anyone books a day off work for it.
Where the house is part of an estate, we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. Payment can come from the estate. There is no deposit. Nobody is asked for anything on the doorstep, and the invoice follows the work rather than leading it.
Executors and owners working from a distance
A lot of what comes through from this corner of Wales starts with somebody who has inherited a house they have barely visited. The instructions arrive by email, a relative or a neighbour five minutes away opens up at half past eight. The useful briefs are the specific ones: which rooms, whether the loft is in, which shed and which not, what is staying put. Photographs of the finished rooms go over with the paperwork the same evening. If you cannot be at the house, you at least get to see it empty.
The kinds of house clearance we take on in Haverfordwest
Probate house clearance in Haverfordwest
Most weeks, more than half of what we do here is probate work. A probate house clearance in Haverfordwest usually means an executor at a distance, a property that has to be emptied before an agent will market it. A solicitor who wants the waste transfer notes on file. We are used to all three. Our probate house clearance page sets out how the estate side works; on the ground it means we photograph every room before and after, we set aside anything that looks like family papers, and we do not hurry you into a date because the estate has not been released yet.
Garage and loft clearance in Haverfordwest
Garage and loft clearance is where estimates come unstuck, and it is why we ask for pictures of both. Nobody remembers what is above the hatch. Around here the garage is often a block-built one at the bottom of a sloping garden, or a stone outbuilding that has not been opened since a shed roof went. What comes out of it is tools, tins, garden machinery and forty years of putting things somewhere safe. Tell us the garage and loft are in the job and the day is planned around them; find them on the morning and the day runs late.
Flat and end of tenancy clearance in SA61
The flats above the shops in the town centre, SA61, are their own kind of work: a shared street door, a staircase with a turn in it that a three-seater will not go round. Nowhere to put anything down while you think about it. A flat clearance on those is a two-man carry from the top landing to the kerb. It is why we want to see the stairs in the photographs, not just the rooms. Straight house rubbish removal is a different job again, and quicker, if what is left behind is only a few bags and a broken bed frame.
Hoarder house clearance in Haverfordwest
Houses that have been shut up for a year, or lived in by someone who found it hard to let anything go, are ordinary work for us rather than an emergency. We book more days, more loads and the right protective kit. The crew will not make a remark about the state of the place — to anyone, including you. Hoarder house clearance has its own page if you want to know what the day looks like before you ring.
Where we go from here
Haverfordwest sits in the middle of the county, so most of Pembrokeshire is an easy run: Milford Haven and Neyland in SA73, Pembroke in SA71 and Pembroke Dock in SA72, Tenby in SA70, Saundersfoot and Kilgetty in SA69 and SA68, Narberth in SA67, Clynderwen in SA66. Fishguard and Goodwick up in SA65. North and east, Newport in SA42, Crymych in SA41, Boncath in SA37, Glogue in SA36 and Llanfyrnach in SA35. The villages around Clarbeston Road in SA63. The town itself is SA61, with SA62 running out through Wolfscastle to Broad Haven, Solva and St Davids.
Cross the county line and we are on ground we know just as well. Up the coast there is house clearance in Cardigan; east along the A40 past Whitland the bigger town is house clearance in Carmarthen; and further on again, house clearance in Llanelli. Each of those has a page of its own. If the house you are dealing with is over that way, start there instead.
Haverfordwest station is on the West Wales line between Whitland and Milford Haven, with Clunderwen, Clarbeston Road and Johnston either side of it. A fair few of the people we work for come in that way, do a day at the house and go back the same evening. If that is you, tell us when you are arriving and we will fit the clearance around the train rather than the other way round.
One thing we will not load is paint, thinners, gas cylinders, asbestos sheeting or anything similar. Those need a separate arrangement, and we will tell you what it is instead of leaving you guessing. Fixtures wired or bolted into the wall we leave alone too, because taking them off usually takes plaster with them.
Ring 0800 046 5555 or email with the postcode, how many bedrooms, and whether there is a loft, garage or shed involved. We are licensed, insured, and we have been doing this since 2007.
Common questions about house clearance in Haverfordwest
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor for a probate clearance?
Yes. On probate work we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. Payment can come from the estate once it has been released. There is no deposit to find first, and nothing is asked for on the doorstep. We are used to waiting for funds to clear. We say so at the start rather than chasing you a fortnight later.
How do I find out what a house clearance in Haverfordwest will come to?
Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page. Every room, the loft hatch, the garage, the shed. You get a written estimate for the house in front of us. We cannot see through a closed loft hatch, so if the team think the estimate will move once things start coming out, you will hear it that day and not at the end.
Do you clear the garage and loft as well as the house?
Yes, and garage and loft clearance is usually where the volume hides. Say up front that both are in the job. Anything hazardous — old paint, thinners, gas bottles, anything with asbestos in it — is dealt with separately, and we will tell you how.
What happens to what you take out of the house?
Reusable furniture, white goods and tools are offered on to charity shops and reuse schemes in Pembrokeshire first. The rest goes to a permitted transfer station and is weighed in, and the transfer notes come to you afterwards. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679.
Do I have to be at the house on the day?
No. Plenty of our house clearance work in Haverfordwest is done with a key left next door or with an agent. The finished rooms come back to you as photographs the same evening. If you would rather be there for the first half hour and then leave us to it, that is fine too.
How far around Haverfordwest do you go?
Anywhere in SA61 and SA62 as a matter of course. Across the rest of Pembrokeshire from Fishguard down to Tenby and Pembroke Dock without a second thought. Beyond the county, the Carmarthen and Cardigan pages are the better starting point.
