House clearance in Egham is TW20 work for us: the town centre, the hill up to Englefield Green and Royal Holloway, Thorpe and the lakes below it. The streets running down towards the river at Staines-upon-Thames. Abacus has been clearing houses since 2007, and Egham sits at the western end of the Surrey patch we cover every week, off the M25 at junction 13 and straight in. Below is one of our clearances told properly, and then everything you would sensibly want to know before you ring.
Spring 2024, then. A second-floor flat, and the person organising it had the sense to tell us what we were walking into before we had finished asking: "2nd floor flat 2 flights stairs 25 steps or so!" That one line shaped the whole day. Twenty-five steps with a divan base, a wardrobe carcass and a chest of drawers is a different animal from a lift. Stairs are the first thing we ask about on any flat clearance.
Photographs came over by email, which tells us more than any description ever does. We read them as a mid load. There was a garage to empty as well as the flat. Garages get forgotten at the booking stage and then turn up on the day full of tins, tools and a folded pram. No fridge, no freezer, no mattress in it; asked about those, the answer came back "NOT at moment." There was a sofa, though, and sofas have their own rules. Upholstered seating has to be kept out of the general load and sent down a separate, regulated route under the persistent organic pollutant regulations that came in for that waste stream in 2023. A legal requirement on the carrier, not a preference of ours.
Parking looked awkward on the map and was not. Access ran down a service lane at the side of the building, and the note we were sent read "THERE IS PARKING AT BACK." A longer carry out to the van, no argument over a permit. We had said the team would be there for 9am, and the team was there for 9am.
It did not go entirely to plan, which is the part worth telling. There was more in the flat than the photographs had shown, plus a television set nobody had mentioned. The team leader stopped, rang the office and had it talked through before a single thing went on the van. We would far sooner say something while you are still on the phone than let you find out from a doorway afterwards. The feedback that came back to the office at the end was warm enough that we passed it on to the crew by name. Is not something we do every week.
Where we go around Egham
Egham proper is TW20, and the town shares its edges with Englefield Green up the hill by Royal Holloway, Thorpe and the lakes to the south, and Staines-upon-Thames just over the river. Head one way and you are into GU25 at Virginia Water; head the other and it is KT16 for Chertsey and KT15 for Addlestone. All of it is Surrey, all of it Runnymede Borough Council for bin rules and parking dispensations. All of it inside the stretch of the South East we work every week. Egham Hythe, Pooley Green, Thorpe Lea and the newer closes off the Thorpe road are the same day's work as the town centre.
The neighbours have their own pages, and it is worth reading across if your property sits on the boundary: house clearance in Chertsey and house clearance in Addlestone are the two bigger towns south of us, and house clearance in Walton-on-Thames is the next run east along the river.
Egham station is on the Waterloo to Reading line, which matters more than you would think. Half the terraces and older semis near the station were built for people commuting into town. A good number are now let out. An end of tenancy clearance for a landlord looks different from a family clearance: less furniture, more of what the last tenant abandoned. Usually a deadline tied to the next check-in. We have done plenty of both.
A flat clearance in TW20, a lift, and a spare key with the neighbour
The same year, a two-bedroom flat on the third floor of a purpose-built block in TW20. Lift access, thankfully. Whoever is instructing us always gets asked about lifts before anything else. Three flights with a divan base changes the shape of a day completely.
This one was arranged by a relative whose own home is up in Lancashire. Who came down to let us in. The instructions were unusually clear: carpets to be cleared, curtains to be cleared, no white goods, nothing to be left. The paperwork to be taken away privately for shredding rather than tipped. Parking was round the back of the block, which meant a longer walk out but no fight with a permit. We were also told that if the traffic went wrong, a neighbour further along the corridor had a spare key. That sort of belt-and-braces planning saves everybody an hour standing on a landing.
What actually leaves the house, and where it ends up
Very little of a clearance is rubbish in the true sense. A dining suite, a bookcase, a chest of drawers with one dodgy runner. If it still works and still has wear left, it is worth more standing in somebody's front room than crushed in a tipper. The reuse shops, furniture projects and charity outlets around this corner of Surrey take a steady amount of what we lift. We would rather make that stop than not.
The remainder is weighed in at a permitted transfer station and separated there: wood, metal, plasterboard, mattresses, fridges and freezers each on their own path. We get documentation back for every tonne of it, and you are welcome to a copy. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679, and it is worth checking that number, or anybody's, on the Environment Agency's public register before you let a van take your mother's house away. Under your duty of care the waste has to go to a registered carrier. If it is fly-tipped and the tipper is never found, it comes back to you.
There are things we cannot put on an ordinary load. Tins of paint, gas cylinders, oil, asbestos sheeting from an old garage roof, car batteries: those need arranging separately. We will tell you so on the phone rather than leave them stacked by the gate after we have gone. Where it is only a van's worth of odds and ends rather than a whole property, house rubbish removal is the job you actually want.
Garage and loft clearance in Egham
Most of the interwar and post-war semis around Egham came with a garage. A fair few of those garages have not had a car in them since the seventies. Garage and loft clearance is half of what we lift out of a house here: the loft hatch on the landing with sixty years of suitcases, curtain rails and boxed Christmas decorations above it. A garage at the side with a workbench, paint tins, a rusted mower, bicycle frames and the panels of a shed that was taken down and never taken away. Neither is a job to do off a stepladder on your own at seventy.
We bring the loft down ourselves, board by board and bag by bag. We do not need you to have been up there first. Where the garage is detached and the drive is short, the crew will barrow it out rather than reverse a caged tipper across a lawn. Sheds, greenhouses full of pots, side returns stacked with slabs, the lot behind the fence. All of it goes on the same visit if you say so when you book.
Probate house clearance in Egham, executors and clearances run from a distance
A good deal of what we do around Egham, Virginia Water and Chertsey is probate work. Often nobody involved lives anywhere near Surrey. We can be instructed by an executor, by an administrator, or through a solicitor's office, and on a probate house clearance we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. Payment can come from the estate rather than out of anybody's own pocket, there is no deposit to find. The invoice follows the work rather than preceding it.
If you cannot be there, we will collect keys from an agent, a neighbour or a key safe. One customer left the code with us and a note that the front door needed the handle pulling towards you as you turned the key. Team leaders photograph every room on arrival and again once it is empty. Those pictures go to you by email. Anything that looks like it matters — deeds, photographs, jewellery, envelopes tucked at the back of a drawer — is put to one side for your decision. We can post sentimental items on if you are hundreds of miles away.
Full houses, and no comment from us
Some properties have forty years of things in them and no clear floor. That is a normal Tuesday for this crew, not a spectacle. Nobody on the van will say a word about it. There is no need to sort, box or bag anything first: the team empties cupboards, wardrobes and drawers, lifts carpets and underlay. Sweeps through behind itself if you want that. A hoarder house clearance takes longer and we will say so honestly when we look at it, rather than discovering it at nine o'clock in the morning. Where a place is genuinely unsanitary we handle it as a specialist clearance with the right kit.
Garden cut-backs, a standard clean afterwards and wallpaper stripping can all be added on the same visit if the house is going on the market.
What we need from you to book
Tell us the postcode, the size of the property, whether there is a lift or a drive, and what is staying behind. Photographs sent through the form on this page get you a firmer figure than a description ever will. There is no obligation attached to it. We arrive at nine and aim to have the property finished the same day wherever that is possible. Call the office on 0800 046 5555 or send the details over and we will tell you what it takes.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Egham
Do you cover all of Egham, or only the town itself? All of TW20. Out to Englefield Green, Thorpe, Egham Hythe and Pooley Green as a matter of course. Virginia Water, Chertsey and Addlestone are the same crew and the same week.
Who do you invoice on a probate house clearance? The solicitor, the executor or the estate, directly, whichever suits the person handling it. Payment can be made from the estate, there is no deposit. We do not need the person instructing us to be in the country, let alone in Egham.
How do I get a figure for a house clearance in Egham? Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of the rooms, the loft and the garage through the form on this page. Pictures get you a firmer answer than any description. We will not pretend a page on the internet can tell you what your house will take.
Will you do the garage and loft as well as the house? Yes. It is better to say so at the booking stage. A loft nobody has emptied since the seventies takes real time. We would rather build it into the day than find it at eleven o'clock.
Do we have to empty the wardrobes or take the carpets up first? No. Leave everything exactly as it is. Tell us what is staying — carpets, curtains, light fittings, a particular chair — and we will write it down and tell the crew twice. That is the thing that gets missed when it is only said once.
What will you not take away? Paint, oil, gas bottles, car batteries, asbestos and anything similar cannot travel on an ordinary load. Tell us on the phone and we will arrange the right route for them instead of leaving them by your gate.
