House clearance in Godalming is usually one of two sorts of day. Either a whole property in GU7 or GU8 has to be emptied and handed back, or it is one part of one — an office, a garage, a flat that somebody has already half emptied. We have been doing this since 2007. Both of the jobs written up below are our own work in the town, and nothing has been added to make them read better.
The first was an office, October 2019, in GU7. A company that runs its business from the middle of Godalming wanted the place cleared, and there was one awkward item in it: a printer. Not a desktop machine — an office one, and electrical kit of that size does not go in a general load. It goes down the WEEE route and is recycled as electricals, which is a separate journey and a separate ticket. The rest was mixed office waste, and it weighed one and three-tenths of a tonne. People are usually surprised by that. Two rooms of paper, shelving and old files outweigh a small flat every time, which is why we ask what is in a place rather than how many rooms it has.
Getting a figure for a house clearance in Godalming
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs — a short video walk-through of each room, the loft hatch open, the garage door up — and we will come back with a figure and a date. That is the whole of it. Nobody is sent to your door to size you up, and there is no obligation either way. If the team find more than the pictures showed, they ring you from the property before anything changes.
Where there is a hard limit is weight. A 3.5-tonne tipper has a legal payload and the team will not go over it, so on a heavy job — rubble, sodden garden waste, a garage of old paint tins — the last of it sometimes waits for a second visit rather than travelling. We would rather tell you that plainly than tip an overloaded Luton down the A3.
A full load out of a Godalming house, GU7
Three weeks after the office, in November 2019, the same customer put us into a house in Godalming, GU7. A full load, done in the one visit. A mattress came out with it, and mattresses are their own small problem: they are not accepted in a general load, so one is kept back on the van and booked in separately for regulated recycling at the other end. Anyone clearing a house in Godalming with a bed still in it will have that conversation with somebody, and it is better had at the quote stage than on the doorstep at nine in the morning.
Two jobs three weeks apart, one commercial and one domestic, both inside GU7. That is a fair picture of an ordinary fortnight here — Godalming is not a town where the work all looks the same.
Sorting, reuse and the transfer station
Furniture and household goods that still have a use are offered on locally — reuse schemes and charity depots take a lot more than people expect, and a decent wardrobe going to a family beats a decent wardrobe going in a skip. What can't be re-homed travels to a permitted transfer station, where the load is weighed, tipped and recorded, and we keep the tickets. Our waste carrier registration with the Environment Agency is CBDU419679, and you're welcome to check it before you book — plenty of executors do.
Paperwork outlives the van, and it is worth saying so. One customer came back to us long after the work was finished, asking for a copy of the invoice marked paid because they needed it for tax. It went back the same morning, and the reply was simply "Many thanks for your prompt reply." Filing is not the interesting half of a clearance, but for an executor, a landlord or anybody running a business it is half the job all the same.
Sofas, armchairs, footstools and padded headboards are a different matter again. Upholstered seating of that kind can contain persistent organic pollutants, and since 2023 it has had to be kept out of general waste and sent down a specialist route, incinerated rather than shredded and buried. That is why the team ask on the walk-round which soft furniture is going. Fridges and freezers are the same story — degassed rather than crushed.
A few things can't go in a general load at all: household fire extinguishers, gas bottles, half-used paint tins, oil drums from the garage. They're pressurised or they're hazardous, and they have to be routed properly. If something in your pile needs a different route we'll tell you before the day rather than turn up and refuse it on the doorstep.
The kinds of house clearance Godalming asks us for
Probate house clearance in Godalming
Most probate work here is instructed by somebody who is not in the house and often not in Surrey. The house has to be emptied for a valuation or for a sale, and it has to be documented as it goes. There is more on how probate jobs are run further down this page.
Flat clearance in GU7 and GU8
A flat clearance is a different animal to a house: one door, a shared stair, a bin store the neighbours are protective of, and usually a residents' car park with no space for a tipper. We check the parking first. Farncombe and the newer blocks off Meadrow have most of the flats in Godalming; the conversions above the shops in the town centre are the tight ones, because the only way down is a staircase that was built for one person carrying nothing.
Garage and loft clearance in Godalming
Plenty of the calls we get are not for a whole property at all. A garage and loft clearance is its own job — the garage that hasn't opened since a car last fitted in it, the loft nobody has been up to since the seventies, and quite often both in the same morning. Lofts need boarding underfoot or they need care; the team carry lighting, because the one bulb up there never works.
Hoarder house clearance in Godalming
A hoarder house clearance takes longer and takes more people, and that is the whole of the difference. Nobody on the team comments on the state of a property. Everything gets looked at rather than shovelled, because cash, jewellery and paperwork turn up in hoarded houses far more often than people expect, and they go back to the family rather than into the van. Say on the phone if a place is heavily overfilled and we plan for more than one day instead of arriving with the wrong-sized crew.
End of tenancy clearance in Godalming
End of tenancy work runs to a deadline, which changes how we schedule it: the property has to be empty and swept before the inventory, not the week after. Landlords and managing agents book most of it, and they usually want photographs of the empty rooms the same day for their own file. That we do as a matter of course on every job.
Office clearance and single items
Offices, shops and storage units come with electricals, filing and furniture that has to be split three ways before it goes anywhere, as the October job in GU7 showed. At the other end of the scale, a single item — one sofa, one piano, one fridge — is a job we will still come out for.
The GU postcodes we work
Godalming itself is GU7, with Farncombe and Binscombe running up the hill and Busbridge and Holloway Hill on the other side. Milford, Witley and the Chiddingfold lanes are GU8. From there we're regularly out to house clearance in Haslemere and Hindhead, over to Cranleigh, across to house clearance in Farnham, and up the A3 into Guildford and on to house clearance in Woking. Waverley Borough Council covers most of that; Surrey County Council runs the household recycling centres, including the one at Witley that half of Godalming knows well.
Godalming station and Farncombe station both sit on the Portsmouth Direct line out of Waterloo, which matters more than you'd think — a fair share of our Surrey work is booked by someone who comes down for the day by train, meets the team at nine, and goes back that evening with the keys ready to hand over.
Access, parking and old houses
The High Street was not laid out with a 3.5-tonne tipper in mind. Neither were the terraces behind it. We check parking before the day, and if the road is narrow or permit-only we'll say so and plan the carry rather than discover it at nine in the morning. Godalming has a lot of Victorian and Edwardian terraces with steep, tight staircases, a belt of thirties semis, and out towards Busbridge and Hascombe some substantial Arts and Crafts houses with cellars, outbuildings and stable blocks that have been absorbing possessions for a century. Those take two days. We'll tell you that when we quote, not halfway through the first one. The lanes towards Hambledon and Hascombe are single-track with passing places, and the older properties on them often have a gate before the drive rather than after it. If the van has to stop fifty yards short and the team carry, we would sooner know that beforehand than find it out on the morning.
Probate, executors and jobs run from a distance
Much of what we do in Waverley is instructed by someone who no longer lives locally — a daughter up north, an executor in London, a solicitor acting for an estate. Nobody has to be present. The key can come from an agent, a neighbour, or a key safe with the code sent through in the week beforehand, and we'll hold two or three phone numbers if the person organising it can't take calls during the working day. The team leader photographs the walk-round before anything is touched and the rooms once they're empty, and those come to you the same day.
For probate house clearance we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly — whichever suits the person dealing with it — and payment can be made from the estate. There is no deposit. The invoice follows the work; it does not come before it.
If a property has become badly overfilled — years of newspapers, floor-to-ceiling boxes, rooms that can't be walked through — say so when you enquire. The team have seen it, they don't comment on it, and it is booked in the same way as any other job. Anything of value found in the mess gets set aside and handed back; that's routine.
Booking a date
Send photographs or a video walk-through of each room, tell us the property size, the access and anything that must stay, and we'll come back with a figure and a date. The team arrives at nine, walks round with you or with whoever holds the key, and confirms what they've found before they lift anything.
If you have typed house clearance Godalming into a search and got this far, the next step is the short one: ring 0800 046 5555 or use the form on this page with your postcode, and we'll tell you honestly what a clearance in Godalming will take.
House clearance in Godalming — common questions
Can you invoice a solicitor or the estate on a probate job? Yes. We invoice the solicitor, executor or estate directly, and the cost can be met from the estate rather than out of anyone's own pocket. Nothing is payable before the work.
Do I have to be at the property? No. We collect a key from a neighbour, an agent or a key safe, and send photographs of the empty rooms the same day.
Do you take a deposit? No. The team clears the property and the invoice follows afterwards.
Will you clear just a garage or a loft rather than a whole house? Yes, and a fair share of our GU7 and GU8 calls are exactly that.
What can't go in the ordinary load? Gas bottles, fire extinguishers, paint and oil drums need their own route, fridges and freezers are degassed separately, and upholstered seating goes down its own controlled route.
How do I get a price? Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page. The quote is free and commits you to nothing.
