House Clearance in Compton Acres

House Clearance for Compton Acres homes

Bought new, held by one household ever since, and cleared now for probate or a move into care. There is no cellar anywhere on this estate, so it all went into a trussed loft, the garage and a shed.

This estate has reached the age that produces the work in quantity. The houses were sold new to families inside one building programme, a lot of those families never moved, and what reaches us now is probate or a move into care on a property one household has held since it was put up. Nothing was ever cleared on the way in, because there was nothing there to clear, so the accumulation runs the full length of the ownership without a break in it. There is also no cellar anywhere here, which matters more than it sounds. Everything that would have gone into one has gone up into the loft, out into the garage, or down the garden into a shed.

Compton Acres sits in NG2, under Rushcliffe Borough Council. One estate, one build period, so nothing here wears out on its own. Shower enclosures, kitchen sealant, conservatory roofs and fence panels all reach the end of their lives within a few years of each other, and the same job comes round a whole road inside a season.

What we run into on Compton Acres house clearance jobs

The loft is the part that decides the day. Roofs of this period are built from trussed rafters, so the space is crossed at waist height by timber webs every few feet and there is no clear route from one end to the other. What people did was board the few square metres around the hatch and then push everything else sideways under the eaves, where it has sat since. Getting it back means passing each item through the webs by hand to somebody standing at the hatch, and cardboard that went up thirty years ago has softened enough to give way when it is lifted.

How a Compton Acres house clearance job actually runs

Access here is as good as it gets, which is worth saying because it is unusual on our patch. A Luton stands on the drive, the tailgate is a few paces from the front door, there is no permit to buy, no shared stair and no carry from a kerb, so the day goes on moving things rather than walking them. That changes the pace and not the planning. Before anything starts we want the room for whatever is being kept agreed and marked, keys arranged through the executor, agent or solicitor, and the alarm sorted out, because an empty house sounding at ten in the morning brings a neighbour to the door. Some things cannot go on the van and it is better said now than on the day: garden chemicals, paint, fuel and unlabelled containers out of the garage, and gas bottles off a barbecue. Ask anyone taking waste off your property for their waste carrier registration number, check it on the public register, and ask for the transfer note afterwards. The clean is a separate booking on a separate day.

Who books it here

On the practical side: Short block paved drives open onto the pavement, so the van gets clear of the road easily. Entry is usually the door from the garage rather than the front, which means a remote or a side door key, and the alarm keypad sits behind it.

We run Compton Acres on the same round as West Bridgford, Edwalton and Gamston.

What we check on every Compton Acres job

The bedroom furniture is what turns a straightforward day into a long one. Wardrobes in these houses were nearly all bought flat and assembled in the room they still stand in, and after thirty years the cam fixings have worked loose, the backs are pinned hardboard, and the panels are chipboard under a foil wrap that has swollen wherever it met damp. They will not come down a turned staircase whole and they will not survive being tipped onto their side, so they are taken apart on the bedroom floor and carried down in armfuls, which is slow and is almost never allowed for. The cupboard under the stairs and the shed are the other two. Both are deeper than they look from the doorway, both were the household's overflow for decades, and neither empties in the few minutes people picture. Looking at a house like this we count storage rather than bedrooms, because storage is what the load actually is.

What the house clearance covers

A sample of what is included

• Everything that comes out: Loft, garage, shed, cellar and outbuildings, which are usually underestimated
• Before we leave: Meter readings taken and photographed
• Where it goes: Reusable furniture, clothing, books and bric-a-brac offered to reuse and charity outlets
• Everything that comes out: Furniture, beds and bedroom contents, including flat pack that has to be broken down

That is a sample rather than the whole list. The full house clearance page sets out every section of the scope, what is deliberately excluded and why, how long it takes on each property size, and what tends to go wrong.