Garden Clearance in Teesside

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Garden clearance is one of those jobs that looks like an afternoon and turns into a fortnight. The problem is rarely the work itself, it is what to do with the resulting pile. Green bins take a fraction of it, the tip restricts vans, and a heap of cuttings by the back gate has a way of becoming permanent. This guide covers clearing a garden across Teesside properly.

Why the Waste Is the Hard Part

Cutting things down is satisfying and fast. A hedge that takes two hours to cut produces a volume of material that will not fit in any domestic bin, and green waste is bulky rather than heavy, so it fills space extraordinarily quickly.

The three usual routes are your green bin, which will take a small fraction over several weeks; a trip to the household waste recycling centre, which often restricts or refuses vans and may require a permit booked in advance; or having it taken away. For anything beyond a light tidy, the third is the only one that finishes the job in a day.

What We Clear

Hedge cuttings, branches and general green waste
Old turf, soil and rubble from landscaping
Broken fence panels, posts and old decking
Sheds and greenhouses, dismantled and taken away
Old garden furniture, broken pots and planters
Trampolines, climbing frames and play equipment
Rusted tools, bikes and general shed contents

What We Cannot Take

Worth knowing before you book, because gardens and garages hide these:

Asbestos. Old shed and garage roofs are the classic case. Corrugated cement sheeting from before the 1990s should be assumed to contain it until proven otherwise, and it needs specialist removal. Do not break it up.
Fuel, oil and chemicals. Mower fuel, weedkiller, creosote.
Gas bottles. Including patio heater and barbecue bottles.
Tyres.

If something in the shed looks questionable, send a photo before booking and we will tell you straight.

Japanese Knotweed

Worth a line of its own. If you have knotweed, do not clear it, do not cut it, and do not put it in a general waste load. It is classed as controlled waste, spreads from tiny fragments, and requires a licensed specialist. Cutting it and moving it around is how it gets established somewhere new, and there are legal consequences for allowing it to spread. If you think you have it, get it identified before anyone touches the garden.

What It Costs

Garden clearance is priced on volume, because volume is what fills the van. Our minimum is £50, then £2 per mile beyond the first five, with the size of the load setting where above the minimum you land. You pay for the space your waste actually takes rather than a fixed skip size you may not fill.

Photos are what make the quote accurate. Two or three pictures taken from the back door, showing the pile and the route out to the front, tell us far more than any description. Garden waste volume is genuinely hard to estimate in words, and a picture means the price we quote is the price you pay.

The Access Question

This is the factor people forget and it affects the job more than the size of the pile does. Everything has to get from the garden to the van, and how it does that matters:

Side gate. Ideal. Check it actually opens and is not seized or blocked.
Rear alley. Common in older Teesside terraces and often the best route, if the van can get down it.
Through the house. Slow, and it means sheeting the floor. Possible, but tell us in advance.
Gate width. Measure it. A standard side gate will not pass an intact shed panel or a full sized trampoline frame.

Before We Arrive

None of this is required, but each genuinely reduces time on the job:

Pile it in one place, near the exit route. Loading from one heap is much quicker than collecting from six corners.
Cut long branches down. Anything over about a metre is awkward to carry and wastes van space.
Separate anything you are keeping. Put it somewhere obviously apart, or in the house. Once loading starts it moves quickly.
Empty pots of soil if you can. Soil is heavy and pots are bulky. Separated, both are easier.
Move the car off the drive. Closest parking means shortest carry.

Sheds and Structures

Taking down a shed is a bigger job than clearing around one, and it is worth booking as such. Empty it completely first, including anything screwed to the walls. Check the roof material before anything else, for the asbestos reason above. If the shed has a concrete base you want removing, mention it, because broken concrete is heavy and is priced differently from green waste.

Greenhouses need extra care and extra time. Old ones often have loose or cracked panes, and glass in a general load is a hazard for whoever unloads it.

Timing It Right

Late autumn and early spring are the busiest clearance periods for obvious reasons, and slots go quicker then. If you are planning a big garden project, book the clearance for the day after you expect to finish cutting rather than the same day. Garden work always takes longer than planned, and a van arriving to a half finished job helps nobody.

Where It Goes

Everything we remove goes to a registered disposal point. We are a licensed waste carrier, registration CBDL645754. Green waste is genuinely recyclable and is separated rather than landfilled, as are metal, wood and rubble.

The licence matters for you, not just for us. Fly tipped waste is traced back to whoever originally owned it, so if you pay someone cheap and cash in hand and your hedge cuttings turn up in a field, the enforcement letter arrives at your address. Always ask for the registration number.