Garage clearance: clearing the house and garage together

The key to the garage is often the last one on the ring. The house is dealt with room by room, the garage door stays shut, and when the clearance date arrives nobody is quite sure what is behind it. Garage clearance in Brighton, Hove and Sussex is easier to plan when it is treated as part of the same job as the house.

This guide explains how a combined house and garage clearance works with Right Turn Removals, what usually ends up in the load, which items cannot be taken, and what to do with them instead. It puts no price on a Right Turn job. Lewis gives a clear price from photos, agreed before you book, so the useful thing to know in advance is what drives it.

Why the garage and the house belong in one job

One visit, one set of photos and one clear price is simpler than two separate bookings, and it avoids a van arriving for the house while the garage waits.

Garages fill up in a particular way. Whatever did not fit in the house, did not get thrown away or might be useful one day went in there, and it stayed. When a whole property is being cleared for probate, a sale or a downsize, the garage can hold as much as a bedroom and be harder to read, because it is stacked deep and lit badly.

Right Turn clears houses, garages, lofts and sheds. Treating the garage as part of the same clearance means Lewis can plan the order of the day, the number of loads and where the van needs to stand in one go. If you are handling a relative's home, the checklist for clearing a parent's house and the guide to probate house clearance in Sussex cover the wider picture, and the garage slots into either.

What usually sits in a garage clearance

Most of a garage is ordinary household waste, which is the easy part; the difficult part is the handful of items that cannot go in the van.

Most garage loads are furniture that was demoted from the house, shelving units, boxes of paperwork and books, bikes, old tools, garden equipment, carpet offcuts and general rubbish. Some are surprisingly heavy. A workbench with a vice is a different carry from a pile of flat-packed boxes, and metal shelving can be awkward to take apart. Photos help Lewis see this before the day.

Then there are appliances. A spare fridge or chest freezer in the garage is common, and it follows its own disposal route. The guide to fridge and freezer disposal in Sussex explains why. Mattresses and sofas that ended up in there are covered in the guides to mattress disposal in Brighton and sofa disposal in Brighton and Hove.

What cannot be taken, and what to do with it

Right Turn cannot take hazardous or flammable materials, gas bottles, chemicals, asbestos, clinical or medical waste, illegal items, live animals or anything not agreed before the job.

That list is short on purpose, and several items on it are common in garages. The table lists what usually turns up and what happens to it. It is a planning aid, not a promise about any particular item, so if you are unsure, photograph the item and ask Lewis before the day.

Paint, oils and solvents are the grey area. They are chemicals in the plain sense, so set them aside early and ask rather than assuming. GOV.UK lists oils and paints as household waste, and says that if your council will not collect something you can use a local recycling centre. The Brighton and Hove council page lists paint as accepted, and household hazardous chemicals as accepted if they are in a secure container. Read the full list on the council's page on what the recycling sites accept.

Petrol, gas bottles and the fire risk

Fuel and gas are the items most worth moving out of a garage early, because they are the ones that make a clearance unsafe for everyone.

A garage is the usual place for a petrol can for the mower or a bottle for the patio heater. HSE says you can store up to 30 litres of petrol at home without telling the Petroleum Enforcement Authority, in plastic containers of up to 10 litres each or metal containers of up to 20 litres each, and that petrol must not be kept in living accommodation. The detail is on the HSE petrol storage page.

If you are taking fuel somewhere yourself, the government's guidance on private carriage of petrol and diesel sets its own limits and says the fuel must be packaged so that it cannot leak. See the GOV.UK guidance on carrying petrol by road. Gas bottles are best returned to whoever supplied them, which is a call to make before clearance day, not on it.

Asbestos in garages and outbuildings

If a garage roof, wall panel or flue might contain asbestos, leave it alone and get it identified before anyone breaks it up.

Older garages and sheds sometimes have asbestos cement in roofs, cladding, gutters and flues, and asbestos insulating board in soffits and panels. HSE says bulk testing can confirm asbestos cement, and that if you think you have found asbestos you should stop work and follow its guidance. Right Turn does not take asbestos, so a suspect roof sheet stacked behind the lawnmower is something to flag in your photos, not to hide.

Householders do have a council route for small amounts. Brighton and Hove takes up to four bags of bonded asbestos at the Hove recycling site only, wrapped thoroughly and twice in plastic, and you must bring two pieces of ID, one with a photo and one proving you live in the city. The council does not accept asbestos at its Brighton site, and larger amounts need a registered waste carrier. The HSE page on where asbestos is found explains what to look for.

How a combined house and garage job runs

Photos first, a clear price agreed before booking, hazardous items set aside, then one planned day in which the house and garage are loaded together.

1. Photograph everything. Wide shots of each room and the garage from the doorway, then from inside, then the back wall.
2. Send access notes. The postcode, where the van can stand, steps, a side passage or a narrow garage door.
3. Get a clear price. Lewis reviews volume, access, parking and anything needing a specialist route, then gives a clear price before booking.
4. Set aside the excluded items. Fuel, gas, chemicals and suspect asbestos go to their own routes before the day.
5. Clearance day. If the scope changes, Lewis explains and agrees any change before continuing.
6. Left swept. The property is swept, and a waste receipt and the relevant waste record are available on request.

Lewis runs every job personally, so you deal with him directly from the first message to the last load. You can start by getting in touch by WhatsApp, form, phone or email.

What drives the price of a garage plus house job

Volume, weight, how far everything is carried, where the van can park and what the waste is all move the price.

This is the same set of drivers that applies to any clearance. A garage packed to the roof with light boxes is quicker than a half-full one of paving slabs and old timber. A garage at the end of a long drive is easier than one in a lane where the van cannot get close. The guide to rubbish clearance cost in Sussex goes through the drivers in turn, and the guides to house clearance cost in Brighton and flat clearance cost in Hove do the same for the house side.

The honest way to compare two quotes is to check whether each included the garage, the back of the garage and the items that cannot go in the van. A price that quietly leaves out part of the job is only an incomplete price.

Can you sort it first, and what is worth keeping

Sorting before the day is optional, but separating keepers, donations and excluded items makes the job calmer and the quote more accurate.

If you have time, a quick pass helps. Pull out anything of value or sentiment, anything that could be donated or reused, and the excluded items from the table. Reuse and recycling are considered where suitable, and the guide to getting rid of old furniture in Brighton covers routes for pieces that still have life in them. You do not have to do any of it, and Lewis can take what is left, but the less that is unknown the fewer surprises on the day.

If you are moving as well, the home removals service can sit alongside a clearance, and the comparison of council bulky waste and a man and van is a useful check on your options for single large items.

Check who is taking the waste

If a private business removes your waste, check it is on the Environment Agency register of waste carriers before anything leaves.

GOV.UK says that if a private business removes your waste you should check that it is on the register, selecting upper tier, and warns that you could be fined if you give household waste to someone who is not allowed to take it. See the GOV.UK page on household waste and the waste carrier registration page. Right Turn Removals holds waste carrier licence CBDU621046, and you can check it on the public register. The guide to choosing a registered clearance firm walks through it.

For the full list of what Right Turn does, see the house clearance page and the services page.