House Clearance

Why a house clearance is different from an apartment clearance

The decisive difference is the secondary floor space. A detached house almost always has a full basement, an attic (Estrich), a garage and often a garden shed or workshop. Over decades these rooms accumulate material nobody consciously registers any more: leftover paint, tools, building materials, garden equipment, sports gear, old electrical appliances, furniture put into storage.

Then there is the outdoor area. Garden furniture, planters, compost bins, wood stores, sometimes an old car or a caravan are part of the job as well. Anyone who calculates a house clearance as if it were a large apartment clearance is regularly out by a factor of two to three.

Hazardous waste in houses

In the cellars and workshops of Swiss family houses you will almost always find material that must not go into normal waste: waste oil, paints and varnishes, solvents, pesticides, batteries, fluorescent tubes, old chemicals. These substances have to be collected separately and handed to a licensed hazardous waste facility (Sonderabfallentsorgung).

In houses built before 1990 there is the additional question of asbestos. Old floor tiles, fibre-cement (Eternit) panels, pipe insulation or plant troughs may contain asbestos. As long as such material stays undamaged it is not a problem — but during any removal or demolition it has to be handled by specialists.

Resale value reduces the cost

Older houses in particular often hold more value than the heirs expect. Solid wood furniture, clocks, carpets, musical instruments, machine tools, model railways, books, porcelain and jewellery can all be resold. A serious clearance company sorts through this before anything is disposed of and credits the proceeds against the clearance cost.