What office clearance costs
The same load pricing applies: £160 + VAT for a quarter load, £290 half, £390 three-quarters, £550 full. A typical small office of ten to fifteen desks with chairs and pedestals is around a full load once it's broken down.
Where commercial differs is scale. Most offices are more than one load, and beyond that we price the whole job as a project rather than per load — usually cheaper per unit of volume than the published rates, because the crew and lorry are committed for the day.
- A few desks — £100 + VAT
- Small office or shop unit — £290
- Single floor — £390 to £550
- Full strip-out — £550 plus
- Multi-site — priced as a programme
The three things that change the number
Out-of-hours working. Most commercial clearance happens after close, at weekends or overnight so the business keeps trading. That's how we prefer to work and it isn't a premium in the way it is with some contractors — but it does have to be scheduled, and last-minute overnight work is harder to fit in.
IT and electricals. Anything with a plug is WEEE (anything with a plug or a battery) and has to be handled and documented separately. Monitors, PCs, servers, printers and cabling all have to be recycled under WEEE regulations, which is a real cost and a real compliance obligation. Our WEEE disposal page covers it.
Fixed items. Desks that are bolted, partitions, raised flooring, shelving and anything needing to come off a wall turn a clearance into a soft strip. That's a different job with a different price — see soft strip out.
Need it cleared without losing a trading day?
Evenings and weekends are our normal for commercial work, with WEEE paperwork and diversion figures included.
The paperwork you actually need
Business waste is not the same as household waste in law. You are legally required to hold a waste transfer note for every collection and to keep it for two years, and you must check that your carrier is registered with SEPA. Ours is WCR/R/3002381.
If you report on ESG, or you're in a regulated sector, ask for diversion figures as well — the proportion of the load recycled rather than landfilled. We supply those on request. For a fuller explanation of why this matters, see how to choose a licensed waste carrier.
Confidential material is worth flagging separately. Paper records, hard drives and anything with client data on it should be dealt with through a secure destruction route, not a general clearance.
Other commercial clearances
Retail and hospitality units follow the same volume pricing but have their own quirks — fixed seating, commercial refrigeration and bar fit-outs. That's covered on our pub and restaurant clearance page.
Industrial units, warehouses and factories are priced as projects almost without exception, because the volumes and the access are both different. See warehouse and factory clearance.
