Apartment clear out in Rathmines: flats in converted period houses

The Rathmines flat is its own kind of job

Most guides to clearing an apartment are written for modern blocks: book the lift, tell the concierge, reserve the loading bay. Our guides to apartment clearance in Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock and Booterstown cover those buildings.

Rathmines has plenty of modern apartments too, but the flat most people mean is in a period house. A tall redbrick or stucco-fronted house has been divided into several flats, with a shared front door, a shared hall, and one staircase winding up past everybody's door. Some flats are a single room with a kitchenette. Some are the whole basement, with their own steps down from the street. Some are in the attic, under the slope of the roof.

None of them has a lift, a concierge or a loading bay. What they have is stairs, neighbours and a street where a van cannot always stop at the door. That is what this page is about. If you are a tenant deciding whether to sell, donate, hire a van or book a clearance, our guide to your end-of-lease options in Rathmines compares them.

Four kinds of flat, and what each one needs

Tell us which you have. It changes the plan more than the number of rooms does.

The stairs decide everything

Furniture got up those stairs once, so it will come down, but not always in one piece. Before you ask for a price, three photos help more than any description:

• The staircase from the bottom, showing the turn
• The door of the flat, fully open
• Your largest item, with something beside it for scale

Beds come apart into headboard, rails and base. Flat-pack wardrobes and desks are unscrewed and carried as panels. Many sofas have feet or arms that unbolt, and a sofa bed is lighter once the mattress is out. The pieces that cause trouble are the ones that arrived before a door was hung or a bannister was fitted, and we would sooner know about those in advance.

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Looking after the shared hall

In a house of flats, the hall and stairs belong to everybody, and the job is judged as much by how they are left as by the flat itself.

We cover the stairs and the hall floor before the first item moves. We carry in short runs and stand aside for anyone coming or going. Bicycles, buggies and post in the hall are moved only as far as they need to be and put back.

It is worth a note under the neighbours' doors a few days ahead, with the date and roughly how long we will be. If the house has a managing agent or the landlord lives nearby, tell them too. We can send our insurance details to anyone who asks for them.

Who we clear flats for

Tenants at the end of a lease. You bought a bed, a desk and a sofa over the years and the landlord wants the flat as it was let. We take your own furniture and the bags that go with it, and leave everything on the inventory where it is.

Landlords between tenancies. Something has been left behind, or the furniture supplied with the flat is past its best. We clear what you tell us to and send photos of each room when it is empty. What may be done with a former tenant's belongings is a legal question, and one for you and the RTB or your solicitor, not for us.

Owners selling. The flat needs to be empty for the estate agent's photographs. We clear it, and the carpets can be cleaned on the same booking.

Families after a death. Someone lived in the same flat for a long time. Personal papers and photographs are set aside for you, drawers and pockets are checked, and the pace is yours. See bereavement clearance in Dublin.

What we take and what we leave

We take furniture, beds and mattresses, fridges, cookers and washing machines that are yours, televisions, kitchen contents, clothes, books and the bagged odds and ends at the back of every press. Usable items are set aside for reuse where possible, electrical items and metals are recycled, and the rest goes to licensed waste facilities under our permit, NWCPO-25-13287-01.

We leave anything that belongs to the house: fitted wardrobes, the landlord's appliances, blinds and curtain poles, and whatever is on the inventory. We cannot take paint, solvents, oils, chemicals, batteries or gas cylinders, full or empty.

One thing does not go anywhere near the house bins: bulky items. The bins at the side or the back are for bagged household waste, and a mattress left beside them becomes everyone's problem.

Then the carpets

An empty flat is the best chance its carpet will ever get. With the furniture out, the whole floor can be cleaned edge to edge, including the places a bed or a wardrobe stood for years.

We clean by hot-water extraction, test a hidden patch first, and tell you plainly if a carpet would be better replaced. Fabric sofas and armchairs that are staying can be done on the same visit. We clean fabric only, not leather.

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Stairs take the most wear in any building. Stair and landing carpet inside your own flat can be cleaned with the rooms. The shared stairs are the owner's decision, and if you are the owner, stair carpet cleaning is a small job that changes how the whole house feels on a viewing.

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What Spotless does for flats in Dublin 6

• Apartment clearance and flat clear-outs: every room emptied and carried down by our crew.
• Furniture removal: a few pieces, priced as a part load.
• Carpet cleaning, including carpet cleaning in Rathmines: hot-water extraction once the rooms are empty.
• Upholstery cleaning: fabric sofas and chairs that are staying with the flat.
• House clearance in Rathmines: when it is the whole house and not one flat in it.

We are fully insured on every job, we work Monday to Saturday from 8am to 5pm, and we send photos of the empty rooms when the flat is done.

Getting a price

Send photos of each room, the stairs and the street door on WhatsApp to 085 202 1222, or use the quote form on this page. Tell us the floor, the date you need to be out by and what belongs to the landlord. You will get a fixed price, usually the same day, and it does not change on the day of the job.