Garden clearance, start to finish
Gardens fill up quietly. A broken chair gets left by the wall, the pots crack over winter, the kids outgrow the trampoline, and the cuttings pile behind the shed gets bigger every year. Before long you can't use half the garden. A clearance gets it back in a single visit.
When Spotless clears a garden:
- You get a fixed price first. Worked out from your photos, and it's the price you pay.
- We take the lot. Green waste, furniture, pots, play equipment, rubbish, and the shed if it's going.
- Bulky things are dismantled on site. Trampolines, swing sets, sheds and garden furniture broken down to load safely.
- Your house is protected. If everything has to come through the house, floors and stairs get covered first.
- Sorted, not dumped. Metal goes to recycling, reusable items are set aside where possible, and the rest goes to licensed facilities.
- Left tidy. The garden clear and the paving swept, ready for you, the gardener or the estate agent.
What a garden clearance covers
| What's in the garden | What we do with it |
|---|---|
| Green waste | Grass, leaves, weeds, branches and cuttings, loose or bagged, loaded and taken away |
| Overgrown corners | Rubbish and debris cleared out of the overgrowth so you can see what you're working with |
| Garden furniture | Broken chairs, tables, benches, parasols and rusted barbecues dismantled and taken |
| Pots and planters | Cracked pots, old planters, grow bags and trays |
| Play equipment | Trampolines, swing sets, slides, playhouses and goalposts dismantled on site |
| Sheds and outbuildings | Contents cleared, and the shed itself dismantled if you want it gone (shed clearance) |
| General rubbish | Old bikes, broken tools, fencing panels, timber, garden ornaments |
Soil, rubble and hardcore are heavy, so mention them in your photos. A few bags are no problem; for a large amount, a skip may be better value, and we'll tell you if so.
Green waste, and what doesn't count as green waste
Green waste means anything that grew in the garden: grass cuttings, leaves, weeds, hedge clippings, prunings and branches. It's bulky rather than heavy, unless it's wet grass that has been sitting in a heap for weeks.
A few things look like garden waste but aren't handled the same way:
- Soil, sods and stones, which are heavy and kept separate from green waste
- Treated or painted timber, like old fence panels, sleepers and decking boards
- Plastic pots, trays and netting, which count as general rubbish
- Roots of invasive plants, which need a specialist
We sort these as we load, so you don't need to separate anything yourself. If most of what's going is soil or stone, though, tell us, as it changes the price and sometimes the method.
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What we don't do
To be clear from the start: we don't do tree surgery, hedge cutting, lawn care or landscaping. Spotless clears gardens; it doesn't design or plant them.
That makes us a good fit alongside a gardener or tree surgeon. They do the cutting, and we come in after to take away the branches, cuttings and everything else that's been cleared. If you're getting a garden landscaped, clearing it first means the landscaper starts on a clean slate.
A few other things sit outside a garden clearance: invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed, gas cylinders from barbecues and patio heaters, asbestos sheeting on old sheds or garages, and chemicals like weedkiller, pesticides and old fertiliser. We can't take those; a civic amenity site or hazardous waste collection can.
When people book a garden clearance
- Selling the house. The garden is in the listing photos too. Buyers notice a broken trampoline and a corner full of rubbish. Our guide to preparing a property for sale covers the outside as well as the inside, and property clearance explains clearing the whole place before a sale.
- Between tenants. Landlords inherit a garden full of whatever the last tenants left behind.
- After a bereavement. The garden and shed are often the last part of a family home to be dealt with, and we clear them with the same care as the house. See bereavement house clearance.
- A garden that got away from you. A year or two of not getting round to it, and now it needs a reset.
- Before or after building work. Clearing the way for an extension, or the leftovers once the builders have gone.
If the garage needs clearing too, see garage clearance. For a few bulky items rather than a whole garden, junk removal is the quicker option.
Want your garden back? Send photos of the whole garden, the shed and anything bulky on WhatsApp, and we'll reply with a fixed price, usually the same day.
Step by step: how a garden clearance runs
- Photos from the back door. Send a wide shot of the whole garden, then close-ups of the shed, the play set and any piles. Tell us how you get from the garden to the street.
- A fixed price and a day. Quotes usually come back the same day, with a realistic idea of how long we'll be.
- A quick walk-round on arrival. We confirm what's going and what's staying, from the bench you love to the pots with plants still in them.
- Dismantle and load. Play sets, furniture and the shed come apart first; green waste and rubbish are bagged or loaded loose.
- Sweep and check. Paving swept, the route through the house checked for marks, and a photo sent if you're not at home.
Access, parking and getting through the house
Garden access is the biggest single factor in how long a clearance takes. When you send photos, tell us:
- whether there's side access or a back lane, or everything has to come through the house
- where the van can park: your driveway, the street, or a permit-parking zone where a visitor permit helps
- about any steps, slopes or a narrow side passage between the garden and the van
- about anything set in concrete, like rotary washing line bases or play sets
When there's no way round, everything comes through the house. Covers go down on the hall, the kitchen and any stairs, bags are carried rather than dragged, and anything bulky is broken down outside so it fits through the back door without scraping the frames.
How long it takes
| Garden | Typical time | What changes it |
|---|---|---|
| A small yard with bags of cuttings and a few broken chairs | A few hours | Whether it all comes through the house |
| A suburban back garden left for a year or two | Half a day or so | How much green waste, and how heavy it is |
| A long garden with a shed to dismantle and no side access | A full day | The shed, the play set and the carry to the van |
We'll give you a realistic time with the quote, so you know whether to plan for a morning or the whole day, and whether you need to be home for any of it. If you can't be there, a key with a neighbour or access through a side gate is usually enough.
Finish with the hard surfaces
Once a garden is cleared, the patio, paths and decking are usually the next thing you notice: green with algae, slippery in the wet, and stained where the furniture and pots have stood for years. Because we also run a power-washing crew, both jobs can go on the same booking:
- patio cleaning for concrete slabs, sandstone and granite
- decking cleaning to lift the green slime off timber boards
- driveway cleaning for the front, whether it's cobble-lock, concrete or tarmac
- garden walls and paths, with hot-water pressure washing or a soft wash depending on the surface
See the full range on our power washing page.
Where the green waste and rubbish go
Garden clearances produce a lot of material, and most of it doesn't belong in the same heap:
- Green waste is kept apart from general rubbish wherever we can, so it can be handled separately.
- Metal, from old barbecues and swing-set frames to bikes and broken tools, goes for recycling.
- Reusable things, like sound garden benches, planters and play equipment in good order, are set aside where possible.
- Everything else goes to licensed waste facilities.
We're an authorised waste carrier, and every load leaves under waste collection permit NWCPO-25-13287-01.
How a garden clearance is priced
Pricing depends on the volume, the access (through the house takes longer than a side gate), whether there's a shed or play set to dismantle, and how heavy the load is. Wet grass, soil and broken slabs weigh far more than bags of leaves, so mention them. Send photos of the whole garden and the price comes back fixed, usually on the day you ask. If there's more than one job, such as the garden, the shed and a few things from the garage, we'll price it all together so you're not paying for separate visits.
Preparing for the day
You don't need to bag anything or move anything before we arrive. A few small things help:
- Mark what's staying. Pots you're keeping, the bench, the bird table, the shed if it's not going.
- Take the gas bottle off the barbecue and return it to the supplier.
- Unlock the side gate or shed, or leave the keys with a neighbour.
- Move the car off the driveway if that's where the van will load.
- Keep pets indoors while gates are open and the route through the house is in use.
Garden clearance across Dublin and Leinster
We're based in Dublin and clear gardens in Dublin and all of Leinster, from terraced yards in the city to long suburban gardens and rural plots with outbuildings. We're fully insured on every job, which matters when a crew is carrying a dismantled shed through your hall.
