Construction and builders waste clearance in Cornwall and Devon

Most of this work is for trades. Builders, roofers, kitchen and bathroom fitters, landlords turning a property round. You ring. We clear the site. You carry on with the job. Homeowners too, if you're sitting on the leftovers of an extension. Same work to us, and you're just as welcome.

What we take

The heavy stuff. Brick, concrete, hardcore, tiles and soil. Soil and hardcore removal is where skips get expensive. It's also where a lot of van operators quietly say no. We take it.

Everything else off a build. Timber and offcuts, plasterboard, old kitchens and bathrooms, insulation, roofing felt and tiles, fencing, packaging and general site waste. Fridges and freezers as well. They can't go in a skip, so people get stuck with them. Garage and shed strip outs too, back to an empty shell. End of build clean up as well. The trades have gone and nobody wants to be the one who deals with what's left.

If you're not sure whether something's on the list, send a photo. Quicker than describing it.

Bagged asbestos, collected not removed

We collect asbestos. We don't remove it. That's the line, and it's worth being clear about before you ring.

If it's already double bagged, sealed and labelled, we'll take it away and raise a hazardous waste consignment note for it. That's a different document from the transfer note you get for everything else, and it's the one the Environment Agency expects to see for asbestos. It goes to DSW or Nick Ferris, the two sites near us permitted to accept it.

Still on the roof, still on the ceiling, still in the wall? That's a licensed asbestos contractor's job, not ours. Garage roof sheets, artex, the board behind an old storage heater. We won't take any of it down for you. Get a contractor in first, then ring us for the bags.

One thing worth knowing about the cost. Both sites work to a minimum: half a tonne at DSW, a full tonne at Nick Ferris. Two bags cost you what a proper load costs. So bag it as you go, store it safely on site, and have us collect the lot in one run rather than calling us out three times.

What we can't take

Loose asbestos. If it isn't double bagged, sealed and labelled, we can't load it, and we'd rather say so now than on the day.

Four other things we leave alone: gas bottles, tyres, paint or liquid chemicals, and contaminated soil. That last one needs testing and a different licence entirely. A householder can take the paint and the tyres to the local recycling centre. Gas bottles go back to whoever supplied them. For trade quantities a specialist will handle it, and we'll point you at the right one.

We load it, you don't

A skip is a box you rent and fill yourself. That's the whole difference.

No permit to arrange. No waiting three days for a delivery and another four for the collection. No barrowing rubble up a plank in the rain because the skip goes tomorrow. And no rental clock running while the job overruns.

We turn up, load it, and go. Round the back, up a side passage, in a garden no lorry can reach. That's exactly where a skip fails and we don't. As an alternative to skip hire it works out cheaper on most jobs, and loads start at £50. You're paying for the load and the labour. Not for the days it sat on your kerb.

Keeping it apart cuts your bill

We don't tip plasterboard, wood and rubble as one mixed load. Each one goes somewhere different, so each one gets separated before it's tipped.

You can do it on site as the job goes on. Or we'll do it as we load. Doing it yourself is faster. Faster means less labour on your invoice. Plasterboard in one pile, timber in another, rubble in a third. We're loaded in a fraction of the time. If that's not practical, leave it to us and the price reflects that instead.

Your duty of care paperwork

Under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, whoever produces the waste is responsible for where it ends up. That's you. Not the person who drives it away. If your load turns up fly-tipped in a lay-by, the Environment Agency comes to you first.

So two things are worth checking on anyone you use. That they're a registered waste carrier, and that they hand you a transfer note. We're registered with the Environment Agency, EA registration CBDU590448. You get a waste transfer note for every collection. Keep them in the van or the office. If anyone asks where a load went, that paper is the answer. Without it the fine lands on you, not on us.

Where it goes

Nothing leaves as one mixed load if it doesn't have to. Rubble, timber and plasterboard are separated first. Each goes to the site that handles it. Depending on what's in the van that means Nick Ferris, RIG at Scorrier, SUEZ, Cornwall Cullet, the Green Waste Company or DSW.

Plasterboard disposal is the one people get caught out by. Gypsum can't go to landfill mixed in with biodegradable waste. Put the two together and they give off hydrogen sulphide. So it's kept apart and taken to a site that accepts it. That's why we ask about plasterboard before we price a job. Same rule for plasterboard disposal in Devon as in Cornwall.

Areas we cover

We work out of a yard in Hayle and cover Cornwall end to end. Penzance, Camborne, Redruth and Helston to the west. Truro, Falmouth, Newquay and St Austell through the middle. Bodmin, Bude, Liskeard, Launceston and Saltash out east.

Devon as well. Plymouth is a regular run, then Tavistock and Okehampton. Over to Exeter, Newton Abbot and Torquay. North to Barnstaple, Bideford and Tiverton. Rubble removal in Truro and site clearance in Plymouth come up most weeks. Same day waste collection in Exeter depends on the diary that morning. Ring early rather than late.

If you want the wider picture of what we do in your area, there are pages for house clearance in Truro, Plymouth, Exeter and Helston.