Basement cleanouts in Salt Lake City's older homes

The short answer

Most basement clearances in the older parts of this city land between a three-eighths truck at $338 and a full truck at $732. A half truck is $431 and three-quarters is $587. If the list is short and specific, price it per item instead — a chest freezer is $146, a storage cabinet is $74, a large junk pile is $208.

The carry up the stairs is included. Every time. There is no stair charge in this market, which matters here more than almost anywhere, because in Salt Lake the basement is where everything lives.

Why Salt Lake basements are full

Three things compound. First, the housing stock actually has basements — full-height, finished or semi-finished, with rooms rather than a furnace and a sump. That is true of the pre-war houses in the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Central City and Yalecrest, and of the post-war ramblers across Rose Park, Glendale, Murray and Millcreek.

Second, families here are larger and stay longer. A house that held six or eight people for thirty-five years produces an amount of retained furniture and boxed material that a two-person household in a ten-year tenancy simply never generates.

Third, the storage habit. A great many Utah homes have a dedicated basement storage room with heavy floor-to-ceiling shelving, and it is full — canning jars, bulk goods, camping equipment, the Christmas boxes for a house that used to seat twelve. That room on its own is often a quarter to a half truck.

The staircase is the job

A basement staircase in a house built between 1895 and 1925 was not designed for anything you own. Expect narrow treads, a steep pitch, a low header you will hit with your shoulder, a turn at the bottom, and a door at the top that opens inward into the kitchen. Some of them still have the original handrail on one side and nothing on the other.

What that means in practice: a chest freezer that went down there in 1998 has to come back up in a controlled slide with two people and straps, and a sofa bed in a finished basement family room often has to be taken apart. Both are normal. Neither costs extra. The item price is the item price.

A few older homes still have an exterior cellar entrance or a boarded coal chute at the side of the house. Where one exists and is usable, tell us — it is usually faster than the interior stair and easier on the house.

What comes out

A very typical Yalecrest basement: chest freezer $146 + washer $133 + dryer $128 + large junk pile $208. $146 + $133 = $279. $279 + $128 = $407. $407 + $208 = $615. Against the ladder, three-quarters is $587, so that job books as a truck fraction and saves $28.

A smaller one in a Millcreek rambler: storage cabinet $74 + two boxes of books at $45 each ($45 + $45 = $90) + large junk pile $208 = $74 + $90 + $208 = $372, which beats the half truck at $431.

Damp, and what it does to the pile

Older basements here take water. Spring runoff off the benches, a window well that fills during a fast melt, a failed floor drain during a thunderstorm in August. Nothing dramatic, but enough to ruin the bottom layer of everything stored on the floor.

That matters for two reasons. Cardboard and particleboard that has taken water is much heavier and falls apart when lifted, so it bags rather than carries — that is what the junk pile and bag pricing is for. And anything upholstered that sat in it is no longer a donation item, so do not waste a week trying to give it away. Sort it into going and staying, and leave the sodden layer to us.

Sort it in the right order

• Documents and photographs first. Older Salt Lake basements hold a lot of family history in boxes on shelves. Go through them before anything moves.
• Ask the family. With long-tenure homes, adult children scattered around the valley often want specific pieces. Give them a date.
• Pull the sellable. Solid-wood furniture, tools and outdoor gear move on KSL Classifieds within a week.
• Leave the chemicals. Paint, solvents and old pesticides go to the county household hazardous waste route, not on our truck.
• Stack the rest near the stairs. It turns a search into a load and shortens the visit.

Booking it

Tell us the access when you book: interior stair only, or is there a cellar door or a walk-out at the back; how tight the turn at the bottom is; and whether the water heater or freezer is coming out. You will see the total before you approve it, and the total does not change because the stairs turned out to be worse than described. That is exactly the situation flat pricing exists for.

Most basements are a single-visit job. If the house has both a full basement and a detached garage, book them together — one visit, one $75 minimum, and a half truck at $431 instead of two quarter loads at $241 + $241 = $482.

Frequently asked questions