Cellar clearance: what it costs and where everything goes

What does it cost to clear a cellar?

We charge for cellars by volume: 40 €/m³, everything included — carrying, sorting, loading, driving, drop-off and sweeping out at the end. Within 50 km of Leipzig there is neither a travel charge nor a disposal fee on top. A normal cellar therefore comes to roughly 150 to 400 €.

Why not by square metre, as with a flat? Because a cellar of ten square metres can be half empty or full to the ceiling — the area tells you almost nothing there. How we charge for whole flats and when which method pays off is explained on the page What does a house clearance cost.

How many cubic metres does your cellar have?

You can estimate the figure in a minute: floor area times the height to which the cellar is filled on average. Shelves count with their contents, empty corners do not. Three typical cases:

The Leipzig old-building cellar: cramped, dark, winding

In Plagwitz, Gohlis, Connewitz or the Südvorstadt, the cellar almost always looks the same: a long corridor with slatted compartments, low ceilings, a steep staircase and often no light in the compartment. We prepare for that before we come.

• Light — we bring our own lamps, because in the compartment there is usually only one bulb hanging in the corridor, or none at all
• Stairs — heavy items are not carried if they can be taken apart: wardrobes and shelves we take apart down below
• Damp — soaked boxes weigh double and tear; we put them in sacks before they go up the stairs
• Slatted compartment — it usually belongs to the building. We only take it down if the owner expressly wants that
• Yard and passage — if the van does not fit into the yard, we carry to the street. We say that beforehand, not only on site

And: you do not have to be present. Many give us the cellar key and only come for the final check. If we come across something we are unsure about — documents, photos, tools that look valuable — we contact you before it ends up in the van.

What goes where: what is in the cellar and where it belongs

A cellar is not one uniform kind of waste but five different piles. Whoever knows that saves money — even if in the end you hire us after all.

The 15 Wertstoffhöfe of Stadtreinigung Leipzig (the city’s waste service) accept Sperrmüll up to two cubic metres, wood and scrap free of charge, most of them also electrical appliances, glass, cardboard, old clothes and batteries. Anyone with a car and a half-full cellar gets off cheapest this way — we say so openly.

What we do not take — and who does

• Heating-oil tank — has to be cleaned and decommissioned before removal. A licensed firm for tank installations does that; the rest of the cellar we are happy to clear in the same go
• Asbestos — in old cellars as Eternit sheets, Floor-Flex tiles or pipe insulation. Only a firm with the qualification (Sachkunde) required under TRGS 519 may remove it; if we suspect it, we only accept the job once it has been clarified
• Mould — we clear damp cellars too, with respiratory protection. Remediation of walls and ceilings, however, is a matter for a licensed firm
• Hazardous substances — paints, solvents, waste oil, gas cylinders and car batteries stay where they are until you take them to the collection point

Bauschutt (construction rubble), on the other hand, we do take — old tiles, stones, remains of a demolished compartment — at 30–60 €/m³. More on this on the page Rubble disposal.

Cellar when moving out: empty, swept clean, with photos

If the cellar compartment is listed in the Mietvertrag (tenancy agreement), it has to be just as empty as the flat at the handover. It is nevertheless constantly forgotten, because nobody thinks of the cellar from the living room — until the landlord asks about it at the inspection.

• Cellar first — it is best to clear it a week before the move, then the day of the handover is calm
• Swept clean — sweeping is part of it; we charge 25 €/hr for any follow-up work
• Photos — after clearing we send pictures of the empty compartment. Keep them until the Kaution (tenancy deposit) has been returned
• Everything in one appointment — cellar, attic and flat together incur one trip charge instead of three

If the whole flat has to be emptied, we charge by area, at 20–40 €/m² — cellar included. How that works is explained under household clearance.

Shared cellars and bicycle cellars

For property managers and owners, the shared cellar is a case of its own: what stands there is what nobody wants to own any more — bicycles without saddles, prams, furniture from tenants who moved out years ago.

• Beforehand — the property management announces the clearance by a notice and sets a deadline so that everyone can mark or collect their things
• Authorisation — we only clear what has been released to us in writing. Marked items stay where they are
• Documentation — photos before and after, invoice to the property management

What deadline is appropriate and what must happen to lost property is for the property management to clarify itself — this is not legal advice, and we would rather clear a week late than a day too early.

Do it yourself or have it done?

Honestly calculated: a half-full cellar, an estate car and two free hours on a Saturday — then you drive to the Wertstoffhof yourself and pay nothing. The city also collects Sperrmüll and electrical appliances on order, with a waiting time. Where that is not enough, we come:

• no car, no trailer, no second person to help carry
• more than two cubic metres or heavy pieces up a steep staircase
• a fixed date — handover, sale, refurbishment
• a cellar that you cannot or do not want to clear yourself

Individual items without a whole cellar — a mattress, a wardrobe, a fridge — are listed with prices on the page Bulky waste (Sperrmüll) disposal.

How it works

• Send photos — of the room and of the way up. By WhatsApp or e-mail
• Fixed price — usually the same day, in writing
• Appointment — for a cellar usually within a few days, on Saturdays if you wish
• Clearing — sorting, carrying, loading; you do not need to be there
• Handover — swept, with photos of the empty cellar

There is no travel charge within 50 km of Leipzig. For longer distances we quote one total price from your photos, travel included.