Access: what if the only way in is through the house?

It is done all the time, and it is not a reason for a contractor to refuse the job. Where there is no side gate, a clearance crew or tree surgeon will carry the waste through the house in covered loads, over floor protection, with the door frames and banisters padded, and will work in smaller loads than they would outside. The trade-off is time: the same volume of material takes considerably longer to shift through a hallway than out to a van on the drive, which is why our price card adds about 15 per cent for access through the house or a carry of more than 20 metres. The other trade-off is that somebody has to be home for the whole day.

What a crew actually does

The method is consistent across good contractors:

• Self-adhesive floor protection or heavy dust sheets down the full route, from the back door to the front door, taped at the joins so nothing slides. Hard floors get boards or fleece-backed sheeting; carpet and stair carpet get a protective film or runners.
• Protection on the pinch points. Door frames, architraves, the newel post and banister, radiators and the corner at the bottom of the stairs, usually with pipe lagging, cardboard or foam taped in place.
• Waste in bags or bulk sacks, not in armfuls. Loose brambles catch on everything, so material is cut short, bagged at the back and carried closed through the house.
• A one-way system, waste out and empty bags back, so nobody passes anybody in a narrow hall.
• Boots off, or overshoes, or a dedicated carry team who stay on the boards.
• A clean route at the end. Sheets lifted, route swept or hoovered, tape residue checked.

Ask which of these they will do before the day, not on it.

Why it costs more

Nothing about the cutting changes. What changes is the flow of material to the van. Outside, a crew can barrow to a tailgate in twenty seconds and throw a whole bramble in one piece. Through a house, everything is cut shorter to go round corners, contained so it does not shed leaves and mud, carried by hand at walking pace and unloaded at the front. On a heavy clearance that is most of the working day.

Our estimate adds about 15 per cent where access is through the house or the van parks more than 20 metres away. On the price card that means roughly:

These are indicative. Where the route is genuinely awkward, for example a first-floor flat, a spiral stair or a listed interior, expect a quote from a visit rather than the price card, and anything over £1,200 goes to a free survey anyway. A shed, decking or fence panels coming out through a hall have to be broken down small first, and mixed waste adds about 20 per cent on top because of the tip rate.

Alternatives worth considering

Before accepting the house route, it is worth spending ten minutes on the alternatives. On a good day one of them saves you the uplift and the disruption.

A neighbour's access. The most common solution in Birmingham terraces, where one house in a block has a shared entry and others do not. Ask in person and ask early, and be specific: which day, how many hours, that boards go down on their path, that nothing is left overnight, that their side is swept and left as found, and that any damage will be made good at your cost. People say yes to a clear, time-limited request and no to a vague one. It is a favour, not a right, and a refusal is the end of it.

Over the fence or wall. Where the boundary is a fence, waste can be passed or hoisted into a drive, an entry or a rear alley. Some crews will take a panel out and put it back at the end, which is often cheaper than a day of carrying. That needs the fence owner's agreement, so check who owns a boundary hedge, which sets out the same logic for fences.

Craning or a MEWP from the road. For tree work rather than clearance, a mobile elevating work platform or a crane working from the street can remove the need to enter the garden for the cutting, though the material still has to come out somewhere. It needs road space and sometimes a permit or closure, and it is priced on site rather than from a card.

Chipping at the front. If a chipper can get onto the drive or the street, woody material is carried out as brash and reduced to chippings at the front, which cuts the number of van loads sharply. Noise and space are the constraints.

Smaller machinery. A pedestrian or narrow-track mini digger can pass through a doorway or a 75 to 90 centimetre gap on boards, which changes what is possible on a heavy job with stumps or a slab base. That is the contractor's decision, and it needs a clean route and protection.

Rear alleys. Many older Birmingham streets have a back alley that has been gated or grown over. It is worth walking the block to see whether one exists and who holds the key.

Terraced and mid-link houses in practice

Inner Birmingham terraces fall into three patterns. End terraces usually have their own side entry and are straightforward. Mid-terraces with a shared entry can be worked through it, but the width dictates everything, and under about 80 centimetres means small barrows and no machinery. Houses with no entry at all are the house-access jobs, common in Sparkhill, Small Heath, Handsworth, Kings Heath and Balsall Heath, and in the older parts of Walsall, Wolverhampton and Dudley. Newer estates in Solihull and Sutton Coldfield more often have a gate but a long carry, which triggers the same 15 per cent once it passes 20 metres.

Insurance and damage

A contractor working inside your house should carry public liability insurance, and this is the job to ask about it. Ask for the certificate, check the business name matches, check it is still in date, and ask what level of cover it provides and whether it covers damage inside the property as well as outside. A firm that hesitates over any of that is telling you something.

Take dated photographs of the route before work starts: the hall floor, the stair carpet, the door frames, any existing marks. It takes two minutes and removes any argument afterwards about what was already there. If something is damaged, raise it on the day, in writing, with photographs. Small marks are usually made good by the contractor directly, and anything larger goes through their insurer, which is why the certificate matters.

Your contract is with the contractor, not with us. We are an introducer: we pass your enquiry to one local specialist and record insurance evidence for the firms on our list, but the work, the price and any claim sit between you and them.

What to agree in writing first

1. That access is through the house, and that the quote already includes it.
2. The exact route, and what protection will be laid.
3. Who is home, and the hours they will be there.
4. What happens to the waste between the back garden and the van, and where it is stacked at the front.
5. That nothing is left in the house or on the pavement overnight.
6. Public liability insurance details, and what happens if something is damaged.
7. The finished state: route cleared, sheets removed, floors swept.

Send photographs of the hall, the stairs, the back door and the parking when you book. They are as important as the photographs of the garden, and they are the difference between a fixed price and a revised one. See what to photograph for a quote and how to prepare for a clearance crew.

Getting it booked

• Garden clearance and overgrown garden clearance
• Green waste removal if you have already cut it back
• Shed removal, which is the job most affected by a narrow route
• Tree removal and the tree removal cost guide where access decides the method
• Garden clearance cost guide