Service · Westside & South Bay
Basement Cleanout Los Angeles
Basements are rare in Los Angeles, so the ones under older Venice bungalows, North of Montana houses and hillside builds in Brentwood and Topanga fill up for decades. We carry stored furniture, boxes, disconnected water heaters and old shelving up the narrow stairs, priced from a photo, usually within a day or two of your text to (310) 905-5138.
- Same-day pickupText before noon, gone today
- Fully insuredGeneral liability and commercial auto
- Donate before dumpGoodwill Southern California & The Salvation Army
- Sorted on siteIf it still has life, it goes to charity
What we take
- Stored furniture and boxes
- Old water heaters and furnaces that are disconnected
- Workshop leftovers and scrap
- Wine racks, shelving and cabinetry
What we don't
- Flood-contaminated material with sewage
- Mold remediation
What a basement cleanout looks like on the Westside
Most LA houses sit on a slab or a crawlspace, so a real basement usually means one of three things. The first is a pre-war house: the early-1900s bungalows in Venice, the older lots on the Alphabet Streets in Pacific Palisades, and the long-held homes North of Montana in Santa Monica, where a cellar under the kitchen has been the family's storage since the 1950s. Those jobs are boxes, a chest freezer, a workbench, and furniture that went down the stairs once and never came back up.
The second is a hillside build. Brentwood canyon homes, Beverly Crest, Topanga and the Palos Verdes hills put a lower level under the main floor, often with a side-yard door and a workshop or wine room. The third is a daylight basement under a duplex or small apartment building in Mid-City Santa Monica or West LA, where a landlord inherits whatever three generations of tenants left behind. Each one has the same problem: the stairs.
Clearing the garage too? One truck can usually do the garage cleanout in the same trip. Whole-house clearouts belong on our estate cleanout page.
How a basement cleanout works
Text a few photos from the top of the stairs, plus one of the stairway itself, to (310) 905-5138, and say whether there's an outside door. Miles prices it from the truck space the pile will take, with the stair carry already in the number. A basement usually gets a three-person crew rather than two: one stays at the bottom to sort and hand up, two run the stairs. We bring head lamps, knee pads and a stair-climbing dolly for the water heater.
Before we arrive, mark what stays with painter's tape or move it to one corner. Anything plumbed or wired, like a water heater or furnace, needs to be disconnected and drained by you or your plumber first; we carry it out, we don't cap gas lines. A single-room cellar takes two to three hours. A full lower level with a workshop takes most of a day and sometimes a second trip, which we'll say up front.
Load sizes for a basement cleanout
| Load | What it usually is |
|---|---|
| Quarter truck | A dozen boxes, a shelving unit and a chest freezer |
| Half truck | A storage cellar: boxes, two or three pieces of furniture, a water heater, a stack of old doors |
| Three-quarter truck | A workshop lower level with a bench, scrap lumber and cabinets |
| Full truck | A daylight basement under a fourplex after decades of tenants |
| Second trip | When the first photo didn't show the back room |
Basement loads run heavier than garage loads for the same space because of books, tools, tile and paint cans, so we read the photos closely and tell you if weight changes the quote.
Where basement junk goes
Water heaters, furnaces, cast-iron pipe, metal shelving and wine racks go to a scrap-metal recycler. Old TVs, monitors and the desktop from 2004 ride along as e-waste, covered on our e-waste removal page. Scrap lumber, broken cabinetry, mildewed cardboard and anything that lived through a slab leak go to a licensed transfer station, usually Southern California Disposal on Frank Street in Santa Monica.What we leave behind, on purpose: paint, solvents, pool chemicals, propane and fuel cans. Those belong at an LA County household hazardous waste collection event or one of the City of LA's S.A.F.E. Centers, and we'll set them in a labeled box by the door so you can drop them off in one trip.
Access situations we plan for
- Narrow interior stairs: many pre-war cellars have a tight stairway with a turn at the bottom. We ask for the width at the quote stage and break down shelving and benches below rather than fight them on the landing.
- Exterior hatch or side-yard door: the best case. We run a ramp and stage straight to the truck at the curb or in the driveway.
- Hillside driveways: Brentwood, Topanga and Palos Verdes lower levels often open below the street. We park above and carry up, or back down the driveway only when it's wide enough; the plan is part of the quote.
- Duplex and small-building basements: we need the owner's access, a heads-up to tenants, and a spot in the alley. Santa Monica alleys work when they're wide enough for the truck.
- Low ceilings and door frames: we tilt tall pieces and pull doors off their hinges when the frame is the problem.
When the city program covers it, and when it doesn't
If the house is in the City of Los Angeles, including Venice, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, West LA and Bel Air, LA Sanitation's bulky-item pickup through 311 is free, and it's the right choice for a chest freezer or a couple of pieces of furniture you can get to the curb yourself. Santa Monica's crews stay off private property, so a cellar's contents would have to be carried up and out to the alley first. Neither program comes inside, carries anything up a stairway, or takes the workshop lumber, scrap and e-waste that make up most of a basement.
So the honest split is this: a few big items and a curb, use the city. A stairway full of thirty years of storage, use us, and the usable pieces still go to donation the same week.
Basements after a wet winter
Basement calls can follow a heavy rain, when a cellar that stayed dry for twenty years takes on water. We take the ruined boxes, the swollen particleboard and the wet carpet. We don't do mold remediation or anything touched by sewage, and we'll tell you if what we see needs a remediation company before a cleanout makes sense. If you're preparing for storm season, our storm debris page covers what to clear out first.
Basement Cleanout questions
Can you clean out a basement with narrow, turning stairs?
Yes. Narrow, turning stairs are normal in the pre-war cellars of Venice, Santa Monica and the Palisades. Send a photo of the stairway with your other photos and we'll bring a three-person crew, a stair-climbing dolly, and tools to break down shelving at the bottom.
Will you remove an old water heater or furnace from the basement?
Yes, once it's disconnected, drained and capped by you or your plumber. We carry it up and out and take it to a scrap-metal recycler. We don't shut off gas or disconnect plumbing ourselves.
Do you take paint, solvents or propane that were stored in the basement?
No. Paint, solvents, pool chemicals, fuel and propane are household hazardous waste and go to an LA County collection event or a City of LA S.A.F.E. Center. We'll box and label them by the door so you can drop them in one trip.
What if the basement flooded?
We'll haul the water-damaged boxes, furniture and carpet once the space is dry enough to work in. If there's sewage or visible mold, a remediation company needs to go first; we'll say so from the photos rather than send a truck you can't use.
Can I get a basement cleanout quote without a site visit?
Almost always. Photos from the top of the stairs, one of each wall, and one of the stairway are enough for Miles to price it by truck space. If the back room doesn't show, we may ask for one more picture rather than guess.
Should I use LA's free bulky-item pickup for basement junk instead?
If you can carry a freezer or a couple of pieces of furniture to the curb yourself and you're in the City of LA, yes, use 311. The program doesn't come inside or take scrap, lumber or e-waste, which is where a photo quote from us takes over.
Ready when you are
Text a photo of the basement cleanout. Get a price today.
Snap what's going, text it over, and we reply with a clear price, usually within the hour. No visits, no hourly rates, and if the load differs from the photos we re-quote before we lift anything.