- Before the trades1
- DuringTrades on site2
- After handover3
Emptying a room before the trades start
A trade booked for Monday is paid for Monday, whether the day goes on painting or on waiting for a wardrobe to leave. This is how to have the room clear by the start date: what goes on the first load, what stays, and what we need to know before we come.
What each trade needs from the room
When a trade arrives and the room isn't ready, one of three things happens. They wait while it's cleared, they work around what's left and the job goes slower, or they go on to their next site and come back later in the week. Each one lands on your bill or on your finish date.
Not every trade needs the room bare. A painter can work around a heavy piece pushed to the middle under a drop sheet. A floor layer can't. Ask each trade what they need on day one, and use the lists below as the starting point for that conversation.
Painter
- Pictures, mirrors, hooks and wall shelves down
- Curtains and blinds off the windows
- A clear run along every wall for the ladder
- Anything staying pushed to the middle and covered
Floor layer
- Nothing left on the floor, skirting to skirting
- Wardrobe floors cleared, since the new floor usually runs into them
- Old rugs gone, not rolled up against a wall
- Nowhere in the room to shuffle things mid-job, so it all goes first
Electrician or plasterer
- Walls clear where they're cutting in or patching
- Nothing stacked under the ceiling manhole
- A plan for the TV bracket and fixed shelving: who takes them down
- Furniture clear of the power points being moved
Kitchen or bathroom installer
- Cupboards, pantry and vanity emptied before the old one comes out
- The fridge being replaced already gone
- A clear path from the room to the drive for the new cabinets
- The old kitchen itself goes on the next load
When the room is changing jobs
Plenty of rooms get cleared without a single wall coming down. The youngest has moved out and their bedroom is about to be a home office. The rumpus room is turning into a guest room. The spare room that became storage is finally going to be painted.
The order that works is out, painted, new flooring if it's happening, then the new furniture in. So the room needs to be empty before the painter, which is usually earlier than people plan for. The new desk arriving on Saturday is not the deadline; the painter on Wednesday is.
What usually goes from a room like this:
- The single bed, its mattress and the trundle underneath
- Toy boxes, the small bookcase and the shelving that suited a child
- The old desk and chair the new setup replaces
- Curtains, blinds and the rug the new room won't use
Davidson's split-level houses often put the bedrooms up a half-flight from the living level, with the drive another set of steps below. Tell us how many steps sit between the room and the street, and we'll allow for them in the price.
Before-the-trades checklist
Tick it here, or print it for the week before.
Decide what stays
What goes on the first load
Tell us before the first load
On the day
Not on our truck
- Liquid paint and solvents
- Chemicals and gas bottles
- Asbestos, and any sheeting not yet tested
- Medical waste
Ask us and we'll suggest where each one can go.
Make Way Rubbish Removal, Davidson. Send the job through the enquiry form on our website.
When to book the first load
Aim for a day or two before the start date rather than that morning. If the date moves, or something turns up at the back of a wardrobe, there's room to deal with it.
- The start date is set
- Send us the date and the rooms. We come and look, and agree a fixed price for the load. Nothing moves until you've said yes.
- The week before
- Tape what stays, go through the drawers of what's going, and pack up anything you're keeping.
- A day or two before
- The first load. We carry it out, load the truck, and sweep the floor where it all stood.
- The start date
- The first trade walks into an empty room and starts on the work you're paying for.
Price: one fixed figure for the load, set when we look at it. It's based on the volume, the kind of material, and the carry from the room to the truck, never on hours. If the start date moves, tell us and we'll find a new day for the load.
Emptying the room is often the first time anyone has seen its floor in decades. In a house built before 1990, old vinyl or lino under the carpet, and the backing stuck to it, can contain asbestos. So can the wall sheeting in a room that's about to be opened up. The NSW EPA advises treating a house of that age as likely to have some, and having anything suspect tested before it's disturbed.
We clear the contents. Untested flooring stays where it is, and asbestos removal isn't our work. In NSW, any friable asbestos, and any job over 10 square metres of the bonded kind, needs a licensed asbestos contractor; asbestos.nsw.gov.au points to the licence list. Getting old sheeting and vinyl tested
Questions about emptying a room
Do I need to box up everything that's going?
No. Furniture and loose items are fine as they are, as long as they're in the room and not taped to stay. Boxing helps with small things like toys, books and cupboard contents, because a box carries out in one trip. What matters more is going through the drawers first: whatever is left inside a piece of furniture goes with it.
The painter says the furniture can stay in the middle. Should it still go?
If you're keeping it, it can stay under a drop sheet. If it's something you've been meaning to get rid of, this is the easy time to do it: it has to be moved anyway, and a smaller pile in the middle means a faster paint job.
Can you take the built-in wardrobe or the shelves on the wall?
Once they're off the wall, yes. Whether we take them down as well depends on how they're fixed and what's behind them, so mention them when you enquire. In an older house, a built-in can be fixed to sheeting that should be tested before it's disturbed.
We're still sleeping in the room. When should the bed go?
Keep using it until the last few days. Book the load for a day or two before the start date and the bed leaves with everything else.
Can the first load wait until the old kitchen comes out?
Sometimes, if the trades can start in another part of the house and reach this room later. Ask the builder or installer which room they need on day one. The planner lays out the loads left on your job.
Could it go out for the council cleanup instead?
For a few pieces with plenty of time, it might. Northern Beaches Council's bulky goods collection allows two collections in 12 months on a date you book with them, and it won't take TVs, computers or anything longer than 1.8 metres. Before a renovation, the date that counts is the trades' start, and the council's date may not land ahead of it.
What if I change my mind about something on the day?
Tell the crew before it's loaded. Once something is on the truck it goes to the facility with the rest of the load, which is why the last look on the checklist comes before we start.
More on the loads around a renovation
- Renovation rubbish removal in DavidsonAll three loads, from the empty room to the offcuts at handover.Service
- Old eaves sheeting or vinyl underlay? Get it tested first.What to have tested before the carpet comes up or a wall opens.Guide
- Living in the house while it's renovatedClearing room by room around a family.Guide
- Plan your loadsThree taps to see which loads your job has ahead.Planner
Tell us about the job
A few lines is plenty. We ring you back, come and look at it, and agree one fixed price before anything is lifted.
No hourly rate, no tip fees on top. The price covers loading, sweeping up and taking it to a licensed facility. If the job changes on the day, we agree the change before we carry on.