Rubbish removal in Orpington

What does it take to put a skip on an Orpington road?

A skip on the road or pavement needs a temporary highway licence from Bromley Council (external site), and you can't apply for it yourself. Only a registered skip firm can. The licence is £50 for two weeks and takes two working days to come through. If the only space outside your house is a restricted bay, the skip firm has to arrange a parking suspension on top.

That second step bites around Orpington station. A 2011 order made more than 40 roads there, including Crofton Road, The Approach, The Avenue, Tower Road and Knoll Rise, into K resident permit roads with pay and display. The A21 and the A232 between Locksbottom and West Wickham are run by TfL rather than Bromley, so a skip on either of those goes through TfL instead.

We do it differently. We pull up, two of us load the truck, and the waste leaves with us. There's no permit, no bay suspension, no skip sitting on the drive for days and no waiting for the skip lorry to come back. You pay for the space your waste takes up. We don't hire out skips; the alternative to skip hire page compares the two load by load.

Refit rubble is where a skip usually comes in, and an extension or a new kitchen in a 1930s house produces plenty. A heavy load from us is £360 plus VAT for up to 15 cubic yards or 1,200kg of soil, rubble and hardcore, and builders' waste removal explains what counts.

What if you live on a village lane in Chelsfield or Farnborough?

Chelsfield, Farnborough Village, The Priory and Broomhill are conservation areas, and out at Pratt's Bottom the roads around Rushmore Hill are narrow country lanes. Lanes like these leave little room for a skip, and one parked outside a cottage for a fortnight is awkward for everyone using the road.

We carry the waste out to the truck as we go, so it never has to sit on the lane. Tell us about tight turns or low branches when you send your photo.

Is the council garden bin enough for a big Orpington plot?

Detached houses make up 38.5% of homes in Chelsfield ward and 31.6% in Farnborough & Crofton (Census 2021 (external site)), and many sit on big plots. Bromley's garden waste bin (external site) is £80 for 12 months and takes 240 litres, collected fortnightly from March to November. It won't take soil, rubble, tree trunks, large branches, flower pots, plastic or garden furniture, which is the heavy end of any proper clear-out.

We take soil, branches, pots and old garden furniture, including the old shed, which we dismantle and load. As a guide, a small garden tidy is about a quarter truck, £130 plus VAT for roughly 4 cubic yards. Overgrown plots and full clear-outs are covered on garden clearance.

What if the whole house needs clearing?

Around seven in ten homes across Orpington, Chelsfield and Farnborough & Crofton are semis or detached houses, many built between the wars, and outright ownership is the biggest tenure: 39.5% of households (external site) in Orpington ward and about 45% in Farnborough & Crofton. When a house like that is sold or downsized from, the rooms, the loft and the garage all need emptying at once.

House clearance in Orpington has worked examples by load size for a typical semi. A single loft or garage is priced the same way, by the space it fills.