Time to redd up the basement? Pittsburgh basement cleanouts

The short answer

Basement cleanouts are the signature Pittsburgh junk job. Most are priced by truck share: a moderately cluttered basement is often a quarter truck at $241, a full one a half truck at $431, and a basement that has been filling for decades can reach a full truck at $732. Heavy and special items have their own prices, such as $146 for a chest freezer and $123 for a cast iron radiator. Everything is carried up the stairs for you, with no stairs fee.

Why every Pittsburgh house has one

Basements are nearly universal in this region's housing. The City's median home was built in 1942, and in many neighborhoods, including Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Squirrel Hill, the South Side, the North Side, Carrick, Beechview and Point Breeze, the median build year is 1939 or earlier. Those houses were built with full basements for furnaces, laundry and storage. The post-war suburbs kept the pattern: Brookline, Penn Hills, Bethel Park and Baldwin are full of ranches and split-levels with a basement and a one-car garage. Over the years, the basement becomes where things go when nobody wants to decide about them. The old kitchen fridge retires there as a beer fridge. The chest freezer arrives and never leaves. Window air conditioners, broken furniture, boxes from the last move, the kids' things, paint cans and tools pile up. By the time someone decides it is time to redd up, it is a real job.

What usually comes out

A typical Pittsburgh basement cleanout includes a familiar mix. Appliances are common: an old fridge, a chest or upright freezer, a dehumidifier that ran for years, a washer and dryer being replaced, a retired water heater. Old electronics turn up, including a tube TV or two, a desktop computer and boxes of cables. Furniture that moved downstairs over the decades is there too: a recliner, a sofa bed, a card table, bookshelves and a workbench. There are often cast iron radiators taken out during a heating upgrade, old doors, scrap lumber and rolls of carpet. Holiday decorations, canning jars and boxes of papers fill the corners. Some of this the City curb takes, within the two-items-per-week limit. Much of it, including freon appliances, TVs, construction debris and tires, the curb refuses outright. A basement cleanout takes all of it in one visit, which is why it is the job most people book.

The cellar stairs

The difficult part of a basement cleanout is almost always the stairs. Basement stairs in pre-war houses are often steep, narrow and enclosed, with a low ceiling at the top or a turn at the bottom. Some have no handrail on one side. Many open into a kitchen or a back hall, so heavy items have to turn sharply at the top. Old houses sometimes have a separate outside cellar door, which can help or be too narrow to use. Getting a chest freezer or a washer up those stairs takes two people, straps and a hand truck, and it is the kind of carry where people hurt their backs. That is the work JunkRabbit's flat price covers. There is no stairs fee, and the price is the same whether the item is in the kitchen or at the bottom of a steep cellar stair. Photograph the basement stairs from the bottom so the crew knows what to expect.

Basement cleanout prices

The classic freon trio of fridge, chest freezer and dehumidifier is $164 + $146 + $77 = $387. A half truck of boxes plus that trio is $431 + $387 = $818. Two radiators and a workbench are $123 + $123 + $100 = $346.

Sort it before the crew comes

A little sorting makes a basement cleanout faster and protects anything you want to keep. Go through boxes for documents, photographs and family items first; basements in long-held houses hide important papers. Mark what stays with tape or move it to one corner. Empty and defrost any fridge or freezer the day before, with towels underneath. Have gas appliances disconnected by a plumber or the gas utility, and drain and disconnect a water heater before the visit. Gather paint cans in one place; JunkRabbit accepts paint at $30 for a 1-gallon can and $52 for a 5-gallon bucket. Pesticides, solvents and other chemicals are handled case by case, and the Pennsylvania Resources Council runs household hazardous waste collection events for them. If anything is water-damaged or moldy, mention it in your photo request. Good furniture you would like reused can go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Swissvale, which offers free donation pickup.

When to redd up

Spring, from March through June, is redd-up season in Pittsburgh. After a winter of things being dropped downstairs, and before the selling season, basements and garages across the region get cleared. That makes spring the busiest time for basement cleanouts, so book a week or two ahead for a weekend, or take a weekday evening. A cleared basement also photographs far better for a listing, and buyers notice. Estate cleanouts happen all year, and basements are usually the biggest part of them. Winter jobs are fine too; the work is inside, though icy outside steps can slow the carry to the truck, so salt them first. JunkRabbit works 7 days a week from 8am to midnight, with same-day pickup when you book by 4 PM and a 2-hour arrival window you choose. Send photos of the basement and the stairs, see the flat price, and it only changes if you approve.

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