Clearing homes in Coolock
Coolock sits between the Malahide Road and the Oscar Traynor Road, with the old village around St Brendan’s church at its heart, the Cadbury factory as the landmark everyone knows, and Northside Shopping Centre at the Dublin 17 end. Around them, Dublin Corporation built estate after estate from the late 1950s into the 1970s: Kilmore, Bonnybrook, Darndale and the long roads off Tonlegee Road and Greencastle Road.
The housing is mostly two-storey terraces and semi-detached houses with a front garden, a back garden and a block shed, while the later private estates towards Artane and Beaumont added driveways and garages. Many of the terraces were bought out under tenant purchase years ago, which is why so many Coolock houses now come up for sale or clearance when a parent passes away or moves into care.
That is the job we do most here: a whole house that has been one family’s since the 1960s, with the hot press, the box room and the shed all still full.
What we clear in Coolock
- Whole houses being handed back to the council or sold after a long tenancy or ownership. Our house clearance page runs through how a typical day goes.
- Bereavement clearances, done gently and in whatever order the family wants, with photographs, papers and keepsakes set aside before anything is lifted. There is more on our bereavement clearance page.
- Attics and sheds, which in Coolock houses hold Christmas decorations, old prams, tools and timber going back decades. Our shed clearance page covers what we take from the back garden.
- Beds, suites, wardrobes and white goods that the charity shop will not collect and that will not fit in the car for the recycling centre.
- Quick junk runs for a landlord or a family who just need six or seven bulky items gone before new carpets go down.
Anything with life left in it is kept back for donation or reuse where we can arrange it, metal and cardboard are separated for recycling, and what remains goes to a licensed transfer station under our waste collection permit.
Terraces, kerbside loading and the practical bits
Most of Coolock’s older estates were built with little or no off-street parking, so the van parks on the road outside and we carry to the kerb. The roads are generally wide enough, and we keep the footpath clear and the hazards on while we load. Where a front garden has been turned into a driveway, the van reverses up and the carrying is shorter still.
Darndale is the exception. It was laid out around pedestrian courtyards with parking kept to the perimeter, so for some houses the van stops at the nearest access point and we carry the last stretch on foot. Tell us the house number and we will know what to expect.
The Malahide Road and Oscar Traynor Road are busy at school and commuting times, and the roads around Northside Shopping Centre fill up on Saturdays, so we plan the run in and out around that. If the house has been empty for a while, let us know whether the electricity is still connected.
Why Coolock families call us
The usual alternative is a skip, and in Coolock that is a problem before it starts: there is nowhere to put one on a terraced street without a skip permit from the council, and you would still be carrying everything out yourself. Two people and a box van take the lifting out of it, sort as they go, and leave the house empty and swept. Our guide to preparing for a house clearance covers what to do beforehand.
If the house belonged to a parent who has died, this bereavement clearance checklist walks through the paperwork and the order to do things in, which is often the harder part.
We are fully insured, hold a current Waste Collection Permit from the National Waste Collection Permit Office, and work Monday to Saturday. From Coolock we are minutes from Artane, Beaumont and Kilbarrack, and we cover Donaghmede and the rest of the north side too, so two addresses on one run is no trouble.
