What a garage cleanout costs in Atlanta

The short answer

The usual shapes here: a one-car garage or a carport in Decatur or East Point is a quarter, $241. A two-car in Smyrna or Tucker that you have been meaning to deal with is a half, $431. A three-car in Alpharetta, Suwanee or Johns Creek with ten years of accumulation runs three-quarters at $587 or a full truck at $732.

Disposal is included, the minimum visit is $75, and there is no charge for a basement garage being below the street.

Atlanta has four different garages and they clear differently

The carport. Standard on the 1950s and 60s ranches through Decatur, East Point, College Park, Hapeville and parts of Smyrna. Open on at least one side, so everything in it has been weathering for years. Whatever is in a carport is rustier and heavier than it looks.

The basement garage. The split-foyer and split-level stock in Chamblee, Doraville, Brookhaven, North Druid Hills and Tucker puts the garage under the house, at the bottom of a driveway cut into a hill. Low ceilings, a single door, and usually a step up into the house. Getting a truck close is the hard part.

The detached intown garage. Behind bungalows in Kirkwood, Grant Park, Ormewood Park and Candler Park, often original, often with a door that has not opened in years and a floor that sits below grade.

The OTP three-car. Alpharetta, Milton, Johns Creek, Suwanee, Woodstock, Peachtree City. Big, dry-ish, and completely full. These are the biggest garage jobs in the metro by a wide margin.

What is actually in an Atlanta garage

Worked examples. The yard-and-grill corner: lawn mower $65 + charcoal grill $59 + weight bench $69 = $193. The abandoned home gym: treadmill $115 + weight set $93 + weight bench $69 = $277. The garage beer fridge and the deep freeze: mini fridge $115 + chest freezer $146 = $261.

Past about eight items, the truck ladder is cheaper and simpler. Most garages are truck-ladder jobs.

The humidity tax on garage storage

This is the part that is specific to here and it changes what is salvageable.

Atlanta garages and carports are unconditioned in a humid subtropical climate with long warm shoulder seasons. Nothing in them ever fully dries. Cardboard boxes go soft and the bottoms fall out when you lift them. Upholstered furniture stored out there — the sofa you were keeping for the basement, the armchair from the old apartment — is mildewed and smells, and no charity will take it. Particleboard furniture swells at the joints and comes apart. Metal rusts at every contact point with the slab.

So the honest answer on garage contents is that far less of it is donatable than people expect. Plan on most of it being disposal. That is not pessimism, it is what comes out of these jobs.

Pollen season adds a layer. From late February into April a carport or an open garage collects a yellow film over everything, and it works into fabric.

Access is the real variable

The price does not change, but tell us at booking so the right plan shows up.

Steep, short driveways. Common everywhere inside the Perimeter and through Brookhaven, Decatur and Sandy Springs. A box truck often cannot back down to a basement garage door, so it stages at the street and everything walks up. Priced in.

Low clearance. Under-house garages in the split-level stock have low headroom and a single narrow door. Larger items come out on their side.

Gates and HOAs. Subdivisions across north Fulton, Gwinnett and Cherokee need a gate code or a name at the call box, and many have rules about staging items on the driveway or at the curb. If yours does, say so and nothing gets staged where it should not be.

Things we handle separately

Two categories worth flagging before the day:

• Paint, solvents, pesticides, pool chemicals and automotive fluids. These are household hazardous waste and they do not go on a regular truck. Counties across the metro run periodic collection events and some have standing drop-off arrangements — check what your county currently offers. Set these aside rather than burying them in a bin.
• Propane tanks. The grill is fine; the tank should be dealt with through an exchange program. Take the tank off before the crew arrives and the propane grill is $71.

Do it before summer, not during

Practical scheduling advice for this city: a garage cleanout in July is miserable. An unconditioned garage in an Atlanta summer afternoon is genuinely dangerous to work in for hours, and the crew will be slower because they have to be.

The good window is October through early December, or the back half of winter before pollen starts. Mild, dry, and everything comes out clean.

Booking it

Describe the garage — one car, two car, three car, carport, under the house — and whether it is full to the door or you can still park. Pick a tier, get a fixed arrival window, and the number is agreed before the truck leaves.

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