Hands sorting old family photographs and papers from an attic into boxes on a table in a St. Louis, MO home

Third floors, crawl spaces and pull-down ladders

St. Louis Hoarding Cleanup: Attic Cleanouts in St. Louis

Clearing the space above the house that nobody has looked at since the last move.

St. Louis and eleven towns within 28 miles
Written price before work starts
Licensed, insured local contractors
Occupancy inspection rules covered

St. Louis Hoarding Cleanup arranges attic cleanouts for homes in St. Louis and the surrounding towns, carried out by local cleanout crews. Attics are the hardest space in a house to clear, because everything comes down a ladder or a narrow stair, and they hold the oldest things the family owns, which is where photographs, letters and papers that matter usually turn up.

Clearing an attic typically costs $300 to $1,200; leave it until the house is being sold and it gets cleared in a hurry along with everything else, in a $2,000 to $5,000 estate cleanout with less time to look through the boxes.

$300 to $1,200 for a typical attic

An attic cleanout around St. Louis typically runs $300 to $1,200, the range published cost guides give for clearing an attic, basement or garage. The access sets the price more than the volume: a walk-up third floor is quicker than a pull-down ladder, and a crawl-only space with no floor is slowest of all. Summer heat in an unventilated attic also slows the work.

Get a price: (636) 216-6490

Signs the attic needs attention

The pull-down ladder no longer folds up because of what is stacked above it
Boxes are resting on insulation or across open joists
Nobody knows what is up there
The house is about to be sold or an estate settled

St. Louis attics come in three kinds

The big Victorian and Craftsman houses of the inner suburbs often have a full third floor, reached by a real staircase. The brick bungalows of the city have half-height attics reached by a narrow stair or a hatch. Postwar ranch houses have a pull-down ladder into a low space between trusses. Each changes how many people can work at once and how long the job takes.

In Kirkwood and Webster Groves, where many houses date to the late 1800s and early 1900s, a third floor can hold several generations of family belongings.

Go through it before it goes

Attics are where the family archive ends up: photographs, letters, military papers, old deeds, school records, christening gowns and quilts. The crew opens boxes before bagging them and sets aside anything that looks personal. If the job is part of an estate, the estate cleanout page covers the search list.

Not sure how big the job is? Describe the rooms and what is in them, and get a straight answer on what it usually takes.

Call (636) 216-6490

Working safely up there

Boards laid across open joists so nobody steps through a ceiling
Heavy boxes handed down rather than carried down a ladder
Morning work in summer, when an attic is coolest
Insulation left in place and undisturbed where possible

What usually comes down from a St. Louis attic

Holiday decorations and seasonal clothing, often decades of both
Old furniture carried up when a room was redone
Boxes of papers, letters and photographs
Suitcases and trunks, some of them still packed
Toys and school things kept for children who are now adults

Very little of it is trash in the ordinary sense, which is why attic work is slower per truckload than a basement or a garage.

Attics and the occupancy inspection

Whether an attic matters to an occupancy inspection depends on how it is used. Ballwin's housing code inspection is visual and skips attics that are not readily accessible. A finished third floor used as a bedroom is different: inspections in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County check smoke detectors, exits and escape windows in rooms people sleep in. Clearing it during the walk-through and sorting stage keeps it off the inspector's list. Old furniture goes to donation where it can, and anything else to recycling or the truck.

Questions people ask

How much does an attic cleanout cost in St. Louis?

Typically $300 to $1,200, depending mostly on whether the access is a staircase, a hatch or a pull-down ladder.

How long does an attic cleanout take?

Usually a few hours to a day.

What are the signs an attic needs clearing?

A ladder that will not fold up, boxes on the insulation or across open joists, and nobody knowing what is up there.

Will the crew go through the boxes?

Yes, if you ask. Personal papers and photographs are set aside rather than thrown away.

Is an attic cleanout safe in summer?

Crews work early in the day. An unventilated attic in a St. Louis July is too hot by mid-afternoon.

Often done together

Basement cleanout

Clearing the part of a St. Louis house that has been filling for decades, one staircase at a time.
Estate cleanout

Emptying a parent's or relative's house, with the papers and keepsakes found first and the rest handled carefully.
Hoarder garage cleanout

Clearing a garage that has not held a car in years, with the hazardous material sorted out before it goes anywhere.

Talk it through before anyone carries anything out

Say how many rooms are affected, whether there is a deadline, and whether anything in the house needs to be kept. You will hear what the job usually involves, what it tends to cost, and how long it tends to take.