Fall in Kitchener-Waterloo runs in a familiar order. The leaves come down, somebody goes into the garage looking for the snow shovel, and there’s a summer’s worth of stuff standing between them and it. The old patio set. Two half-dead bikes. The boxes from the move three years ago. The deck boards that came off in June and have been leaning against the fence ever since. That pile is the kind of job we bring the junk removal truck out for.
That’s why fall is junk season. Not because people suddenly become tidy in October, but because winter is about to take the space away.
Winter takes your space before it takes your weather
The garage is the obvious one. A single car garage in a Kitchener side street holds one car or a pile of junk, not both, and in January you find out which one you chose in October. Same story with the driveway. A driveway with a trailer, a woodpile and a stack of pallets on it is a driveway we can’t clear properly at the 5 cm trigger, and it’s a driveway you can’t get a car onto after the first real storm.
Then there’s the yard itself. Anything sitting on grass or gravel when the ground freezes stops being movable. A pile of deck boards that would take ten minutes to load in October becomes a frozen block in December. Snow falls on it, melts into it, freezes again, and now it’s a single object welded to your lawn until April. When it finally comes up in the spring there’s a dead rectangle underneath it.
The last one nobody thinks about is access. Our truck needs somewhere to park and the crew needs a clear path to walk your stuff out. In November that’s easy. In February, with a snowbank across the end of the drive and ice on the side path, the same job takes longer and is a lot less pleasant for everybody.
None of that is a scare story. It’s just the order things happen in around here.
What we actually take
Two people and a truck show up, and if two people can lift it, it goes on the truck. Typical fall loads look like this:
- Furniture, mattresses and box springs, and the spare-room contents that have been “sorted later” since spring
- Appliances: fridge, freezer, stove, washer, air conditioner
- TVs and electronics
- Renovation and demo debris, old fencing, deck boards, shed contents
- Tires, bikes, barbecues, patio sets that didn’t survive the season
- Estate and move-out clear-outs, where the whole house has to be empty by a date
You point at the pile. You don’t carry anything. The crew loads it, sweeps the space out, and drives it to the scale.
There are a few things to raise on the phone before the truck is booked: anything holding fuel, propane, paint or chemicals, and anything that needs a plan as well as muscle, like a hot tub or a full shed teardown. Tell us before the day rather than on the driveway.
If what you have is mostly branches, leaves and garden waste rather than household junk, say so. A yard clean-up starting at $450 plus HST is a different job, cutting, weeding and hauling green waste rather than furniture and boxes, and we’ll tell you which one you actually need on the phone instead of selling you the truck. Big hedges and real tree work belong on tree and hedge trimming.
What it costs
Junk removal starts at $450, plus HST, for a typical single-room or garage-size load. That covers a crew sized to the job, loading, hauling and sweeping the space out.
A full day of work is $1,500, plus dump fees, plus HST. For a whole-house clear-out, an estate job, or anything that fills more than one truckload, this is the flat day rate. On a large job we ask for the $450 deposit up front, then adjust the final price to the real size of the job once we’ve seen it, rather than let the number drift once the truck’s already loaded. Jobs that fall between a quick pickup and a full day are estimated at roughly $190 an hour for the extra crew time.
Now the part that decides the final bill, because this is where junk removal quotes usually go fuzzy.
We don’t mark up the landfill. Dump fees are billed at cost, straight off the scale ticket, plus $15 handling per trip, plus HST. A typical single trip runs around $75, but that’s an estimate and nothing more. A truck of boxes and a truck of drywall weigh nothing like each other, so the ticket decides, not us.
Some items cost extra to dispose of legally, so they carry their own line. All plus HST.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Appliance (fridge, freezer, AC, stove, washer) | $35 each, covers the refrigerant fee |
| Mattress or box spring | $30 per piece |
| Tire | $10 car, $20 truck |
| TV or electronics | $20 per item |
| Stairs or long carry | $35 per flight, or per 50 ft |
| Same-day service | $95 flat, on top of the job |
Stairs and long carry is for the genuine hauls, a finished basement or a back corner of the property we cross the whole yard to reach. A normal garage or driveway load doesn’t trigger it. Everything here is on the pricing page next to the rest of what we sell.
The sensible order for the rest of your fall
If you’re lining up more than one job before winter, this order saves you a trip and a headache.
- Junk first. Clearing the pile gets the yard and the garage back so everything after it is easier.
- Then the yard clean-up, late October into November, after the big leaf drop on your street and before the ground freezes.
- Mulch if the beds need it, any time in October, to insulate roots through our freeze and thaw winter.
- Book the driveway before November 1. Our Winter plans run November 1 to April 15, and per-visit snow clearing starts at $53.99 plus HST for a single car driveway. What’s in a clearing, and what to ask any contractor before you sign, is set out in our snow removal post.
Doing it in that order means the truck isn’t driving around your junk pile in a snowstorm in January.
The same crew does chemical-free lawn care all season, junk in the fall, and driveways all winter, across Kitchener and Waterloo out to the Mannheim edge. We don’t go to Cambridge. Full boundaries are on the service area page. Pink is the new green.
Questions people ask before booking the truck
How late can I leave it?
Realistically, until the first snow that stays. After that the work is still possible, it’s just slower and colder, and anything frozen to the ground waits for spring.
Can you do it while you’re here for the clean-up?
Yes, and it’s the efficient way to do it, but they’re two separate jobs with two separate prices, both starting at $450 plus HST for a typical load. Booking them for the same day just saves the truck a second trip to your street.
What if my pile is smaller than a typical job?
You still pay the $450 starting price. It covers most single-room or garage-size jobs regardless of exactly how long the truck is there.
How do I know what the dump fee will be?
You don’t know exactly until the scale weighs it, and neither do we. That’s the honest answer. What you do know is the method: at cost, plus $15 handling per trip. Roughly $75 plus HST is the usual single trip.
Do I need to be home?
Someone needs to point at the pile at the start and confirm what goes. After that, carry on with your day.
Book the truck before the driveway disappears
Call or text 226-336-2077 with a couple of photos of the pile. Photos beat descriptions every time, and they let us tell you if you’re looking at the starting price or the full-day rate. You can also send your address through the contact page. Assessments are free.
Full details on the junk removal page, neighbourhood pages for Kitchener and Waterloo, everything we sell on the shop page, and more answers on the FAQ.
