Classic Ballard Craftsman homes (98107, 98117) come with basements and attics — and decades of stuff piled in them. A full basement clears for a flat $325–$985 by truck-fill; a sofa is $170, a dead water heater $176, and the minimum is $95. We carry it up the stairs and out. You don't lift a thing.
Snap a photo — flat price back in seconds
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →Ballard is Craftsman country — basements and attics full of old furniture, boxes, tools, and holiday bins, plus the constant remodels the neighborhood is known for. We carry it all up the stairs and out — you don't touch it — separate donation from disposal, and sweep the space clean, priced flat as truck-fill from a photo. Remodel and renovation debris (clean, non-hazardous), the old furniture the remodel replaced, and pre-sale whole-home clears all run the same way.
What makes this a Ballard job specifically is the stock. The north end of the neighborhood, roughly 98117, is early-1900s bungalows with real basements — the thing Sun Belt cities don't have and the reason "cleanout" means something different here. Thirty or forty years of storage in a damp Pacific Northwest basement doesn't age like a dry Phoenix garage: the boxes at the bottom of the stack go soft, the dresser swells shut, the tools rust to the pegboard. Nobody wants to spend a weekend deciding what to do with that one item at a time. So we don't ask you to — the whole room prices as one number.
Stand at the bottom of the basement stairs and photograph the room, or shoot the one couch. A flat price comes back in seconds — no walkthrough appointment, no hourly meter.
Same-day is often open across Ballard, Fremont and Wallingford. Tell us if it's a narrow turning basement stair or a detached garage down the alley so we send enough crew.
The crew empties the space, carries every load up and out, sweeps, and splits the truck between donation, metal, e-waste and the genuine remainder. You watch.
Rooms price by truck-fill — how much of the truck your stuff actually fills — and individual pieces price flat. The carry up the stairs and the disposal are already inside both numbers.
| Job / item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Truck-fill — 2/8 (quarter) | $325 |
| Truck-fill — 3/8 | $455 |
| Truck-fill — 4/8 (half) | $580 |
| Truck-fill — 5/8 | $690 |
| Truck-fill — 6/8 | $790 |
| Truck-fill — 7/8 | $890 |
| Truck-fill — 8/8 (full truck) | $985 |
| Sofa / couch | $170 |
| Refrigerator | $221 |
| Queen mattress | $139 |
| Water heater (tank) | $176 |
| Metal shelving unit | $95 |
| Contractor bags — 10 | $178 |
| Loose pile — medium | $174 |
$95 minimum on any job. Loading, stair-carry and disposal included. A typical north-Ballard basement lands somewhere between the 4/8 ($580) and 8/8 ($985) tiers depending on how much of it is furniture; a garage and a boat-gear corner is usually 2/8–4/8. A small WA refuse tax may apply on the disposal portion.
For outside context, Homeyou and Yelp Costs put the average Seattle junk-removal job at roughly $253–$325, and local haulers advertise volume tiers of about $150–$250 for a quarter load, $300–$450 for a half and $450–$700+ for a full truck. See the full Seattle price guide →
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch on a basement |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPU special-items pickup | $30 per item | Next garbage day | Curbside only — dozens of items, dozens of fees, and you carry every one up the stairs |
| Donation (Goodwill, ReStore, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul) | Free | Days to weeks | Resellable pieces only, judged at the door; trucks take from the ground floor, not the basement |
| Self-haul to SPU North station (Wallingford) | ~$35 min/trip ≤420 lb · ~$165/ton | Same day, if you drive | A basement is many trips; truck, straps, muscle, and the stairs at both ends |
| Rent a dumpster | Container + permit | Days on the street | You still fill it yourself, and street placement in 98107 is a permit conversation |
| JunkRabbit | $325–$985 truck-fill · $95 min | Often same day | None — flat photo price, we carry it up, sorted and donation-routed |
Municipal figures are the published Seattle Public Utilities rates (SPU's self-haul page is dated 4/1/2023 — confirm before you load). Ours are flat and photo-quoted with disposal included.
Only in the narrowest sense, and the arithmetic is what kills it. Seattle Public Utilities collects "special items" at a published $30 per item — by appointment, scheduled to your next regular garbage day, and curbside only. Booking is at seattle.gov/specialitems.
Now count a forty-year Craftsman basement: a sofa bed, two dressers, a workbench, a bike, a dead water heater, four bookcases, a filing cabinet, a mattress, and the boxes. That's not a special-items appointment, it's dozens of $30s — and every single one of those items has to be carried up the basement stairs and out to the street by you before the truck comes, because SPU's crew does not come down the stairs. The program is designed for the one chair that finally broke, not for a room.
There's a second Seattle rule that catches people who decide to shortcut it into the regular garbage. Under SMC 21.36, the city bans recyclables, yard waste, food scraps and food-soiled paper from the garbage, and a load more than roughly 10% contaminated gets a violation tag instead of a collection. A mixed basement pile — cardboard, bottles, old lumber, a bag of yard debris that migrated inside — is precisely that load.
Self-hauling is genuinely more viable in this neighborhood than most, because SPU's North Recycling & Disposal Station is right next door in Wallingford on N 34th St, published at roughly $35 minimum per trip (up to 420 lb) and about $165 a ton — although that rate page is dated 4/1/2023, so check it before you load. The problem isn't the gate fee. It's that a basement is never one trip, and you're the one carrying it up the stairs at the start of every one of them.
Sorting is the whole job on a basement, and it's also what keeps the price honest: King County tips garbage at a published $243.38 a ton while clean wood and yard waste run about $115, and electronics cost nothing. A sorted truck is the compliant one and the cheap one, which is why we do it on the tailgate rather than at the gate.
The neighborhood splits cleanly, and so do the calls.
North Ballard (98117) is the early-1900s Craftsman bungalow belt — full basements, floored attics, detached garages down the alley, and families who have been in the house long enough to fill all three. The signature job is the basement or attic clear, often ahead of a sale or a downsize, and the physical challenge is always the same narrow turning staircase.
Core Ballard (98107) is the newer face: modern townhomes, condos and waterfront buildings, plus the brewery and young-renter scene along Ballard Ave. The jobs here are move-in debris, apartment turnover, and single big pieces that won't fit down a townhome's tight stairwell — the exact opposite problem from a basement, solved the same way.
Underneath both runs the neighborhood's Nordic and maritime history. Ballard grew up around fishing and boat-building, and the Fishermen's Terminal fleet is still working — which is why so many garages here hold gear rather than cars. Old nets, pots, line, fenders and lockers come out with everything else, and the metal in them gets recycled instead of buried.
"Twenty years in the basement — furniture, boxes, a workbench. They carried it all up the stairs, swept clean, gone same-day. Didn't lift a thing."
"Gutted the kitchen — they hauled all the old cabinets and tear-out in one flat-priced trip. Fast and fair."
"Old water heater and a basement full of junk, carried up and out. Fair flat quote. Highly recommend."
How much does it cost in Ballard?
Truck-fill for rooms: $325 (2/8), $455, $580 (half), $690, $790, $890, $985 (full). Flat per piece otherwise — sofa $170, fridge $221, queen mattress $139, water heater $176, metal shelving $95, ten bags $178, medium loose pile $174. $95 minimum, carry-up and disposal included.
Do you carry it up from the basement?
Yes, that's the service. Narrow turning Craftsman stairs included, no stair fee.
Will SPU take a basement's worth?
Not practically. Special items are $30 each, by appointment, on your next garbage day, curbside only — and SPU doesn't come down your stairs. Details at seattle.gov/specialitems.
Are damp or moldy boxes okay?
Yes. Soft cardboard, mildewed paper, swollen dressers and rusted tools are normal here. No pre-sorting needed.
What about the recycling ban?
SMC 21.36 bans recyclables, yard waste, food scraps and food-soiled paper from the garbage; over ~10% contamination gets a violation tag. We source-separate, which is also cheaper — clean wood and yard waste tip near $115/ton against $243.38 for garbage.
Should I just drive it to the Wallingford station?
You can — SPU North on N 34th St publishes about $35 minimum per trip up to 420 lb and roughly $165/ton (page dated 4/1/2023). But a basement is many trips, and you carry every one up the stairs first.
Do you take boat gear?
Yes — nets, pots, line, fenders, lockers, hardware. Metal gets pulled for scrap rather than tipped.
Is there sales tax on it?
Not the ~10.35% retail rate. A 3.6% state Refuse/Solid Waste Collection Tax (RCW 82.18) applies to the disposal portion and may appear on your receipt.
Yes — Ballard's Craftsman homes have basements and attics full of decades of stuff. We carry it all up the stairs and out; you don't lift a thing. There is no stair fee, and the narrow turning basement staircase common in the 98117 stock is exactly what the crew is sized for.
No, not realistically. Seattle Public Utilities' special-items collection is $30 per item, by appointment, scheduled to your next regular garbage day, and curbside only — the crew does not come down your basement stairs. A forty-year basement is dozens of items, so at $30 each the math stops working almost immediately, and every one of those items still has to be carried up and out to the street by you. Booking details are at seattle.gov/specialitems.
No. This is the Pacific Northwest and a basement that has been storing boxes for thirty years is usually damp at the bottom of the stack. Soft cardboard, mildewed paper, swollen furniture and rusted tools are ordinary Ballard loads for us. We bag and carry them out rather than asking you to sort through them first.
SPU's North Recycling and Disposal Station is right next door in Wallingford on N 34th St, with a published rate of roughly $35 minimum per trip up to 420 lb and about $165 per ton — though that page is dated 4/1/2023, so confirm before you load. The catch with a basement is that it is never one trip. It is a truck you may not own, several round trips, and you carrying every load up the stairs at one end and off the truck at the other. One flat truck-fill price usually wins on both money and Saturdays.
Not legally. Under SMC 21.36 Seattle bans recyclables, yard waste, food scraps and food-soiled paper from the garbage, and a load more than roughly 10 percent contaminated gets a violation tag instead of a collection. A mixed basement pile — cardboard, old paint-free lumber, yard bags, bottles — is exactly the load that gets tagged. We source-separate on the truck, which is both the compliant answer and the cheaper one, since clean wood and yard waste tip at about $115 a ton against $243.38 for garbage.
Yes. Ballard garages hold the overflow of a working waterfront — old nets, crab pots, line, fenders, buoys, dead outboard cowlings, gear lockers and rusted tackle from the Fishermen's Terminal era. It hauls as a normal garage clear-out, priced by truck-fill, with metal pulled out for scrap recycling rather than tipped.
Not the roughly 10.35 percent retail rate — it does not apply to the service. Washington instead charges a 3.6 percent state Refuse/Solid Waste Collection Tax (RCW 82.18) on the disposal portion, which may show as a small line on the receipt.