Lot & Yard Cleanup
Lot and yard cleanup is the residential service that resets a property — storm debris and broken branches, blackberry through the back third, leftover landscape rubble from a prior owner, an old play structure that should have come down four summers ago — from $800 for a quarter-acre to $3,500 for a full half-acre to one-acre lot. The lot the new owner inherited covered in invasive brush and old yard junk. The back third nobody has walked into since the cedar tree came down in the November windstorm. A pile of broken concrete and bricks the prior owner left behind. The swing set the kids outgrew six years ago, rusting in the corner. Handis hauls it all out, sorted into the right disposal streams, with the receipts on the invoice.
Service
What Does a Lot & Yard Cleanup Visit Include?
A Handis lot and yard cleanup visit is a residential service that takes a property from overgrown-and-cluttered to clean and useable — five families of work, all sized to PNW conditions and disposal rules, all within honest handyman scope. Pricing starts at $800 for a small-lot cleanup (up to a quarter acre) and runs to $3,500 for a half-acre to one-acre lot reset with multi-truckload hauling. Each family has its own diagnostic — the blackberry that pulls a stump is a different scope than the blackberry that cuts cleanly at the cane base.
Storm & Wind-Event Debris Cleanup
Cedar, alder, big-leaf maple — the trees that come down in a PNW windstorm. We cut limbs to manageable lengths with chainsaws sized to residential use, drag the wood to a curbside or staging point, and haul to a wood-recycler or chipping facility. Standing trees that need safety pruning, hazard trees that lean over the house, and any cut requiring climbing or a bucket truck routes to a licensed arborist — we name the handoff on the booking call.
Blackberry & Invasive Brush Clearance
Himalayan blackberry takes over a Puget Sound lot in two seasons if nothing fights back. We cut canes back to the ground with brush cutters, pull the surface root mass where it lifts, and haul the canes to Cedar Grove or a county yard-waste site. Stumps that need grinding to prevent regrowth route to a stump-grinder rental or a tree-service contractor. Same scope for Scotch broom, ivy carpets, knotweed (which requires careful disposal — never to a yard-waste site), and other PNW invasives.
Leftover Landscape Rubble & Debris
The pile of broken concrete the prior owner left by the side of the house. The half-pallet of pavers stacked behind the shed. The bag of fertilizer that has gotten wet, hardened, and started to leach. The chunks of old asphalt from a driveway that was widened ten years ago. We sort on site — concrete and asphalt to a concrete recycler, brick and stone to a salvage yard where available, hazardous materials to the King County Local Hazardous Waste Management Program, the rest to a licensed C&D transfer station.
Play Structures, Old Yard Items, Sheds Under Demo Scope
Swing sets, trampolines (springs and frames separated), playhouses, soft sheds that already collapsed, sandboxes, old planter boxes, rotted yard furniture, broken garden tools. We dismantle, separate metal from wood and plastic, and haul to the right disposal streams. Sheds under 200 sq ft fall under our light demolition scope; anything larger routes to a contractor.
Sorted Disposal & Receipts
Every loadout is sorted before it leaves the property. Yard waste (clean cuttings, branches, leaves) to Cedar Grove or a county yard-waste site. Pressure-treated wood (which is NOT yard waste) to a specific disposal stream. Concrete and asphalt to a concrete recycler. Metal to a metal recycler (often paid back). Mixed C&D rubble to a licensed C&D transfer station. Hazardous materials to the King County Local Hazardous Waste Management Program. Disposal receipts go on the invoice.
How Lot & Yard Cleanup Works
Five sequential steps from the on-arrival walk through the homeowner walk and 30-day guarantee — the actual order we run on every Handis yard cleanup so the disposal sorting happens once instead of three times.
On-Arrival Walk & Scope Sort
We walk the lot with you, identify what is in handyman scope (brush, debris, play structures, soft sheds, landscape rubble) and what routes to a licensed contractor (hazard trees, knotweed requiring quarantined handling, engineered grading, permitted excavation). The walk happens before the chainsaws come out.
Cut & Stage by Disposal Stream
Blackberry and brush get cut back with brush cutters and staged in one pile. Storm-cut wood goes in a second. Metal in a third. C&D rubble in a fourth. Cardboard and clean recyclables in a fifth. Pressure-treated wood (not yard waste) gets its own pile. The sorting happens at cut time so the loadout at the end is single-pass to each facility.
Drag, Load & Compact
Material moves from the staging piles to the dump trailer with hand tools and a powered wheelbarrow where the ground supports it. Heavy items (broken concrete, dense rubble) load first; light brush and yard waste compact on top. A standard residential lot reset fits in one to three dump-trailer loads.
Haul to Sorted Disposal — Receipts Returned
Yard waste to Cedar Grove. Wood to a wood-recycler or chipper facility. Concrete and asphalt to a concrete recycler. Metal to a metal recycler (often paid back, which reduces the invoice). C&D rubble to a licensed C&D transfer station. Hazardous materials to the King County LHWMP. Receipts come back to the property with the crew.
Final Rake, Homeowner Walk & 30-Day Guarantee
A final rake clears small debris from the cleared area. We walk the property with you, point out anything that crosses back to an arborist or a contractor, deliver the receipts, and document the work for the 30-day workmanship guarantee. Regrowth from cane stumps is not a workmanship issue and is outside the guarantee.
Lot & Yard Cleanup Pricing
Final pricing depends on lot size, the disposal-stream mix, brush density, access for a dump trailer, and whether stump grinding or hazard-tree work routes to an outside contractor. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Send us photos of the lot — we will sort what is in scope, what is contractor work, and what it hauls for.
Why Handis for Lot & Yard Cleanup
Most yard cleanup calls we get are for a lot that has waited a season or two too long — blackberry through the back third, the cedar branch that came down in November still where it fell, an old play structure rusted out, a pile of landscape rubble the prior owner did not haul. Each year of waiting doubles the work. Blackberry roots run deeper. Wood debris sinks into the ground and gets harder to load. Metal in the brush starts to rust and lose its recycling value. We do the cleanup at the right scale, sorted for the right disposal streams, and tell you on the call when the scope is a contractor job instead of ours.
Sorted disposal at cut time — single-pass loadout per facility
We sort material into disposal-stream piles at cut time, not at the end. Yard waste in one pile, wood in another, metal in a third, C&D rubble in a fourth, pressure-treated wood in its own pile (it is NOT yard waste — the chromated copper arsenate and copper azole treatments make it C&D material). The loadout at the end goes one trip to each facility instead of three. Disposal receipts come back to the property with the crew.
Honest scope on trees and stumps
We cut blackberry and brush back at the cane base with brush cutters and haul the canes. We drag rooted stumps to a curbside staging point for a grinder rental, and we haul the chipped material to yard waste after a contractor or homeowner grinds it. We do not operate stump grinders (the equipment, the underground-utility strike risk, and the licensing route that work to a tree-service contractor) and we do not cut hazard trees or any tree that needs climbing or a bucket truck — that routes to a licensed arborist. We are honest about the handoff on the booking call.
Knotweed and other quarantined invasives — never to yard waste
Japanese knotweed and a handful of other PNW invasives spread from any fragment of root or stem that lands on healthy soil. King County treats knotweed as a quarantined waste stream — never to Cedar Grove, never to compost. We bag knotweed on site in disposable contractor bags, transport in a separate dedicated load, and haul to a quarantined-disposal facility per county guidance. The same scope applies to giant hogweed and policeman's helmet.
Storm cleanup runs the week after the event
A PNW windstorm event triggers storm-debris cleanup requests across the entire region in the same week. We add capacity (more crew, more dump-trailer rentals) for the first week after a major event, but lead times stretch beyond what we normally promise. We schedule honestly: if your cleanup is non-emergency and a hazard tree is not involved, we may push the visit by a week so emergency requests run first. If a tree is on the house or blocking the only access, that is emergency scope and routes to an arborist or emergency tree service the same day.
Honest scope — handyman labor, contractor handoff on engineered work
Yard cleanup is handyman labor. Engineered grading and drainage, permitted excavation, utility-line work (irrigation lines, gas lines, buried electrical), retaining-wall structural repair, and any work crossing into the City of Seattle or county permit thresholds route to a licensed Washington L&I contractor or specialty trade — we name the issue on the booking call and recommend a contractor when we know one.
30-day workmanship guarantee on the cleanup work
If a haul we ran left material behind on the property the photo report says we cleared, a stump we dragged moved before the grinder arrived, or a piece of brush we left on the curbside was not picked up by the agreed disposal stream, we come back and finish the work at no extra charge within 30 days. Regrowth from cane stumps, weather damage after we left (a new storm dropping a fresh branch), and damage from animals or people on the cleared lot are not workmanship issues and are outside the guarantee.
Estimate
Tell us about the lot — rough acreage, what is on it now (brush, storm debris, landscape rubble, old play structures, invasive species), the access for a dump trailer, and any deadlines (a closing date, a permit walk, a season). We send a clear estimate for the full visit with the disposal-stream sort included.
Customer Reviews
Recent lot and yard cleanup reviews from verified Seattle-area customers.
Bought a half-acre lot with blackberry through the back third and a pile of landscape rubble the prior owner had left. Handis cleared it in two days, dragged the rooted stumps to the front for the grinder rental, hauled the rubble and brush in two truckloads. They were upfront that grinding the stumps was outside their trade.
November windstorm took down two big alder limbs across our driveway and back lawn. Handis came within 48 hours, cut to manageable lengths, hauled the wood to a chipper-recycler, raked the lawn clear. They told me upfront the standing trees still needed an arborist for safety pruning and gave us a name. Saved the week.
Old swing set the kids outgrew years ago, plus a rusted trampoline frame, plus a collapsed plastic playhouse. Tech dismantled all three, separated the metal from the wood and plastic, and the metal load actually came back as a small credit at the recycler. Cleared the back yard for the new patio.
Side yard had a stand of knotweed coming up along the fence. Handis flagged it on the walk-through, said it needed quarantined disposal not yard waste, bagged it on site in contractor bags, hauled in a separate load to the right facility. They told me on the call the cane stumps would regrow and would need a follow-up next spring.
Quarter-acre lot we let go for one summer too long. Brush, leaves, broken branches from a January wind event, and a pile of bricks from a wall we took down two years ago. Crew sorted on site — yard waste in one load, bricks to a salvage yard for a small credit, C&D rubble in a third. Lot is clear and we have receipts for everything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis lot and yard cleanup — pricing, scope, disposal, scheduling, stumps, trees, and what routes to a contractor.