Pickup day, start to finish
1. You call or book online. We ask what the material is, roughly how much, what floor it is on, and where a truck can park — five minutes.
2. You send photos if you can, which take the guesswork out.
3. We give you a range on the phone, a real bracket rather than a final number.
4. We schedule a real arrival window, same day when the route has room.
5. The crew calls ahead so nobody sits waiting on a porch.
6. Walkthrough and firm price on site — the crew lead confirms what goes and gives a firm number before anything is touched. Approve it or not; the visit is free either way.
7. Staging and protection: truck positioned, floor runners and jamb guards down on the carry path.
8. Load out, heaviest and most awkward items first.
9. Sorting as we load — metal, donation, and e-waste kept separate.
10. Final walkthrough with you while the crew is still there.
11. Broom sweep, the baseline on every job.
12. Payment at completion with an itemized receipt showing volume charged.
13. Routing and disposal split across donation, recycling, e-waste, and landfill.
The only decisions you make are the price approval and the final walkthrough.
How the quote works
We charge by volume — how much room your material takes in the truck, expressed as a fraction of a full load — not per item, not per hour. An hourly clock punishes you when the job is hard and rewards a slow crew; per-item pricing becomes an argument over whether a sectional is one piece or three. Volume is something you and the crew can both look at and agree on before work starts.
Minimum load (about 1/8, one appliance or a mattress set): 15-30 minutes on site. Quarter load (bedroom set, or a couch plus a dozen boxes): 30-60 minutes. Half load (one-car garage, small basement): 1-2 hours. Three-quarter load (two-car garage plus attic): 2-3 hours. Full load (full basement or attic clear-out): 3-5 hours. Multiple loads (hoard cleanout, construction debris): half a day to several days.
What pushes price up: stairs and flight count, weight-dense material like concrete or wet carpet, disassembly of sheds or hot tubs, items carrying their own disposal fee like mattresses and tires, and contamination requiring protective equipment. What pulls price down: material already staged in a garage or driveway, clean loads with real donation or scrap value, and metal-heavy loads.
What we take, and what we cannot
We take: refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, ranges, and water heaters; couches, tables, bed frames, dressers, and office furniture; mattresses and box springs of all sizes; televisions, monitors, computers, and stereo gear; brush, limbs, leaves, sod, and fencing; drywall, lumber, trim, cabinetry, and roofing; garage and attic contents, totes, tools, and bikes; hot tubs, sheds, swing sets, and above-ground pool frames; exercise equipment, pianos, safes, and pool tables; and whole-house, estate, and rental turnover contents.
We cannot take: paint, stain, solvents, gasoline, and pool chemicals; asbestos-containing material; propane, oxygen, and any pressurized cylinder; ammunition, firearms, and fireworks; medical sharps and untreated medical waste; radioactive and lab chemicals; vehicles and vehicle fluids; live animals and animal remains; and anything sealed we cannot identify.
Every refused item is regulated for how it must be transported and disposed of. Paint and solvents route through your county household hazardous waste collection. Asbestos-suspect material gets tested first, then a licensed abatement contractor. Propane goes through retail exchange. Ammunition goes through your police department non-emergency line. Medical sharps go through an approved sharps container program.
Truck versus dumpster
A load-and-go truck puts our crew on the lifting, keeps the job to two to four hours on your property, leaves no weight sitting on your driveway, and sorts and recycles as we load. A rented dumpster puts the lifting on you, sits on your property for three days to two weeks, is the most common source of HOA violation letters, and usually goes to a single disposal stream — plus an open container on a side street tends to collect other people's mattresses that you end up paying the weight fee on.
A dumpster wins in one case: a long renovation generating debris daily for weeks. For a clear-out, an estate, a garage, or a basement — anything already sitting there waiting to leave — load and go is faster and finished the same day.
Staging: street, alley, or driveway
The crew decides where the truck sits in the first two minutes on site, and the order of preference never changes: private driveway first, since there is no permit question and the shortest carry; alley second, heavily used in dense grid neighborhoods where the alley is how the block was built to be serviced; street last, common on tight historic lots.
Staging a dumpster or commercial truck on public right of way, meaning streets, alleys, sidewalks, or parking lanes, requires a Right-of-Way Permit from Louisville Metro Public Works, and a truck left unattended with the engine running is a separate parking violation under Metro Code section 72.032. New Albany runs through the City of New Albany and Floyd County, Jeffersonville through the City of Jeffersonville and Clark County, and Owensboro through the City of Owensboro and Daviess County. We handle the permits — if your job needs one, we pull it.
HOAs, containers, and fines
Covenants across newer subdivisions restrict containers hard: allowed only for active permitted construction and only for a stated number of days, written board approval first, no street placement at all, and daily fines once the window expires whether or not anyone complained.
Same-day load and go sidesteps all of it. No container, nothing overnight, and by dinner the only evidence is an empty garage. Mention your association at booking and we size the crew to finish in one visit.
When junk removal is step one before mold work
You cannot remediate a surface you cannot reach. A basement stacked chest-high with boxes, a crawl space holding forty years of stored lumber, an attic packed to the rafters — all of it comes out before anyone treats what is underneath.
The order we run: free inspection identifying the moisture source and everything blocking access to it; junk removal down to bare structure and floor; assessment of what the clear-out exposed; remediation following IICRC S520 and S500 practice; crawl-space encapsulation and vapor barrier replacement where ground vapor is the source; and a post-work walkthrough.
Porous stored goods with mold growth on them are usually not salvageable, and we separate those from what is fine so you keep what does not need throwing away. Hauling out clutter without fixing water is temporary — if the reason your basement filled with moldy boxes is a grade sloping toward the house, the boxes come back. Remediation work carries our limited lifetime warranty.
Inside the house: stairs, doorways, and elevators
Historic walk-ups mean a narrow enclosed stair, a hard turn at each landing, and doorways under thirty inches — those jobs get more people, not more hours. Suburban garages are the easy end: wide door, flat concrete, direct truck access. Basements with exterior-only entry and stone steps get runners down first, since moisture makes treads slick. Elevator buildings need a reserved freight elevator window and a certificate of insurance on file with management — tell us the building at booking.
Protection standard on any job crossing finished space: floor runners on hardwood and tile, corner and jamb guards at every turn, blankets over railings, and cardboard in elevator cabs. Tell us at booking about the narrowest doorway, whether the stair turns, gate codes, and alley width.
Where the material actually ends up
Usable furniture, housewares, and working appliances go to local charity resale, including Habitat for Humanity ReStore, with donation receipts on request. Appliances, exercise equipment, and metal go to scrap recycling, with refrigerant units going to a certified reclaim processor first. Televisions and small electronics go to certified e-waste recycling, never general trash. Mattresses go to mattress recycling where a program is accepting. Brush and clean untreated wood go to yard-waste composting. Clean concrete and brick go to aggregate recycling. Only wet, mixed, or contaminated material with no recovery value goes to a permitted transfer station and landfill — the last stop, not the first.
Safety, insurance, and what you should not lift
Mold Men carries commercial liability coverage and workers compensation. Our crews use a two-person minimum on anything heavy or in a stairwell, straps and appliance hand trucks rather than raw strength, and gloves, respirators, and coveralls where there is mold growth or heavy dust.
Do not move these yourself: pianos, which can tip and cannot be stopped by the person below on a staircase; gun safes, which can punch through treads and joists in older framing; full-sized appliances on stairs; hot tubs, which are awkward and waterlogged; slate pool tables, heavier than they look and brittle; and anything visibly moldy without protection, since disturbing growth puts spores through the house.
Questions we get asked on pickup day
Do I have to be home? For most jobs, no — we need access, instructions, and a way to confirm final scope.
Is the quote really free? Yes, including the on-site walkthrough. If you do not like the number, the crew leaves at no charge.
Is this priced by the hour or by the item? By volume, as a fraction of a truckload, with a firm price before any work starts.
Can you come today? Often, depending on where the route already has us.
What if I find more once you have started? Tell the crew lead — they re-quote the extra volume on the spot.
Do I need a permit for the truck? Only if we stage on public right of way. We handle it.
Do you do more than junk removal? Yes — mold remediation, crawl-space encapsulation, vapor barrier replacement, and hoard cleanouts. A cleared basement is often step one in remediation.
Ready to get your space back?
Free quote, a firm price before anything is loaded, and most of it gone the same day you call.
Call for a free quote at 502-387-8161, email info@mold-men.com, or schedule online. We serve Louisville and surrounding communities within 200 miles, including New Albany, Jeffersonville, and Owensboro. Our referral program pays 15 percent, up to $500, so if you send us a neighbor the reward comes back to you.
