Planning a strip out in Leeds: what has to happen first, and in what order
A soft strip out removes everything non-structural from a building so the next trade starts on a clean shell. In Leeds that normally means an office handing back a lease, a restaurant or shop changing hands, or a house being gutted before a renovation. The work itself is quick. What slows a job down is the three things that must be sorted before anyone lifts a ceiling tile: an asbestos survey if the building is old enough, the gas, water and electrics made safe, and a clear agreement on who owns the waste. Get those right and the strip out itself is the easy part.
Before anything is touched: the asbestos survey
This is the step that matters most, and it is not ours to skip. The Health and Safety Executive tells building owners that if a building was built or refurbished before 2000, they should assume there is asbestos in it, and that it can be hidden inside wall cavities or fire doors. A strip out goes straight into those places.
HSE describes two kinds of survey. A management survey is for looking after a building while it is in use. A refurbishment or demolition survey is the one a strip out needs. It has to find asbestos hidden within the building fabric before any structural work begins, it is carried out by a competent surveyor, it involves opening things up, and the area has to be empty while it happens. For offices, shops, restaurants and other non-domestic premises, the owner, landlord or whoever is responsible for maintenance holds a legal duty to manage asbestos, so ask them for the register before you book anyone.
We do not strip out anything suspected of containing asbestos. If the survey finds it, a licensed asbestos contractor removes it first and we come in afterwards to clear the rest. We can arrange that licensed specialist for you, and if the only asbestos is a small amount of bonded sheet from a house, our guide to taking asbestos to a Leeds tip sets out the council's rules and charges. In a house, textured ceiling coatings and old floor tiles applied before 2000 are the usual suspects. Do not scrape them off to see.
Strip out by type of premises
The same crew does all of these, but each one has its own catch.
| Premises | What usually comes out | Sort before we arrive | What catches people out |
|---|
| Office | Partitions, suspended ceilings, carpet tiles, kitchenettes, desks, cabling, signage | The landlord's schedule of dilapidations, so you know exactly what must go and what must stay | Stripping back further than the lease asks, or leaving tenant fit-out the landlord will charge to remove |
| Restaurant, cafe or bar | Counters, seating, back bar, kitchen units, shelving, commercial fridges | Gas appliances disconnected and capped by a Gas Safe registered engineer, fryers emptied, used oil collected by your oil contractor | Fridges and freezers need degassing, so they are priced as items, not as weight |
| Shop | Shopfittings, counters, slatwall, displays, signage, stockroom racking | Stock and anything the next tenant is buying removed or labelled | Fixtures the new tenant wanted kept going in the van because nobody marked them |
| House | Kitchen, bathroom suite, tiles, flooring, stud walls, ceilings, doors and skirting | An asbestos check if the house was built or refurbished before 2000, and the builder's plan for what stays | Plasterboard over 10 percent of a mixed load |
Asbestos guidance from the HSE pages linked above, checked 22 September 2026. Business waste duties from GOV.UK, dispose of business or commercial waste, checked 22 September 2026.
Offices: Cat B back to Cat A, and the dilapidations schedule
Most Leeds office strip outs are lease exits. Commercial property uses two shorthand terms for this. Cat A is the landlord's base finish, typically raised floors, suspended ceilings, basic lighting and heating. Cat B is the tenant's own fit-out on top of it, such as meeting rooms, glass partitions, kitchens and branded reception areas. A lease will often require the tenant to remove its Cat B work and hand the space back at Cat A, and the landlord's surveyor lists what is owed in a schedule of dilapidations.
Read that schedule before booking a strip out, not after. It tells you whether the carpet tiles and ceiling grid stay (they usually do in a Cat A handback) and saves paying to remove something the landlord wanted left. If the building is being cleared of desks and chairs as well, our office clearance service handles the furniture and IT on the same visit, with computers and screens going through WEEE recycling.
Restaurants and bars
A hospitality strip out has more trades around it than any other. The gas has to be disconnected and made safe by a Gas Safe registered engineer before a cooker, range or fryer can be moved, and we will not move a gas appliance that is still connected. Used cooking oil should go to your existing oil collector, because it cannot travel loose with a strip out load. Commercial fridges, freezers and bottle coolers contain refrigerant and are handled through our fridge and freezer disposal route. For a venue that is staying open and only refitting one area, our hospitality waste clearance page covers working around trading hours, and shops changing hands are covered by retail shop clearance.
Houses before a renovation
A house strip out is usually a kitchen and bathroom coming out, flooring up and a few stud walls down so the builder or joiner starts on bare rooms. The waste is heavy for its size. Tiles, plaster and old boards weigh far more than they look, which is why a strip out is priced by weight rather than by the van. Landlords stripping a rental between tenants can combine it with a landlord void clearance so the contents and the fit-out go in one booking.
The order a strip out runs in
- Survey. The refurbishment or demolition survey, and a licensed contractor for anything it finds.
- Isolate the services. Your electrician makes the power safe, water is turned off and drained where needed, and gas is capped by a Gas Safe engineer. We do not do any of this.
- Loose contents out. Furniture, stock, files and anything not fixed down.
- Fixtures and joinery. Kitchens, counters, shopfittings, doors, skirting, sanitaryware.
- Ceilings and partitions. Tiles and grid, stud walls, boarding. This is where most of the plasterboard comes from.
- Floors. Carpet, carpet tiles, vinyl and floor tiles.
- Sweep and paperwork. The floor is left swept and you get a waste transfer note for the load.
What it costs, and when it is cheaper not to use us
Strip outs are priced on the weight table on this page: up to 50kg for £45, up to 200kg for £136, up to 500kg for £340 and up to 1,000kg for £680. A photo of each room and the square footage is enough for a fixed price before we arrive. Plasterboard is the one to watch. Keep it under 10 percent of the load or a £35 contamination charge applies, or put it in its own £105 plasterboard bag. Our plasterboard disposal guide explains why sites insist on it being kept separate.
There are two situations where we are not the cheapest answer, and it is better to say so. If your fit-out contractor has already priced waste removal into their quote, do not pay for it twice. Ask them first. And if a skip is already on site and the waste is mostly inert rubble with no plasterboard, filling that skip will usually cost less than a separate collection. Where we save money is on a strip out with no room for a skip, a mixed load that a skip company would refuse, or a job that has to be cleared the same day so the next trade can start. For larger multi-stage refits, construction site clearance covers repeat visits as the job moves through its stages.
Your paperwork, as the business that produced the waste
Strip out waste from a business is business waste, and the duty to deal with it properly stays with the business, not with whoever it paid. GOV.UK tells businesses to complete a waste transfer note for each load that leaves the premises, to check that the waste carrier is registered, and not to allow the carrier to dispose of the waste illegally. Every Kruze strip out comes with a digital waste transfer note under our waste carrier licence CBDU597687, which you can check on the Environment Agency register before you book. Keep the note with your lease exit papers, because a landlord's surveyor or a future buyer may ask where the old fit-out went.
Strip out questions we get asked in Leeds
Do I need an asbestos survey before a soft strip out?
If the building was built or refurbished before 2000, HSE says to assume asbestos is present, and a refurbishment or demolition survey is the survey designed for work that opens up the building fabric. For non-domestic premises the owner or landlord will often already hold an asbestos register. Ask for it before booking any strip out.
What is the difference between a soft strip and demolition?
A soft strip removes everything non-structural, such as ceilings, partitions, fittings, flooring and services, and leaves the walls, floors and roof standing. Demolition takes down the structure itself. We do soft strip clearance only.
Can you strip out a house kitchen and bathroom before a renovation?
Yes. We remove the units, suite, tiles, flooring and stud walls and take the waste away the same visit, priced by weight. The water needs to be isolated first, and if the house is older than 2000 get any textured ceilings or old floor tiles checked for asbestos before work starts.
Who is responsible for strip out waste, me or the contractor?
The business that produced the waste keeps a legal duty to make sure it goes to a registered carrier and is disposed of properly. If your contractor is handling the waste, ask for the waste transfer note. If we collect it, you get the note from us.
