Why insured haulers matter more than price in St. Louis

The short answer

Junk removal is physical work in someone else's home, and St. Louis homes are old, tight and easy to damage. If an uninsured crew damages your stair rail, a neighbor's car in the alley, or a building's elevator, the cost can land on you. Insured haulers, and a certificate of insurance your building can verify, are what keep a $126 dresser removal from turning into a much bigger bill. We use vetted, insured local haulers on every job and email a COI within one hour.

St. Louis housing is unforgiving

A lot of the housing here is old and built by hand:

• Soulard houses date to the mid- to late-1800s; Lafayette Square's Second Empire townhouses were rebuilt after the 1896 tornado.
• Central West End mansions on Westminster Place were built 1890-1910.
• Carondelet and Dutchtown are dense brick, mostly 1880-1930.
• Kirkwood, Webster Groves and Maplewood have homes from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

That means plaster walls, original woodwork, narrow turning stairs, and doorways sized for another century. Moving a sleeper sofa through that without a scratch takes skill, and when something does go wrong, insurance is what stands between the damage and your own wallet.

Buildings require it

Many St. Louis buildings will not let a hauler in without a certificate of insurance on file:

• CWE high-rises such as Park East Tower.
• Clayton condo and office towers, in the region's second business district with around 46,000 daytime employees.
• Downtown lofts in the Washington Avenue district, with freight elevators and loading docks.
• Senior and condo buildings across the County.

No COI often means no elevator, and no elevator means no job. We email a COI to your building within one hour of the request.

Alleys, shared stairs and the neighbors

Much of the risk in a City job is not inside your unit at all. In two- and four-family flats across Bevo Mill, Tower Grove South and Benton Park, the stairway is shared, so a scraped wall or a cracked step affects the neighbors as well as you. The basement may be shared too, with other tenants' belongings a few feet away from what is going.

Then there is the alley. City refuse runs on alley dumpsters, neighbors park and keep garages there, and loading a truck in a narrow alley means working close to other people's cars, fences and garage doors. A dropped dresser or a truck clipping a fence post in a shared alley is exactly the kind of accident that turns into a dispute between neighbors. Insurance is what lets it be settled properly.

What can go wrong without it

• Property damage: a scraped hardwood floor, a cracked plaster wall, a broken newel post, a dented elevator panel.
• Damage to others: a neighbor's car in a shared alley, a fence, a garage door.
• Injury: a worker hurt carrying a cast-iron tub down a basement stair.
• Dumping: a cheap uninsured operator who dumps your load on a vacant lot. In Missouri that is illegal dumping under RSMo 577.070, a Class C misdemeanor, and it traces back to your address.

The heaviest items carry the most risk

Some items are where damage and injuries concentrate, and old St. Louis houses are full of them. A cast-iron radiator or bathtub coming out of a rehab, an upright piano that has lived in a parlor for decades, a gun safe in a basement, a solid-wood armoire that went up the stairs before the last renovation narrowed the doorway. These are the jobs where an inexperienced, uninsured crew is most likely to hurt someone or something.

A third-floor CWE move-out with a sleeper sofa and a dresser is $149 + $126 = $275. A Lafayette Square rehab with a cast-iron tub and two radiators is $185 + $123 + $123 = $431. Both include an insured crew, a COI if the building wants one, carry-out from any floor, disposal and no stairs fee.

How to check a hauler's insurance

1. Ask for a certificate of insurance before the job, not after.
2. If your building has requirements, send them to the hauler and ask for a COI that meets them.
3. Check the name on the certificate matches the company you are hiring.
4. Be wary of anyone who says insurance is not needed for "a small job."

A lower quote from an uninsured hauler is not cheaper if one thing goes wrong, so compare on what is included, not just the number.

Protecting an old house on pickup day

Insurance is the backstop. Preparation is how you avoid needing it.

• Clear the route. Rugs, side tables, pictures on stair walls and anything on the newel post come out of the way first.
• Point out the fragile parts. A loose banister, a cracked plaster corner, a stained-glass window on the landing. Tell the crew before the first piece moves.
• Measure the tight spots. The turn at the top of a basement stair and the front door of a flat are the usual pinch points.
• Empty furniture. Drawers out of dressers, shelves out of bookcases. Lighter pieces swing less.
• Tell the building. In a high-rise or loft, book the elevator and ask whether pads are required.

Ten minutes of this protects a hundred years of woodwork.

Insurance plus vetting

Insurance covers the rare bad day. Vetting is what makes the bad day rare. JunkRabbit jobs are handled by vetted, insured local haulers, and the price is set before anyone arrives, so there is no incentive to rush or cut corners to make a quote work. Get your flat price from a photo at the instant quote page, and see our FAQ for more.

Frequently asked questions