Third-Floor Walk-Up in New Britain? Stairs Are Routine

New Britain earned the name Hardware City from Stanley Works, Corbin and Landers, Frary & Clark, and a lot of the housing that grew up around those factories still stands: two-, three- and multi-family buildings with narrow stairwells, shared basements and back porches stacked one above the other. Those buildings are exactly where junk piles up between tenants.

How New Britain's bulky pickup actually works

The city does offer on-call curbside bulky collection, booked through its contractor, CWPM. It's a real benefit, but it runs on allowances. Burnable items like couches, recliners, rugs and wooden furniture are capped at a set number of collections and items per fiscal year, and the cap depends on whether the building is a single-family, two-family, three-family or larger. Non-burnable items, such as appliances, water heaters, metal furniture and exercise machines, get one free collection a year for a single-family home, with a building-wide appointment for multi-family properties. Go past the allowance and extra pickups are charged.

Renovation debris is even tighter. Bricks, sheetrock, tile and shingles are only taken in 32-gallon barrels filled halfway. That's fine for a bathroom patch, not for a kitchen gut.

The recycling center is in Berlin

Many residents don't realize the city's Recycling Center sits on Christian Lane in Berlin, not inside city limits. It takes mattresses, electronics and metal at no charge, while general waste and construction debris are charged by weight. Its hours lean toward weekday mornings and early afternoons, with only some Saturdays, so it suits people who are free during the workday and own something to haul with. Confirm the current schedule on the city's page before you go.

Common New Britain jobs

• Landlords turning over a unit who have already used the building's yearly allowance
• Tenants moving out who can't book city collection themselves or need it gone this week
• Families on and around Broad Street, the Little Poland neighborhood, clearing a relative's longtime home
• Central Connecticut State University students and their parents at move-out, when a futon and a desk have to go before the lease ends
• Owners of older homes with a dry, cut oil tank or a basement full of hardware-era leftovers

Stairs, porches and tight streets

Walk-up carries are normal work here. The crew handles the third-floor sleeper sofa, the basement chest freezer and the mattress wedged on a back porch, and loads curbside without blocking a narrow street longer than necessary. Pricing is based on how much of the truck the load fills, so a full unit and a single dresser are both quoted clearly up front.

Get a Free Estimate

Have a move-out deadline? Contact us and we'll check the next open time.