From the revitalized downtown lofts and the historic homes of Trinity Park to the student turnover on Ninth Street and the corporate campuses of RTP — flat photo-quoted pricing from $75, truck-fill $295 to $895, vetted local crews, donation-routed, and no NC sales tax on the service.
Snap a photo — flat price back in seconds
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →Durham runs differently from the Wake suburbs — it's renter-heavy and student-driven, anchored by Duke and NCCU. Durham County is home to roughly 347,000 people and about 44% of its households rent, and that one number explains most of our work here: rentals turn over, and every turnover leaves furniture behind. Downtown's American Tobacco district and converted lofts mean constant apartment and condo turnover; Trinity Park's Victorians and Craftsman homes near Duke East are where the estate and renovation cleanouts happen; Ninth Street packs in students who clear out every May; and RTP generates office furniture and e-waste. We handle all of it at one flat photo-quoted price — and since NC bans appliances and electronics from landfills, those go to recycling (Durham's transfer station even takes appliance metal free).
The seasonal shape is worth knowing if you're planning around it. May is the spike: Duke's roughly 17,000 students plus NCCU empty out of Ninth Street, Erwin Road and the apartment blocks in 27705 all at once, and mattresses and futons pile up faster than any building's dumpster can absorb. August echoes it on the way back in. The rest of the year is steady renter churn and the estate work in the historic neighborhoods, which doesn't care what month it is.
The unit, the office floor, the pile in the loft's back bedroom. No estimator visit and no "we'll price it when we get there."
Itemized for a couple of pieces, truck-fill for a whole unit — $295 a quarter up to $895 full. Locked before dispatch.
We reserve the freight elevator and file the building's certificate of insurance if it wants one, then carry everything out. Same-day is usually open.
Single items price flat off the catalog; whole units, offices and estates price by how much of the 16-yard truck they fill.
| Item / Volume | Price |
|---|---|
| Sofa / couch | $170 |
| Futon | $139 |
| Twin mattress | $111 |
| Queen mattress | $139 |
| Refrigerator | $221 |
| Washer | $179 |
| Office desk | $112 |
| Office chair | $82 |
| Filing cabinet (large) | $101 |
| Monitor | $78 |
| TV (42"–65") | $91 |
| Truck-fill — 1/4 | $295 |
| Truck-fill — 1/2 | $525 |
| Truck-fill — 3/4 | $720 |
| Truck-fill — full | $895 |
$75 minimum. Disposal included. No NC sales tax on the service. The ladder runs in eighths — 3/8 $415, 5/8 $625, 7/8 $810 — so a load that spills past a tier doesn't cost you a whole extra quarter truck.
Outside reference points, both published by our Triangle competitors: Junk Doctors' rate card at junkdrs.com/pricing shows a $135 minimum and truck tiers from $298 to $738, with a "same-day or it's free" promise and a $100 price-beat; McJunk publishes a $175 minimum with $305 to $695 tiers plus $10–$50 trip, $40 mattress, $10 tire and $10 CRT-TV add-ons. Their big truck-fills undercut ours; our minimum and our zero add-ons don't. Full breakdown on the Triangle cost page.
Start with the one people get wrong. The City of Raleigh's Bulky Load pickup — about $35, with a $70 special appliance pickup and free weekly electronics collection — does not cover Durham. Different city, different county, different collection department. If you're at a 27701 loft or a 27705 rental, that cheap line item you read about isn't available to you, and it never was.
What you do have is the Durham Waste Disposal & Recycling Center, the county's transfer and recycling facility. Municipal solid waste transfers there at roughly $65 a ton. The good news is the recycling side is generous: appliance and scrap-metal recycling is free, and it takes up to five certified tires free. The catch is the obvious one — it's a self-haul facility. You need a truck or a trailer, someone to help you load a sleeper sofa down a flight of loft stairs, fuel, and an hour in the scale-house line. For a downtown renter without a pickup, or a landlord who needs a unit empty by Friday, that's not a plan.
And if you rent, note the second gap: apartment buildings are usually on private commercial collection, not municipal bulky pickup at all. The dumpster behind the building is sized for household trash, and management is entitled to bill a tenant who leaves a mattress beside it. That's the exact hole we fill — we come to the unit, carry it down, and the number was set from a photo before we left.
Research Triangle Park spans 27709 and 27713 and is dense with corporate campuses, which means the loads out of it don't look like household junk. A floor refresh produces sixty office chairs, thirty desks, a wall of filing cabinets and a stack of monitors — and North Carolina bans televisions and computers from landfills outright, alongside white goods, whole tires, yard trash and pallets. That's not a preference; a hauler who dumps a pallet of monitors is breaking the disposal ban.
So RTP loads get sorted at the source: electronics to an e-waste recycler, metal desks, chair frames and filing cabinets to scrap, usable office furniture offered to donation before anything else, and only genuine waste to the transfer station. Because the Durham facility recycles metal and appliances free, a heavy metal-dominant office load is one of the cheaper things to route properly here — which is why we can price a floor by truck-fill instead of inventing a "commercial rate."
Durham buildings are a mix of everything, and the access is the job. A converted brick loft in the American Tobacco district means a freight elevator that has to be reserved and, in some buildings, a certificate of insurance filed with management before a crew is allowed up — we book the window and send the certificate, and it doesn't change your price. A Trinity Park Victorian means narrow doorways, a tight turn at the bottom of the stairs, a floored attic and, often, a family that wants the whole thing handled quietly during a difficult month. A Ninth Street student rental means a third-floor bedroom, a stripped screw on the bed frame and a lease that ends tomorrow.
All of it is carry-out. You don't drag a mattress to the street, you don't stage anything in the hallway, and there's no stair fee, no elevator fee and no trip charge attached to any of it.
"Family home in Trinity Park near Duke — whole house. Compassionate crew, fair flat quote, handled the donation routing. Made a hard week easier."
"Ninth Street apartment turnover — two mattresses and a couch out, quoted from a photo, gone next morning. No sales tax, no hassle."
"Cleared a downtown loft after a tenant left. Elevator-coordinated, broom-clean, flat price. Great crew."
How much is junk removal in Durham?
Sofa $170, futon $139, twin mattress $111, queen $139, refrigerator $221, washer $179, desk $112, office chair $82, monitor $78, TV $91. Truck-fill: 1/4 $295, 1/2 $525, 3/4 $720, full $895. $75 minimum, disposal included, no NC sales tax.
Does Raleigh's $35 Bulky Load cover Durham?
No. It's a City of Raleigh program for City of Raleigh collection customers. Durham addresses aren't eligible, and apartment buildings here are typically on private commercial collection with no bulky service at all.
What does the Durham dump charge?
The Durham Waste Disposal & Recycling Center transfers municipal waste at about $65 a ton, recycles appliances and scrap metal free, and takes up to five certified tires free. Self-haul only — the truck, the loading and the scale-house line are yours.
Do you do Duke and Ninth Street move-outs?
Yes, and May is our busiest week here. Same-day mattress and furniture hauls from student apartments, flat-priced from a photo, no mattress surcharge.
Can you clear office furniture and e-waste at RTP?
Yes. Desks $112, L-desks $139, chairs $82, large filing cabinets $101, conference tables $201, copiers $131 — or the whole floor as truck-fill. NC bans TVs and computers from landfills, so electronics go to a recycler and metal to scrap.
Do you handle lofts with freight elevators?
Yes — we reserve the elevator window and file a certificate of insurance with the building when it's required. Neither adds to your price.
Are you cheaper than Junk Doctors or McJunk?
Cheaper minimum ($75 vs their published $135 and $175); their published half and full truck rates are lower than ours. Ours is itemized from a photo before dispatch with no trip charge, mattress fee, tire or CRT-TV line.
Where does usable furniture go?
Donation first — Habitat ReStore, which has a Durham store among its ten Triangle locations, and Goodwill of Eastern NC. Appliances and metal recycle free at the county facility; electronics go to e-waste.