How to get rid of a TV in Charlotte

The short answer

Size is measured on the diagonal of the screen, not the cabinet, which matters for older sets with a lot of plastic around the picture.

The minimum per visit is $75, so a single TV on its own lands at the minimum. Worth adding the stand it sat on, or anything else that is done with.

Why the trash is not an option

North Carolina keeps televisions and computer equipment out of the landfill stream. They have to go to an electronics recycler instead.

In practice that means:

• Regular household collection will leave a TV where you put it.
• Curbside bulky programs commonly exclude electronics. Check your city's current accepted-items page rather than assuming.
• Mecklenburg County's drop-off centers accept household electronics — check current hours and the accepted list before driving out, and be realistic about whether the set fits in your vehicle.

That routing is included in our price. You do not arrange it and it is not charged separately.

The three kinds of old TV in a Charlotte house

The tube set. CRT, in a closet, a spare bedroom, or the carport storage room. Small on screen, enormous in weight, containing leaded glass — which is precisely why it cannot go in the trash and why nobody will take it for free. $62 for anything under 42 inches, which covers essentially every tube set ever sold for a house.

The rear-projection or plasma set. Bought in the 2000s, installed in the bonus room over the garage, and never moved since. These are far heavier than a modern panel of the same size and they are a genuine two-person carry down a stair. $73 for 65 inches and up.

The flat panel being replaced. Light, easy, and the one that might still have a donation route if it works. $68 in the 42 to 65 inch band.

The bonus room problem

This is the Charlotte-specific part, and it is the reason most of these calls happen.

The Piedmont's red clay meant slab and crawlspace construction across this region, so there are almost no basements. Builders put the rec room over the garage instead, and the finished bonus room is close to universal in the 1990s-onward housing in Highland Creek, Steele Creek, Providence, Matthews, Mint Hill and everything newer out in Waxhaw, Weddington and Indian Trail.

The stair up to it is typically narrow, enclosed on both sides, and turns at the top. The big set went up there when the room was new. It has not been down since, and one person cannot do it — which is why so many Charlotte bonus rooms have a working flat panel on the wall and a dead plasma on the floor beside it.

$73, carried down, no stair charge.

Wall mounts

We will take a TV off a wall mount and take the mount with it. Mention it when you book so the crew brings the right driver.

Worth knowing in the newer builds: mounts over a fireplace in a two-story great room are a ladder job, and in the bonus rooms they are often anchored into engineered joists. Neither is a problem and neither is extra — but it is the difference between a five-minute job and a twenty-minute one, so it helps if we know.

You will be left with anchor holes. Whether that is a patch job or a paint job depends on how the previous owner mounted it.

Can you donate it instead?

Sometimes, and it takes one phone call.

Likely accepted: a working flat panel from the last few years, with the remote, no cracks.

Not accepted anywhere: tube sets, rear-projection sets, plasma sets, and anything with a cracked or dead panel. The recycling stream is where those go regardless of who carries them, and leaving one outside a donation site after hours is dumping, not donating — the organization has to pay to dispose of it.

If you are listing a working set for free, hand it over from the house. Do not put it on the porch to wait. A Charlotte afternoon storm finishes an electronic device permanently, and from late March it will be pollen-coated inside a day.

The cabinet underneath

Most TV calls are really TV-and-cabinet calls. The big early-2000s entertainment centers in Charlotte dens and bonus rooms are $96, and they are solid — they usually come apart on the way out.

A 65-inch-plus set with the cabinet it sat on is $73 + $96 = $169.

Add the sectional if the room is being converted to an office: $73 + $96 + $141 = $310 for a two-piece sectional, all carried down the same stair.

Apartments and towers

Do not put a TV in a corridor, a trash room, or beside the dumpster corral. Bulk items are outside the building's waste contract, the property pays to remove them, and the charge lands on the resident — and electronics are the category most likely to be noticed, because they cannot be compacted with the rest.

In a South End or Uptown tower, give us the building name when you book so the certificate of insurance and the freight elevator window are arranged in advance. No extra cost, and the TV price is unchanged.

Frequently asked questions