A lease on Green Valley Road or the Wendover corridor ends on a date, and the turnover clause says what the suite has to look like that day: your property out, the floors swept, the keys back. Miss it and most leases let the landlord clear the space at your cost and charge holdover rent. This is the order of work for a small business leaving a lease in Greensboro.
What the turnover clause asks for
Read the surrender clause before you book anything. Nearly all of them say three things: remove everything you brought in, signage included; leave the space broom-clean, which means swept floors and empty rooms, not a deep clean; and repair damage beyond ordinary wear. Some leases make you remove what you installed, a reception desk, built-in shelving, cabling above the ceiling, and some forbid you from touching it. That line decides whether the built-ins go on the truck, so settle it with the property manager in writing first.
- Every room, closet and cabinet empty, the ceiling included if the lease says your cabling comes out.
- Floors swept, carpet vacuumed, no tape residue, no anchor holes beyond what the lease allows.
- Keys, fobs and parking cards handed back with a photo of every room.
Where each thing goes
An office is four waste streams in one room, and the state decides some of them for you. North Carolina has banned computer equipment and televisions from its landfills since July 1, 2011: desktops, laptops, monitors, printers, scanners and fax combinations are covered, keyboards and mice are not. Fluorescent tubes and mercury thermostats are on the state's landfill-ban list too, and a business handles them as universal waste through a lamp recycler.
| What is leaving | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Desks, chairs, cubicle panels, filing cabinets | Resale or donation first if usable; the rest goes on the truck |
| Computers, monitors, printers, phones | An e-waste recycler that issues a pickup record; drives pulled or wiped by IT first |
| Fluorescent tubes, mercury thermostats | Boxed unbroken to a lamp recycler as universal waste, never in the dumpster |
| Toner cartridges | The maker's return program where there is one, otherwise with the e-waste |
| UPS batteries | A battery or e-waste recycler; lead-acid batteries are on the ban list |
| Files with names, account or Social Security numbers | A shredding vendor; state law says shredded, burned or pulverized |
What Greensboro and Guilford County take from a business
The city's garbage service for businesses is a cart program: a business whose trash fits in two 96-gallon carts can be on residential collection, and anything past that means the city's commercial dumpster service or a private hauler. Bulk-item pickup is a residential program, so a suite full of desks does not qualify. The transfer station on Burnt Poplar Road takes commercial loads at a per-ton rate with a minimum charge, and the city's landfill refuses everything on the state ban list, televisions, computer equipment, fluorescent lights and appliances included.
Guilford County's household hazardous waste center on Patterson Street is for residents and commercial use is prohibited, so the paint cans from the supply closet cannot ride along with an employee on Saturday. The county's free electronics drop-off is written for household electronics; the state tells a business to ask the county first or to use a recycler working to the R2 or e-Stewards standard. High Point runs its own collection and its own landfill, and the state bans are the same on that side of the county line.
Shredding and drive destruction are the two jobs the crew does not do. North Carolina's records law puts that duty on the business, so book a shredding vendor for the paper and have IT wipe or pull the drives first. What is left after the sorting, the broken chairs, the particleboard desks nobody will buy, the carpet tiles the lease says come up, goes on the truck.
What an office cleanout costs in Greensboro
Commercial work is priced the way a house is: by how much of the truck the pile fills, with the labor, the hauling and the disposal fee inside one number. A single office or a small retail unit is usually half to two thirds of a truck, $375 to $600. A full suite runs two to four full loads at $625 to $800 each, quoted as one written figure after a walk-through. When the tear-down runs a week, a 20-yard roll-off at $450 to $600 costs less than three return trips, if the property manager allows a container in the lot.
- A loading dock and a freight elevator make each load faster and cheaper.
- Evening and weekend work booked ahead is scheduled at the quoted rate; a last-minute Saturday call costs more than a weekday slot.
- Desks and chairs a reseller or a donation partner will take are credited against the job.
Timing around the hand-back
Work backwards from the date in the lease. Two weeks out, walk the suite with the crew or send the floor plan and get the written number; the same week, book the shredding vendor and tell IT which machines are leaving. One week out, confirm the building rules: dock hours, whether the freight elevator must be reserved and padded, who holds the keys or the door code after hours, and where a container may sit. Most buildings prefer the work done in the evening or over the weekend before the hand-back, and that is when the crew normally does it.
On the day, tape a note on what stays so nothing the landlord owns leaves on the truck. When the last load is gone the floors are swept and every room is photographed; that set of pictures goes to the property manager with the keys and settles any deposit argument three weeks later.
Useful links
- North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality – the landfill ban on computer equipment and televisions, and recycling options for businesses
- City of Greensboro – garbage collection for businesses, cart limits and dumpster service
- Guilford County – household hazardous waste center, residents only, commercial use prohibited
Questions on this
Can a Greensboro business put old monitors and printers in the dumpster?
No. North Carolina has banned computer equipment and televisions from its landfills since 2011, and monitors, printers and scanners are covered. They go to an e-waste recycler and you get a pickup record for the file; only keyboards and mice are left out of the ban.
Will the hazardous waste center in Greensboro take fluorescent tubes from an office?
No. The center on Patterson Street is for Guilford County residents and commercial use is prohibited. A business boxes the tubes unbroken and sends them to a lamp recycler as universal waste, arranged separately from the truck.
Does the City of Greensboro pick up office furniture from a business?
Not through bulk-item collection, which is a residential program. What fits in the city carts goes in the carts; the desks, cubicles and shelving beyond that are a private hauler's job, usually done the evening or the weekend before the hand-back.