How to get rid of an old TV in Richmond

The short answer

Pricing is by screen size, not by technology or weight. A 32-inch tube television that weighs as much as a washing machine is the same $62 as a 32-inch flat panel.

The visit minimum is $75, so a single small TV rounds up to $75. Add the stand or the box of cables while a truck is there.

Why you cannot just put it out

Televisions are electronics, and electronics are handled through dedicated channels rather than general household waste almost everywhere. Screens contain materials that require specific processing, which is why a TV left at the curb tends to sit there while everything around it gets collected.

In the Richmond metro this is split three ways. The City of Richmond, Henrico County and Chesterfield County each run their own electronics arrangements — drop-off points, periodic collection events, acceptance rules and quantity limits. These change. Check your own jurisdiction's current page, and note that a Henrico arrangement does not apply to a city address, which is the single most common mix-up here.

The tube and projection problem

Richmond has a lot of these still sitting in houses, and they are a genuinely different object from a modern set.

A 32-inch CRT can weigh over a hundred pounds, almost all of it in the glass at the front, so it is front-heavy and it pulls away from whoever is carrying it. A rear-projection console from the late nineties is not a television at all so much as a piece of furniture with a screen in it — it was delivered by two people and it leaves the same way.

Where they live is predictable: Northside and Ginter Park basements, West End dens, Chesterfield bonus rooms, and the back bedroom of Fan flats where one got left behind by a previous tenant. They have zero resale value, most donation routes will not take them, and they are the sets most likely to be refused at a general drop-off.

They are also the ones people most often try to carry alone, which is a mistake. If yours is at the bottom of a Northside basement stair, leave it there and let two people with straps deal with it.

Wall mounts in Richmond houses

Decide before removal day whether the mount is going too, because it affects what happens to the wall.

In an older Fan, Museum District, Church Hill or Oregon Hill house, the mount is usually lagged through lime plaster over wood lath into a stud, or straight into brick on a chimney breast. Taking it off leaves either four plugged holes in plaster or four in masonry. Neither is a quick drywall patch — plaster repair is a plasterer's job and it is worth knowing that before you start pulling.

In Scott's Addition and Manchester loft conversions, mounts often go into exposed brick or a steel-framed partition, and the fixings can be substantial.

In Short Pump, Glen Allen and Midlothian new builds, it is drywall and studs, and it patches easily.

If you want the mount taken as well, say so when you book. It goes with the TV rather than being priced separately, and knowing in advance means the right tools arrive.

Wipe it first

A smart TV holds your accounts. Streaming logins, a linked payment method in some cases, the home wi-fi password, and a viewing history. Sign out of every app and run a factory reset from the settings menu before removal day.

Do the same for anything going with it: a streaming stick, a games console, a sound bar with a paired account. If a box of electronics is going at $77, empty it of anything with storage in it first, or reset those too.

This is five minutes and it is the only chance you get. Once it is on the truck it is gone.

Selling or donating a working set

Worth trying for a working flat panel less than about eight years old, and Richmond has a reliable seasonal buyer: the August lease turnover around VCU, Oregon Hill, the Fan and Carytown puts a wave of people into unfurnished first apartments, and a functioning television is one of the first things they look for.

List it with the actual size, the model, and whether the stand and remote are included. Be upfront about the floor and the collection — a buyer for a 65-inch set on a Fan third floor needs to know that before they arrive in a hatchback.

Not worth trying: anything with a cracked or lined screen, any plasma panel, any CRT or projection set, and anything that has spent years in a damp Richmond basement where the boards have corroded.

Worked Richmond totals

• A Fan den, media wall cleared: TV (42" to 65") $68 + entertainment center / TV stand $96. The addition: $68 + $96 = $164.
• A Northside basement, the old sets: TV (65"+) $73 + TV (under 42") $62 + box of electronics $77. The addition: $73 + $62 + $77 = $212.
• A Short Pump bonus room upgrade: TV (65"+) $73 + sectional sofa (3-piece) $185. The addition: $73 + $185 = $258. A quarter truck is $241.
• A Carytown flat, one set only: TV (under 42") $62 — below the minimum, so the visit is $75. Add a computer monitor at $58 and the addition is $62 + $58 = $120.

Booking it

Tell us the screen size, how many sets, which floor, and whether the mount is going. If it is a tube or projection set in a basement, say so and say whether the exit is a bulkhead or an interior stair — that determines the crew, not the price.

The number is set before dispatch, disposal is inside it, and there is no stair charge for bringing a hundred-pound television up from a Ginter Park basement or down from a third-floor flat in the Fan.

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