10 Yard Dumpster Rental in Philadelphia

Most of Philadelphia was built as rowhomes on narrow streets, and a dumpster has to share that street with parked cars, the trash truck and everyone walking past. The 10 yard is the shortest roll-off, so it fits along the curb in front of a single house where a longer dumpster would run into the next driveway, a fire hydrant or the corner.

Where it sits decides the paperwork. On the street or the sidewalk, it's in the city's right-of-way and needs the Streets Department's approval on top of the dumpster license every Philadelphia dumpster carries. On a driveway, a rear yard reached from an alley or a vacant lot, it needs the license and not the Streets approval. Our Philadelphia Dumpster Permit & License Guide walks through each route, and we'll tell you which applies to your address when we quote.

The truck still needs room to work: a straight run to back in and clear space overhead to tip the dumpster off. On a narrow block with wires or trees over the street, tell us before the delivery day so we can plan where the truck stops.

A 10 yard fills fast on bulky, light debris. A whole-house rehab, a full roof on a twin or a cleanout of a three-story house will fill it before lunch, and a second haul usually costs more than starting with the right size. If the job is more than one room or one floor, look at a 20 yard dumpster instead.

The exception is weight. If what's coming out is concrete, brick, plaster or dirt, the 10 yard is the right size even for a bigger job, because the limit is how much the truck can carry, not how much fits. A big masonry job gets several 10 yard hauls, or a swap on call, rather than one oversized dumpster that can't leave the curb.

Send the address, what you're tearing out and when you need it, and the quote comes back the same day in writing: the size, the days on site, the tons included, the rate for each ton over and the swap price. Accept it on your private job page and pay there.

The dumpster is dropped on your date where you point. Fill it level with the top rail so it can be tarped and hauled legally. When it's full, one call swaps it for an empty or ends the rental. Every haul crosses a scale at the transfer station or landfill, and the weight ticket comes back to you with the driver's photos of the load, so the tons you're billed against are the tons the scale recorded.

Hazardous materials stay out of every dumpster: paint and solvents, chemicals, tires, batteries, propane tanks, appliances with refrigerant like refrigerators and air conditioners, asbestos and anything flammable. Older Philadelphia houses have their own surprises, like old pipe insulation and floor tile that may contain asbestos, which has its own rules for removal and disposal. When in doubt, ask before it goes in, because a load the facility rejects comes back as a problem for the job.

The 10 yard shows up on the same kinds of jobs in every part of the city, shaped by the houses there. In South Philly and Passyunk, it's a kitchen or bath in a two-story rowhome, with the dumpster at the curb because there's no driveway and no back alley wide enough for a truck. In Port Richmond and Kensington, it's the basement of a house that's changing hands. In Mt. Airy, Germantown and the Northeast, where twins and singles have driveways, it sits off the street entirely and needs only the license.

Around Rittenhouse, Fairmount and Queen Village, the job might be a single bathroom in a condo or a brownstone, and the dumpster has the tightest blocks in the city to fit on. A 10 yard is often the only roll-off that works there, and the delivery is planned around the morning parking and the trash truck.

A small dumpster rewards a little planning. Break things down: a vanity in pieces, cabinets taken apart, a door off its frame. Lay flat, heavy pieces like drywall and doors on the floor first, then fill the gaps with smaller debris, and keep bulky items like a chair or a mattress for last so they don't leave empty space underneath.

Keep the load level with the top rail. Anything sticking up above the rim can fall off on the road, and the driver can't take a dumpster that can't be tarped. If you're running out of room with work still to go, call for a swap before the load piles up over the top.

A lot of 10 yard jobs are short: a bathroom torn out over a long weekend, a basement cleared in two days, a patio broken up on a Saturday. Tell us the dates and the dumpster can drop on Friday and leave on Monday or Tuesday, so it's not sitting at the curb for a week collecting the block's trash after the work is done.

On a weekend job, ask for a morning delivery so the crew starts loading right away, and call for pickup as soon as it's full. A short rental with a prompt pickup is also the neighborly way to do it on a rowhome block, where a dumpster out front affects everyone's parking.