Concrete Dumpster Rental in Philadelphia

Every roll-off truck has a legal weight limit, and every dumpster has a weight it's rated to carry. A big dumpster filled with concrete blows through both before it's a third full. If it's overloaded, the truck can't take it, and someone has to shovel debris back out at the curb before it moves.

So heavy debris goes in a small dumpster, usually a 10 yard, filled to the line the driver points out rather than to the top. The dumpster looks half empty when it's full by weight. That's on purpose. A bigger masonry job runs as several of those loads, with a swap on call each time one is ready, instead of one oversized dumpster that can't leave.

Tell us what's coming out, roughly how much, and how thick it is. A four-inch sidewalk and a two-foot footing are very different loads, and the quote sets the size, the fill line and the tons included from what you describe.

A dumpster with nothing but concrete in it, or nothing but clean dirt, is a clean load. Clean concrete and brick can be crushed and reused, and clean fill dirt has places it can go, so a clean load usually costs less to dispose of than the same weight of mixed construction debris. A load counts as clean only if it's clean, though: wood, trash, drywall, rebar-heavy chunks or plastic mixed in can turn a clean load into a mixed one.

On a job with both kinds of debris, two dumpsters often cost less than one: a small one for the concrete and brick, and a 20 yard or a 30 yard for the lighter debris. We'll tell you when the split makes sense for your job.

In Philadelphia, property owners are responsible for the sidewalk in front of their property, and replacing a cracked or heaved sidewalk is one of the most common concrete jobs in the city. It's also one of the easiest dumpster placements to get wrong: the dumpster for a sidewalk job usually sits on the street, in the right-of-way, which needs the Streets Department's approval on top of the L&I dumpster license. See the Philadelphia Dumpster Permit & License Guide.

Front steps, stoops, garden walls and the back walls of rowhomes coming down for an addition are the other big sources of masonry. Brick from a party wall needs extra care, since the wall is shared, and the demolition side of that work has its own permits. The dumpster side is simple: tell us how much is coming out and we'll size the loads.

Break concrete into pieces a person can lift or a skid steer can place, and spread the load evenly across the floor of the dumpster instead of piling it at one end. An uneven load is hard on the truck and the dumpster, and it can keep the dumpster from loading at all.

Keep it below the fill line. The driver will show you the line when the dumpster is dropped, and the quote states the tons included. Every haul crosses a scale and the weight ticket comes back with the driver's photos of the load, so you always know what you were billed against.

Protect the surface under it. A loaded heavy debris dumpster puts a lot of weight on a small area, so on new asphalt or pavers, boards under the rails help. On the street, it stays out of the travel lane and clear of the curb ramp.

Philadelphia's older rowhomes often have low basements, and lowering the floor to make usable space is a common part of a full renovation. A basement digout produces dirt and broken concrete in serious quantities, all of it carried up the stairs or out through a window one bucket at a time, straight into a heavy debris dumpster at the curb.

The same goes for footings for an addition, a new rear wall, or a yard regraded for drainage. Clean dirt is a heavy load on its own, and dirt mixed with old concrete, brick and stone from a basement floor is heavy and mixed. Tell us what the dig is likely to turn up and we'll size the loads and plan the swaps so the crew never stops waiting for an empty.

The easiest way to plan heavy debris is in loads, not dumpsters. Work out roughly how much concrete, brick or dirt is coming out, and the quote comes back with how many loads that is, the size of each and the tons each includes. The job then runs as a series of swaps: one dumpster fills, one call brings an empty and takes the full one away.

If the job also produces lighter debris, like framing, drywall or a kitchen, plan a separate dumpster for it from the start. Keeping heavy and light debris apart is the single biggest way to keep a masonry job's disposal cost down, and it keeps every heavy load clean.

Not every brick has to go in a dumpster. Old Philadelphia brick, especially from front walls and chimneys of the older houses, is often worth cleaning and reusing on the same job or selling to someone restoring a historic house. Before a wall comes down, it's worth deciding what gets saved and what goes.

Brick that's being kept goes on a pallet or in a storage container, not in the dumpster. The rest goes in a clean load, broken mortar and all, so it stays a cheaper clean load and doesn't become mixed debris.

Driveways and patios on the twins and singles in the Northeast, Roxborough and the suburbs are the other big source of heavy debris. Concrete driveways come out in slabs that need breaking before they're loaded; asphalt comes up in chunks that are heavy but loads more easily. Both are clean loads on their own, which keeps the cost down. Tell us the size of the area and roughly how thick it is, and the quote comes back with the number of loads.