What Size Dumpster Do I Need?

A 10 yard box is the one for heavy, dense material: concrete, brick, dirt, roofing shingles from a rowhome. It's also the right size for a single-room cleanout or a small bathroom remodel. Because it's short and low, it fits in a parking lane where nothing bigger will.

A 20 yard box is the workhorse for a kitchen remodel, a full roof tear-off on a single home, flooring from several rooms or a basement cleanout. Most Philadelphia rowhome renovations run on a 20.

A 30 yard box suits a whole-house cleanout, a gut renovation of a rowhome, new construction framing debris or a large commercial job. A 40 yard box is for the biggest volume of light material: a commercial build-out, a demolition with lots of drywall and lumber, or a long-running job where you'd rather swap the box less often. The high walls make it a poor choice for heavy debris, because you'd hit the weight limit long before the box is full.

Every box has a weight allowance along with its volume, and a roll-off truck has a legal road limit. Heavy materials fill the weight allowance long before they fill the box, which is why haulers ask what's going in before they recommend a size. A 20 yard dumpster full of drywall and lumber is a normal load; the same box full of broken concrete may be too heavy to lift legally.

Mixing heavy and light debris in one box usually costs more than two smaller boxes sorted by material. When a job has both a concrete tear-out and a drywall demolition, we'll usually suggest a 10 for the heavy and a 20 or 30 for the rest.

Nobody measures demolition debris in cubic yards, so here's how to get there from things you can picture. A full-size pickup bed, heaped, holds about two to two and a half cubic yards, so a 10 yard box is four pickup loads and a 20 is eight. A standard kitchen (cabinets, counters, the old floor, a wall of drywall) comes out to somewhere between 8 and 12 yards once it's broken down. A full bathroom gut with the tub is 4 to 6. A rowhome basement that's been collecting things for thirty years is often 15 to 20 yards of light material, and the thing that surprises people is the volume, not the weight.

Roofing is the one trade with a clean conversion. Shingles are sold by the square (100 square feet), and a tear-off of one layer of three-tab shingles weighs roughly 250 pounds a square, with architectural shingles closer to 350 and a second layer doubling it. A typical Philadelphia rowhome roof is around 12 to 15 squares, which is why a single-layer tear-off fits in a 10 yard box with room, while a two-layer tear-off on a twin or a corner property pushes into a 20 for weight reasons rather than volume.

Concrete and masonry are measured by the slab, not the pile. A 4-inch sidewalk slab weighs about 50 pounds a square foot, so a 10 by 20 foot patio is 10,000 pounds, five tons, before it's broken up. That's a 10 yard box filled to its marked line, and it explains why the heavy-debris box is low-walled: it's built to hit the weight limit before the volume limit, so it can be lifted legally when it's full.

When you're between sizes, go up one. A box that's a few yards too big costs the difference in rental; a box that's too small costs a second delivery and a day of the crew stacking debris on the sidewalk waiting for it.

A roll-off has two rules that matter on pickup day: nothing above the top rail, and the weight under the allowance on the quote. Debris sticking up past the rail can't be tarped for the road and the driver can't legally haul it, so the overfill comes off onto your sidewalk before the truck leaves. Load the heavy, flat things first (doors, sheet goods, cabinet boxes broken down) across the floor of the box, then the bulky light material on top, and break things down as you go. A box loaded with whole cabinets and doors leaning against the walls is a box that's half air.

Use the door. Every roll-off has a swing door on one end so you can walk material in with a wheelbarrow or a dolly instead of heaving it over a six-foot wall. Keep the path to the door clear and load from the back of the box forward, so the last loads go in at the door and nothing has to be climbed over.

Spread heavy material evenly. A 10 yard box with all the concrete at one end can't be winched onto the truck squarely, and a driver who can't load the box safely will leave it and ask you to redistribute. Water adds weight too: a box left open through a week of rain picks up hundreds of pounds in wet drywall and carpet, which is one reason to call for pickup as soon as it's full rather than letting it sit.

The size question in Philadelphia is often settled by the block, not the job. A 10 or 20 yard box is about 8 feet wide and 12 to 22 feet long, which is one or two parking spaces in a lane; a 30 or 40 is a full 22 feet with walls 6 to 8 feet high, and on a narrow one-way street it's a wall the neighbors drive past for a month. A back alley wide enough for the truck to get in and get out again is the best spot a rowhome has, and a rear yard with a curb cut is better still, because a box on private property comes with fewer rules than one at the curb.

Low-hanging wires, tree limbs and a stoop that sticks into the lane all matter, because the truck raises its bed to slide the box off and needs clear height above it. When the only spot is the street, the box size that fits in one parking space is the one to order, and the permit for that space comes before the delivery date. Our Philadelphia Dumpster Permit Guide covers who applies and how long it takes.

A job that produces debris in phases, demolition in week one, then nothing until the roofers come in week four, is usually better served by a smaller box swapped out than by a 40 yard box that sits half empty for a month. A swap is a pickup and a fresh delivery on the same trip; the full box leaves and the empty one takes its place. On a rowhome block with one legal spot for the box, a swap also means the spot is never empty long enough for a neighbor to park in it.

A job that produces debris steadily, a commercial fit-out or a gut rehab with a full crew, wants the biggest box the site can take, because every swap is a day the crew works around a full box. Tell us the schedule, not just the material, and we'll put the box size and the swap plan on the same quote.

Household hazardous waste, tires, car batteries, paint, oil, propane tanks, refrigerators and air conditioners (because of the refrigerant), and anything with asbestos stay out of a roll-off. Mattresses and electronics are restricted at many disposal sites. If you're not sure about something, ask when you order; it's far cheaper than a contamination charge after the box is picked up.

Placing the box is its own question in Philadelphia. A dumpster on your own lot needs a license from L&I; one in the street or on the sidewalk needs Streets Department approval first. Our Philadelphia Dumpster Permit Guide walks through it, and the Dumpster Rental in Philadelphia page covers what we deliver.