You’ve got a big reno project ahead of you, and you’ve decided that roll-offs are the best way to dispose of the waste.

But how many dumpsters does it take to get rid of a kitchen? How about a whole house?

You don’t want to rent too many dumpsters, or too few. We can help – when you call us, you can tell us about your project, and we can help you choose the right number and size of dumpsters.

This article should help, too. We’re going to look at some of the most common dumpster rental scenarios, and help you get a better idea of how to calculate the number of dumpsters you’ll need.

The capacity of roll-offs

The capacity of roll-off dumpsters is twofold – they have a limit to how much they can hold, and how heavy they can be. That means you’ll have to look at both the volume and the weight of the materials you want to put into a dumpster before you rent.

For some projects, this is relatively easy. Getting rid of old appliances? Check their manuals for size and weight, and compare that to the volume and weight limits of the dumpsters we have available.

How to calculate the weight of home or room demolition

Let’s say you want to scrap your kitchen – or your whole house! We could give you FEMA guidelines for debris estimation – or we could just give you a handy tool created by our friends up north in Vancouver!

Use this Vancouver debris calculator. You can pick any municipality – they don’t change the calculation. Put in the square footage of the area you’re going to demolish, change from kilograms to pounds, then hit calculate and scroll down.

The calculator will then break down the total amount of waste in pounds, as well as a breakdown of types of waste you can expect (wood, metals, drywall, etc).

Then convert the number of pounds into tons! For example, an 1100 sq. ft. home would generate approximately 111,000 pounds (or 55.5 tons) of waste. You could use 11 of our 40-yard bins, which can carry 5 tons each.

Do I really need 11 dumpsters?

Probably not! Our dumpsters can handle more than 5 tons of debris – there is, however, a surcharge for extra tonnage that you want to be aware of. The real limiting factor, then, is the yardage of each bin. 

Every square foot of housing creates approximately .135 cubic yards of debris. That means that same 1100 sq. ft. house would generate approximately 148.5 cubic yards of debris. Our 40-yard dumpsters can hold 40 cubic yards of debris. That means 148.5/40 gives us the number of dumpsters we need: 3.7125. 

You could, then, consider going for three 40-yard dumpsters and one 30-yard dumpster – but it’s probably best to play it safe, go for four 40-yard dumpsters, and have some wiggle room.

Take the calculations we laid out here if you want to estimate the number of dumpsters you’ll need for your project. Or, just give us a call! If you’re looking for a roll-off dumpster rental in Denver, we’ll do all the calculations for you.