When you’re choosing a skip, the obvious question is:

How much stuff have I got?

A few bin bags? Half a garage? An entire kitchen? A garden full of waste?

It makes sense to think about skips in terms of size.

But there’s another question that’s just as important:

What are you actually putting in it?

Because filling a skip with old furniture is very different from filling exactly the same skip with soil, bricks or concrete.

One takes up space.

The other gets very heavy, very quickly.

And that’s why choosing the right skip isn’t simply about finding one big enough to hold everything.

Space And Weight Are Two Different Things

Imagine two identical skips.

One is filled with an old sofa, broken wardrobes, cardboard, toys and general household rubbish.

The other is filled with soil and rubble from a landscaping job.

They may both look equally full.

But they certainly won’t weigh the same.

That’s important because our vehicles need to be able to lift and transport your skip safely and legally.

A skip can therefore have plenty of physical space left and still contain a substantial amount of weight.

That’s particularly important when you’re getting rid of heavy materials.

Household Waste

For a typical house or garage clearance, space is usually the main consideration.

Things like boxes, old toys, broken household items, packaging and general clutter can take up plenty of room without creating the same weight problems as building materials.

That’s why estimating the volume of waste can work reasonably well for these jobs.

The trick is not to underestimate just how much space awkward items can take up.

That old broken wardrobe might not look enormous in the bedroom.

Put it in a skip without breaking it down and suddenly it takes up a sizeable chunk of your available space.

Furniture

Furniture is another good example of volume rather than weight being the problem.

Sofas, chairs, tables, cabinets and dismantled wardrobes can fill a skip surprisingly quickly.

If you’re clearing a property containing several bulky items, it can sometimes be worth thinking beyond the skip altogether.

With Lostock Load & Go, our team does the lifting and loading for you, which can be particularly useful for one-off furniture and house clearances.

The important thing is choosing the service that makes sense for the job rather than automatically assuming you need the biggest skip available.

Garden Waste

This one can be deceptive.

Branches, hedge cuttings and plants can be relatively light but take up a huge amount of space.

Then there’s soil.

Digging out a flower bed, removing turf or landscaping a garden can produce a surprisingly large quantity of it.

And unlike hedge cuttings, soil is heavy.

Very heavy.

So telling us you’re doing a “garden clearance” doesn’t necessarily tell us what skip you need.

A garden full of branches is one job.

Several tonnes of excavated soil is another.

Soil, Rubble, Bricks And Concrete

This is where weight really starts to matter.

Soil, bricks, concrete, hardcore and rubble are dense materials.

It can be tempting to think:

“I’ll just order a big skip and put it all in there.”

But bigger isn’t necessarily better when you’re dealing with heavy waste.

A large skip filled entirely with soil or concrete could become far too heavy to transport safely.

That’s why we need to know what you’re disposing of, not simply how much of it you’ve got.

If your project involves significant quantities of soil, rubble, bricks or concrete, speak to us before booking.

We can help you work out the sensible option.

Renovation Waste Is Often A Mixture

Kitchen and bathroom renovations are where things get particularly interesting.

You might have:

Old cabinets.

Packaging.

Timber.

Plaster.

Tiles.

Bricks.

Sanitary ware.

General rubbish.

Some of that waste is bulky.

Some is heavy.

And some may need to be handled differently.

Rather than trying to calculate everything yourself, tell us what you’re doing.

“I’m ripping out a bathroom” is often more useful to us than “I think I’ve got about six yards of rubbish.”

We deal with this stuff every day.

What About An 8-Yard Skip?

Our 8-yard skips are popular because they provide plenty of capacity for larger clearances and projects.

But an 8-yard skip isn’t simply permission to put eight cubic yards of absolutely anything into it.

The type of waste still matters.

For lighter, bulky mixed waste, that capacity can be extremely useful.

For heavy materials such as soil and rubble, different considerations apply.

This is exactly why it’s worth speaking to us if you’re unsure.

Getting the right advice before delivery is much easier than discovering you’ve got the wrong skip halfway through the job.

Don’t Fill Above The Sides

There’s another important limit that has nothing to do with weight.

The fill line.

Waste shouldn’t be piled above the sides of the skip.

We need to be able to transport the skip safely, and loose items sticking out or piled high can create a hazard once the vehicle is on the road.

So if your skip is full, it’s full.

Don’t keep building upwards.

If you’ve still got waste remaining, talk to us.

Depending on what’s left, we might recommend a skip exchange, another skip or potentially our Load & Go service.

We’ve even introduced our Skip Topper service for situations where customers find themselves with excess waste that needs removing before their skip can be safely collected.

There is nearly always a solution.

So Which Skip Do You Need?

Lostock offers our main online skip sizes of 2-yard, 4-yard and 8-yard skips.

But rather than simply thinking:

Small job = small skip.
Big job = big skip.

Think about these two things:

How much waste do I have?

and

What is it made of?

Those two answers together give us a much better idea of what you actually need.

Tell Us What You’re Getting Rid Of

Choosing a skip shouldn’t require a degree in waste management.

That’s our job.

If you’re clearing ordinary household rubbish and you’re confident about the volume, booking online is straightforward.

But if you’re dealing with lots of soil, rubble, concrete, bulky furniture or a mixture of different materials, give us a call.

Tell us what you’re doing.

Tell us what you’re getting rid of.

And we’ll help you choose the most sensible option.

Because the right skip isn’t necessarily the biggest skip.

It’s the one that’s right for the waste going into it.

Your waste. Our responsibility.