skip-or-tip

Should You Skip Or Tip?

If you are stuck between hiring a skip and taking a trip to the tip, what tips you over the edge in either direction? Is it the goods for disposal, or is it your mode of transport? If you’re having a hard time deciding which method of waste removal is right for you, we’re here to give you a few ideas as to which is right for your type of waste.

Household waste

The majority of domestic waste can be taken to your local tip. However, there are a number of factors to consider before deciding that this is the best course of action for yourself.
Firstly, you need to consider your mode of transport. If you drive a smaller, three-door car, can you fit, lift and shift all of your waste safely? Please remember manual handling is important even outside of the workplace. Or if you drive a van or pick-up truck, they may be considered a commercial vehicle and therefore not allowed to dispose of waste. Depending on your vehicle, you may find yourself making several trips to the tip taking up long periods of time.
The type of waste may also be a factor. If you have copious amounts of garden waste, you may not want to transport this loose in your vehicle, meaning that you would need to bag it all up. Then at the tip, they require garden waste to be loose, meaning that you will then need to empty the bags again. However, with a skip this waste can go directly in, meaning if you are clearing large areas of the garden you can save yourself time and effort then can be spent on the garden.
There are a number of electrical goods that cannot be disposed of within a skip. If this is the main focus on what you are getting rid of, this may mean a trip to the tip (where they have dedicated electronics disposal) or a call to your local council who may collect these for you (charges may apply). In particular, you cannot dispose of a fridge or freezer in a skip.
For information on what you can and cannot dispose of in a skip head over to our dedicated information page.

Commercial waste

Commercial waste is a grey area in terms of taking this to the tip. For example, commercial vehicles cannot enter most waste facilities unless arranged by prior agreement. This is due to the ruling around tipping commercial waste. However, if the waste is taken in a domestic vehicle, the question may not arise. If you are caught disposing of commercial waste in this way, you may risk fines and/or prosecution.
If you are wanting to dispose of commercial waste, we recommend a skip to avoid any potential issues that may arise with other methods of disposal. Here at Staffordshire Skip Hire, we have a wide variety of skip sizes, ensuring that any size waste can be catered for. Even if you only have a small amount of commercial waste, we have small 2-yard skips or builders-bulk-bag which allow your waste to be manoeuvrable.

Asbestos Waste

Asbestos cannot be disposed of in a standard skip or at your local tip or waste disposal site. Asbestos waste needs to be removed by trained and licensed professionals and disposed of by those professionals at a dedicated disposal site. If you have any concerns that you have disturbed asbestos or that any of your waste is asbestos, please contact a member of the team today.

If you have any questions or concerns please get in touch and a member of our dedicated team will be able to advise you.

revamp-your-bathroom

What Size Skip Do I Need

There is no one size fits all when it comes to ordering the right skip for your needs. And every project that you undertake in your home will have a different amount of waste, from the same project in another house.
So how can we help you to determine the right size skip for your project? Here are a few handy things to think about:

Bathroom Revamp

When it comes to ripping out your existing bathroom, and throwing it into the skip, you want to consider how much space your bath will take up. The length of a standard bath in the UK is 5ft6. To ensure that you get the most out of your skip, you want to ensure that this can sit in the bottom. Meaning anything smaller than a 3-ton mini is too small.
You will then want to consider the toilet and the sink, while standard ones should also fit comfortably with your bath, perhaps one inside the bath, it will depend greatly on what will be in the skip with them.
If you are adding just your bathroom suite and excess rubbish, a 3-ton mini will be fine. However, if you will be ripping off tiles, plaster, cupboards and much else, you may want to size up as this is more cost-effective than a second skip.

Kitchen Rip Out

Ripping out your kitchen is one of the biggest jobs in your home (unless you are ripping out the stairs!). This calls for a bigger skip. Unless you have a small galley kitchen of course. Firstly, consider the obvious. Flattening your cupboards before they go in the skip will undoubtedly save you space.
Other than your cupboards, you might have other items to dispose of. Please be aware that we cannot accept white goods such as fridges and freezers, check our What Can Go In A Skip page for more information. However, we can accept your washer and dryer, or dishwashers should they need to be removed. If you are including these in your skips, the size will need to be factored in. For two of these items and just cupboards you should get away with a 5-ton skip, however, for three, we would certainly recommend sizing up to our 10-ton skip. This extra space will also be beneficial for excess plaster, tiling, unwanted or damaged goods, and even all the food that’s been sitting at the back of the cupboards since you moved in (you know the stuff).

Lounge Freshen-up

For the most part, when we have a new sofa delivered, the company will provide a service to collect your old sofa. However, many of our customers have said that this isn’t the case. This means that they need to find an alternative method of disposal. For some, this will be collected by the council, or perhaps a charity shop. However, if you are looking at renovating the whole room, investing in a skip might be another great option.
Where possible we recommend chopping up your sofa to help save space in your skip. However, this will still leave you with bulky waste. As there are so many different styles and sizes of sofa, if you are looking for further information on the size of skip you will need, please contact the team who will be happy to guide you based on your individual sofa.
If you are doing a simple renovation of your lounge, without the sofa waste, a 2-ton skip would usually suffice, however, if you are unsure, please contact us.

Bedroom Renovations

The largest item to dispose of in a bedroom is of course the bed. Unless you have a large wardrobe. Other than the mattress, this can be broken down reasonably well. Making it easy to fit in most skips.
The main issue when hiring a skip for bedroom renovations is that care is not taken when dismantling older furniture. An extra couple of moments to dismantle the furniture will help to save an abundance of space, therefore saving extra money.
If the mattress will fit nicely into the base of the skip, this allows for other waste to be piled on top with limited issues. Please avoid putting a mattress on the top of a skip as this can cause transportation issues, or often takes you over the fill line.
For most bedroom renovations, a 5-ton skip is more than efficient to fit all existing furniture, plus any additional waste, such as plaster and carpets. However, depending on the size of the room and furniture, this could vary. If you are unsure, please contact the team today.

Here at Staffordshire Skip Hire, we have years of experience in delivering skips for home renovations. We have seen what you can and what you cannot fit in every size of skip. So if you are unsure which size to book, please just ask a member of the team for advice and we will be happy to help as much as possible. Call today to book your skip hire.