Size Guide
What Size Dumpster Do I Need?
Match the project, then check the weight. Volume picks the box for household debris; weight picks it for concrete, dirt, shingles and plaster. This guide covers both — then each size page goes deeper.
The comparison table
| Size | Dimensions | Pickup loads | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 yard | 14′ × 7.5′ × 3.5′ | ~3 | Concrete, dirt, shingles, bath remodel, garage |
| 15 yard | 16′ × 7.5′ × 4.5′ | ~4–5 | Flooring, one-room remodels, medium cleanouts |
| 20 yard | 22′ × 7.5′ × 4.5′ | ~6 | Kitchens, roofing, whole-home cleanouts ⭐ |
| 30 yard | 22′ × 7.5′ × 6′ | ~9 | Construction, additions, estate cleanouts |
| 40 yard | 22′ × 7.5′ × 8′ | ~12 | Commercial and demolition volume |
Project → size quick picker
| Project | Start here |
|---|---|
| Single bathroom remodel | 10 yard (15 if tile + tub + plaster) |
| Kitchen remodel | 20 yard |
| Roof tear-off | 10–20 yard by squares & layers — see the roofing page |
| Garage / basement cleanout | 10–15 yard |
| Whole-home / estate cleanout | 20–30 yard |
| Concrete or dirt removal | 10 yard dedicated — always |
| New construction / addition | 30–40 yard |
Still torn between two sizes? Take the bigger one when the debris is light and the project is still growing — remodels generate more debris than anyone plans for, and a second delivery costs more than the step up. Take the smaller one when the load is heavy, when the driveway is short, or when the job is truly one room. And when in doubt, call: we'd rather size you down honestly than rent you air.
First decide: volume job or weight job?
Household debris — furniture, cabinets, flooring, boxes from a life being sorted — is bulky and light. For those jobs you shop by volume: how much space does the pile need? Dense debris plays by different rules. Concrete, dirt, brick, shingles and wet plaster can hit a container's weight limit while the box still looks half empty. Decide which kind of job you have first, and half the sizing mistakes in Berks County never happen.
Mixed loads are where people get hurt: a remodel that is ninety percent light debris and ten percent concrete rubble is a weight job in disguise. Pull the dense material out — one dedicated small load for the heavy fraction, one right-sized box for the rest — and both price the way they should.
Estimating your pile in pickup loads
The pickup-load column in the table is the fastest honest estimator we know. A standard pickup bed holds roughly two to two-and-a-half cubic yards heaped. Picture your debris as truck beds: a garage cleanout is usually three to five, a kitchen four to six, a whole-home cleanout ten or more. Match that count to the table and you're within one size of right — then let weight veto the answer if the load is dense.
Room by room, the pattern repeats: a bathroom is a 10-yard job until tile, a cast-iron tub and plaster push it to a 15. A kitchen is a 20. A roof is arithmetic, not volume — squares and layers, worked out on the roofing page. An estate is a 20 until the attic and basement join in, then a 30 earns its keep.
Will it fit where it has to sit?
Every size is the same width — about seven and a half feet — so driveways are rarely the problem. Length and overhead are. The truck needs roughly sixty feet of clear approach to set a box down, and twenty-three to twenty-five feet of vertical clearance to tilt it off. A 40-yard is twenty-two feet long with eight-foot walls; a 10-yard is fourteen feet and loads like a pickup bed. Low wires, tight Reading alleys and soft ground are the usual complications — all solvable, all worth mentioning on the call. Every box goes down on boards, which also keeps a loaded container from printing its weight into hot asphalt.
One placement follows different paperwork: if the box has to sit on a public street or alley in Reading rather than a driveway, the City permit needs sorting before delivery day. The driveway-versus-street decision is worth making on the call — not at the curb with the truck idling.