The skip for an extension
| The job | The skip | Holds | Guide price (incl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| House extension waste | 16 Yard Skip | about 160 bin bags | from £672 |
Each line is a job our size guide matches to that skip. Guide prices are for a private-property (driveway) delivery with general mixed waste at a London postcode. Get the price for your postcode. Bag counts assume full 60-litre bin bags — about 10 to a cubic yard. Bulky items take more room than bags.
That assumes the mixed waste of the build. An extension produces different waste at each stage, and each stage is its own load, so nobody can give you a number of skips without knowing how much is dug out and knocked down. Plan it by stage instead. Every size compared.
The waste, stage by stage
| Stage | What comes out | How to book it |
|---|---|---|
| Footings and groundworks | Soil and clay | Book it as Soil / Subsoil, in a skip of 8 yards or less. |
| Knocking through | Bricks, blocks, concrete and rubble | Book it as Hardcore / Rubble, in a skip of 8 yards or less. |
| The build | Offcuts of timber and block, pallets, packaging and general site waste | Book it as Mixed Construction & Demolition. |
| Boarding and plastering | Plasterboard offcuts | In a skip of its own, booked as plasterboard. It cannot be mixed with general waste. |
| Fitting out | Packaging and light rubbish | A small skip, or a cage van for light waste that is ready to go in one visit. |
The load has to match the waste type it was booked as: a skip that does not match its description is re-weighed and re-charged. And whatever the stage, a skip is filled level with its sides and no higher. A skip heaped above the rim cannot be carried on the road, and under the terms a wasted journey costs £60 plus the return visit at cost.
Soil from the footings
A skip is sized by volume, but the lorry lifts it by weight. That is why soil / subsoil and hardcore / rubble go in skips of 8 yards or less. A dig bigger than one 8-yard skip holds is a second skip, an exchange or a grab lorry.
For a heap of soil near the road, a grab lorry loads it with its arm from within about 6 m and takes it in one visit, with nothing left standing. We price it when you tell us the postcode and what the heap is: enquire about grab hire. To work out how much will come out, see how to measure a dig.
Exchanges, and keeping a skip through the build
An exchange — the full skip taken away and an empty one left in its place, in a single visit — is booked online. It keeps the skips to one space on site.
There is no fixed hire period. Keeping it on site through the build is not charged as extra hire, though for a consumer the hire cannot run beyond three months in total.
For a large build with room on site, a roll-on/roll-off container starts at 20 yards, but its lorry needs about 16 m in a straight line against about 12 m for a skip lorry — typical figures for UK vehicles. Skip or roll-on/roll-off.
Who hires the skip: you or the builder
Waste a tradesperson produces while working on your home is theirs to deal with, and they need a waste transfer note for it. So agree before the job starts who is hiring the skip, and whether taking the waste away is in their price. If you hire it yourself, you choose the waste type and declare what has to be declared when you book. What a waste transfer note is.
A builder who books regularly can do it on a trade account, with one statement for the period. Trade accounts.
Before anything is knocked down
Asbestos never goes in a skip. The Health and Safety Executive says it may be part of any home built or refurbished before 2000, and lists asbestos cement roofs and flues, insulating board that looks like plasterboard, textured decorative coatings such as Artex and floor tiles among the places it can still be found. If you are not sure what a material is, do not break it up: HSE's advice is not to try to remove asbestos yourself without training, and that some materials, insulating board among them, should only be removed by a contractor it licenses. The environmental health officer at your council can advise.
Where the skip will stand
A skip lorry needs about 12 m in a straight line, 3 m wide, with 4.5 m clear overhead — typical figures for UK vehicles, not a specification. On a building site that space is also wanted for deliveries and scaffolding, so decide where the skip goes before the work starts.
On your own drive or land there is nothing to arrange. If the skip has to stand on a public road it needs a council permit, which is arranged for you and shown as its own line in the price before you pay; each council sets its own fee and notice period. The fee for every council, and the options if you have no drive.
A permit runs for a fixed period the council sets and follows the days the skip is on the road. If the skip stays longer the permit has to be extended, at the council's fee and any charge for arranging it.
Where these figures come from
The sizes, what each holds and the prices are our own, read from our catalogue and updated about hourly; each job is matched to a size by our size guide's own lines. What has to be declared is what the booking offers today, and what never goes in is our Acceptable Waste Policy, which is part of our terms. Where asbestos can still be found is the Health and Safety Executive's guidance. The room each lorry needs and a grab lorry's reach are typical figures for UK vehicles.