The skip for a kitchen
| The job | The skip | Holds | Guide price (incl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small kitchen refit | 6 Yard Skip | about 60 bin bags | from £438 |
| Average kitchen refit | 8 Yard Skip | about 80 bin bags | from £450 |
| Full kitchen + bathroom strip | 12 Yard Skip | about 120 bin bags | from £576 |
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.
What separates one kitchen from another is how much comes out: the units and worktops alone, or the tiles and the flooring as well. If you are between two sizes, go up one — a skip cannot be loaded above its sides. Every size compared.
What comes out of a kitchen, and where it goes
| What comes out | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Units, doors, shelves, laminate and wooden worktops | In the skip, as general waste. Take the units apart first. |
| Stone and concrete worktops, wall and floor tiles, rubble | In the skip, loaded first: they are heavy for their size. |
| The sink, taps and pipework | In the skip. |
| A fridge or freezer | Only if you declare it when you book. The refrigerant gas has to be removed before the unit is recycled. It is priced as its own line before you pay. |
| A cooker, hob, dishwasher or washing machine | Ask before you book. The booking lists the items it prices as extras; anything else needs checking first. |
| Plasterboard | In a skip of its own, booked as plasterboard. It cannot be mixed with general waste. |
| Plaster off the walls | Ask before you book how it should travel. |
| Paint, oil and cleaning chemicals from the cupboards | Fuels, oils and loose or leaking liquids never go in. Empty, dry paint tins are fine; a tin with paint still in it, or a container of any other chemical, needs asking about before you book. |
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 textured decorative coatings such as Artex, floor tiles, flues and insulating board that looks like plasterboard 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.
Loading a kitchen into a skip
- Take the units apart. A carcass loaded whole is mostly air; as flat panels it stacks.
- Heavy things first. Tiles, a stone worktop and rubble go at the bottom, spread evenly.
- Flat panels next, stacked, with the small waste filling the gaps.
- Level with the 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.
- Keep the plasterboard out of the mixed load.
When to have the skip delivered
You choose the delivery day when you book, so choose the day the old kitchen comes out. There is no fixed hire period; when the skip is full, say so and it is collected.
The new kitchen then arrives wrapped in cardboard and polystyrene. If the skip has gone by then, a cage van takes packaging in one visit: it waits while you load it and leaves with the waste. Half Load Cage Van from £360; Full Load Cage Van from £504, including VAT. See cage vans.
If a fitter is doing the work
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.
Where the skip will stand
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.
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.