Your Guide to Choosing the Right Skip for Your Needs

When you’re looking for a skip, it can be difficult to know which size will be the best for your requirements. There’s a lot of jargon that’s often used in the waste removal industry, and wading through the different terminology only adds to this difficulty.

To help, we’ve created this guide to help you decipher the jargon and figure out which skip is likely to be the best for you.

The easiest way to come to a decision on the best type and size of skip for you is to think through your answers to the following questions:

What type of waste are you disposing of?

Remember that you can’t put everything into a skip. Some types of hazardous waste can’t be put into skips. For example, car batteries, asbestos and toxic materials will all need to be disposed of separately. Some skip hire companies will also offer a hazardous waste removal service. If you’re not sure if the waste that you’re disposing of is restricted, ask the company who you’re hiring a skip from.

Some skip companies may restrict garden waste such as soil. If you are planning on disposing of a large amount of garden waste, it’s best to check with the skip companies you’re getting quotes from to check if they can dispose of this waste.

What size of skip will you need?

Obviously the size of skip that you need will depend on the amount of waste that you need to dispose of. However, it can be hard to relate the amount of waste that you have with the sizes of skips, especially as not every skip company will offer the same range of skips.

A good general rule is to go for a slightly bigger skip than you think you need. But, you don’t want to spend more than you need to in order to dispose of your waste.

To help you understand the sizes of skips that you might need, we’ve come up with a list of the sizes that are offered by most companies:

2 cubic yards or ‘mini skip’

This is the smallest skip that is generally available to hire. It holds approximately 2 cubic yards of waste, and is roughly 4 feet long and 3 feet wide. Not every company carries this skip, but if you only have a small amount of waste it can be an economical option.

4 cubic yards or ‘midi skip’

This is one of the most commonly hired skips for domestic waste removal projects. This skip will hold roughly 4 cubic yards of waste, and is about 6 feet long and 4.3 feet wide. This skip size is ideal for projects such as refurbishing a bathroom or other small scale household home improvement projects.

6 cubic yards

This skip is more commonly used when you’re carrying out a larger scale domestic home improvement project, such as a new kitchen. The skip holds up to 6 cubic yards of waste, and measures around 8.6 feet in length and 5 feet wide.

8 cubic yards

This size of skip holds 8 cubic yards of waste, which is a large amount for any domestic project. Usually used on a big domestic project, this skip is around 12 feet long.

Maxi skips

These skips are much larger, and rarely used on domestic projects. However, if you’re having a large home extension, you may require a skip of this size. They come in either 10 or 12 cubic yard capacities.

’Roll-on roll-off’ (RORO) skips

These skips have extremely large capacities and are very rarely used for domestic projects. These skips tend to only be required on commercial building projects.

Do you have any bulky waste?

It’s also important to take into account any bulky waste you may be disposing of. If you’ve got any large objects like sofas, you may need to have a larger skip to fit them in.

The key to choosing the right skip for your needs is to think carefully about the amount of waste that you need to dispose of. If you’re ready to get quotes for your waste removal project, simply fill out the form below. We’ll put you in touch with up to 4 local skip companies.

Simon Pook

Simon Pook works for Quotatis as a Content Marketing Executive. He writes about a range of different home improvement topics to make sure Quotatis' customers have access to the latest information.