From the desk:Cleaning / Trash-Out Services

Are my weekends worth $1,320? Dumpster at $580 versus a crew at $1,900.

House I'm under contract on has maybe a room and a half of junk plus a garage packed to the door. Previous owner left furniture, a lot of boxes, an old riding mower, and what looks like four or five bags of yard waste that have been there a while.

Two prices in front of me. A roll-off, 30 yard, $580 delivered for 7 days with 4 tons included and $68 a ton over. Or a cleanout crew at $1,900 all in, one day, they do the loading and the hauling.

I'm not scared of the work and I have two free weekends before my contractor starts. What I can't tell is whether I'm underestimating the loading. The dumpster price assumes I get everything into it, and I don't know what a garage full of stuff weighs or how many hours it actually takes two people to carry a house out to the curb.

Also not sure what happens if I go over 4 tons, since the mower and the furniture feel heavy but I have no reference point.

Answer

1angela_burkeServicePRO6

Rough rule from my crews: two people move about 3 to 4 cubic yards an hour on a normal cleanout, less if there are stairs or if the stuff is small and boxed. A packed single garage plus a room and a half is easily 20 to 25 yards, so call it 7 hours of two-person work, and that's carrying weather-permitting with the dumpster in the driveway. Weight is the part people miss. Furniture and boxed household goods run around 250 to 350 pounds a yard, so 22 yards is somewhere near 3 tons. You'll probably land inside the 4 but not by much, and if there's anything like tile, plaster or wet carpet it goes over fast. The mower has to be drained of fuel and oil at most facilities and some won't take it at all.

4 replies

1tonyv88SO4CPRO6

The other cost is your contractor's start date. If a weekend rains out and you're still hauling on Monday, that $1,320 you saved turns into a week of nobody working in the house. I've paid for the crew twice specifically to protect a schedule.

2nataliehsuSO1BPRO7

Call the roll-off company and ask what they will not take. Around here mattresses, tires and anything with freon are separate fees and the driver just leaves the can if you've put them in, which costs you a dry run charge.

1mitchell_ray4 Get yoursPRO6

Do it yourself once. Seriously. You'll never guess at a cleanout bid wrong again after you've carried one out yourself, and the mower is probably worth $150 to $300 to somebody local if it runs, which pays for a chunk of the tonnage.