Cubic yard allowables vs what the truck actually holds

A cubic yard on those sheets is loose volume in the container. Density is what decides whether the job pays, and photos don't show density.

Rough shape of the economics: a 15 yard roll-off runs something like $400 to $550 delivered and hauled in most metros, usually with a tonnage allowance baked in and overage at $60 to $95 a ton past it. Clothes, cardboard, mattresses and furniture put you around 1.5 tons in that box. Wet carpet, plaster, tile and dirt put you at four. At a $25 per yard allowable, 15 yards bills $375. The plaster house is already losing money before your crew touches it.

So don't accept "as documented" without controlling the documentation. Wide shot of every room before anything moves, a mid-load shot with the container in frame, the scale ticket, and an after shot from the same corner as the before. That packet is what survives an audit, and audits are where per-yard work gets clawed back six months later as a chargeback against invoices you already booked.

Write your exclusions into the bid rather than hoping. Tires, paint and chemicals, appliances with refrigerant, vehicles, anything that needs a licensed abatement contractor. Those are the line items that turn a $400 job into a $1,400 job with no allowable behind them.

On the cap, most people who stay in this work bid to about 70 percent of it on sight-unseen assignments and submit a bid update the moment they open the door, before a single load leaves. Once you're loaded you've lost the argument.

Confirm the allowable schedule, the pre-approval threshold and the payment terms in writing, and expect them to be revised. The version you sign is not necessarily the version their reviewer is working from.