How to choose a skip size without guessing

Every week somebody rings for a second skip three days into a job. It is almost never because the first one was the wrong size by a lot. It is because nobody counted. Here is how we size a skip over the phone, in the order we ask the questions.

Count in bin bags, not in rooms

A room means nothing on its own. A spare bedroom full of boxes and a bathroom with the tiles off look nothing alike in a skip. Bin bags are the unit everybody can picture, and they convert cleanly: a cubic yard is about ten full black bags.

So a 4 yard skip holds about forty bags, a 6 yard sixty, and an 8 yard eighty. Stand in the room, picture it bagged, and count. Then add a fifth for the things that won’t bag — a sofa, a door, a bath — because they never pack as tightly as you hope.

Size for the heaviest thing, not the biggest

Volume is only half the limit. Every skip has a weight a lorry can legally lift, and the heavy materials reach it long before the skip looks full.

• Light and bulky — furniture, carpets, packaging, garden cuttings. Volume decides.
• Mixed — a kitchen or bathroom refit. Volume usually decides, unless the tiles and screed are coming up too.
• Heavy — brick, concrete, soil, hardcore. Weight decides, every time.

That is why rubble only goes in skips of 8 yards or smaller, and why a rubble skip should be filled about two-thirds of the way and no further. Our size finder works both limits out for you from the job and the number of bags.

When you’re torn, go up a size

The step from a 6 to an 8 yard skip is £40. The cheapest second skip is £160 and a day lost waiting for it. If your count lands between two sizes, book the bigger one.

The exception is access. An 8 yard skip is about 3.6 metres long; if your drive only takes a 6, a 6 it is — and we can swap it the same day it fills.

When a skip is the wrong answer

• Waste already piled on the ground, especially heavy waste: a grab lorry lifts it in minutes and needs no permit.
• A few bags and one sofa: a man-and-van clearance may cost less.
• More than 12 yards of light waste on a site with room for a lorry: a roll-on container is cheaper per yard than two skips.

A quick table

Size	Bin bags	Typical job
2 yd	20	One room, a small garden tidy
4 yd	40	Bathroom refit, shed, patio lift
6 yd	60	Kitchen strip-out, loft clear
8 yd	80	Full refit, extension dig
12 yd	120	Whole-house clear (light waste only)

Still not sure? Send us a photo of the job and we’ll size it for you. It’s free, and it takes us about thirty seconds.