Dumpster Rental 101: Sizing Your Bin for a Remodel

Dumpster rental is one of those services nobody pays attention to until they need it — and then they need it yesterday, in the right size, on the right day. We rent a lot of bins in Cedar City and Iron County, so here's our practical guide to picking the right one.

Understanding Yardage

Dumpsters are sized in cubic yards. A 10-yard bin holds about 3 pickup-truck loads of debris. Yardage is volume, not weight — but every rental has a weight cap (usually around 1 ton per 10 yards), and going over costs extra per ton.

10-Yard Bin

Roughly 14 ft × 8 ft × 4 ft. Great for: a bathroom remodel, single-room flooring tear-out, a half-garage cleanout, or a small landscaping project. Holds about 3 pickup loads.

15-Yard Bin

Roughly 16 ft × 8 ft × 4.5 ft. Great for: full kitchen remodel, basement framing demo, mid-size garage cleanout, deck tear-off. Most common size we rent for residential remodels.

20-Yard Bin

Roughly 22 ft × 8 ft × 4.5 ft. Great for: whole-home flooring replacement, large roof tear-off (up to ~30 squares of shingle), full basement gut, large yard cleanup, small commercial. The workhorse for serious projects.

40-Yard Bin

Roughly 22 ft × 8 ft × 8 ft. Great for: full-home gut renovation, commercial demo, large construction site, multi-property cleanout. We mostly rent these to other contractors.

Common Project Sizing

• Bathroom remodel: 10-yard. Maybe 15 if you're tearing out tile and a tub.
• Kitchen remodel: 15-yard typical. 20 if it includes flooring and structural changes.
• Roof tear-off: 1 yard per 100 sq ft of single-layer shingle. Double layers need 2× that.
• Deck removal: 10-yard for typical residential deck. 15 for large multi-level.
• Basement finish demo: 15-yard. 20 if there's old carpet and built-ins.
• Whole-home gut: 20–40 yard depending on size, often staged with multiple bins.
• Yard cleanup: 10-yard for typical residential. 15 for tree removal or significant landscaping.
• Garage cleanout: 10-yard usually. 15 if you're including shop equipment.

What You Can't Throw In

Hazardous materials, refrigerants, propane tanks, tires, batteries, paint, oil, and asbestos-containing materials all need special disposal. Concrete and dirt have their own rules — usually a "clean fill" dumpster at a different rate. We'll walk you through what works.

Rental Best Practices

1. Schedule delivery for the day work starts. A bin sitting empty for two days is two days of rental you didn't need.
2. Pick a flat, clear drop location. The truck needs straight overhead clearance and a level placement spot.
3. Don't exceed the fill line. Bins have an interior line — debris above it can't be safely tarped and won't be hauled.
4. Load heaviest items first. Stack to make use of the volume, not just the floor.
5. Lock or watch the bin. Mystery debris from neighbors and passersby is real — it counts against your weight cap.

How We Help

A to Z runs residential and contractor dumpster rentals across Iron County. We can drop a bin within 24 hours for most rental requests, swap full bins same-day on active projects, and bundle dumpster rental into our remodeling and earthwork work for cost savings.

Need a bin? Request an estimate with your project type and we'll size it for you.