Sizing guide
Kitchen cabinets, tile tear-outs, and whole-house phasing all load a dumpster differently — here's how Augusta homeowners should think through debris and container sizing before remodel day one.
Kitchen and bathroom remodels generate some of the heaviest, most awkwardly-shaped debris of any home renovation project, and homeowners in Augusta, Martinez, and Evans are often surprised by how fast a container fills once the demo crew starts swinging hammers. A typical kitchen gut job produces base and wall cabinets, laminate or solid-surface countertops, a section of drywall around the sink and range, old flooring, a range hood, sometimes a full appliance package, and whatever plumbing and electrical scraps come out with it. Cabinets in particular take up huge volume for their weight — a run of oak cabinets from a 1990s CSRA subdivision home can eat a third of a 10-yard container by itself, mostly air.
Bathroom remodels are smaller in square footage but pack in dense material: a cast-iron tub can run 300-400 pounds on its own, tile and thinset from a shower surround adds up fast, and a vanity with a stone or cultured-marble top is heavier than it looks. If the crew is also pulling a toilet, tub surround, and subfloor around a leaky shower pan — common in older Harlem, Hephzibah, and downtown Augusta homes with original 1950s-60s bathrooms — expect wet, moldy wood that adds weight without adding much reusable volume. The practical takeaway: for kitchens and baths, plan around weight and density, not just the box dimensions, because tonnage allowances get used up well before the container looks full.
Flooring is the material category that trips up more Augusta homeowners than any other, because a stack of boxed flooring looks compact in the store and feels like nothing to carry in, but tear-out is a different story. Old hardwood, especially the solid oak common in Summerville and other historic Augusta neighborhoods, is dense and heavy by the square foot. Ceramic and porcelain tile with a mortar bed underneath is even worse — a modest 200-square-foot bathroom and hallway tile tear-out, mortar included, can push 1.5-2 tons on its own. Carpet and pad are the opposite problem: bulky and light, they eat up cubic yards fast without weighing much, which is why carpet pulls from a whole-house recarpet rarely fill the tonnage allowance even when they fill the box.
Vinyl and laminate plank flooring split the difference, but older vinyl tile (especially anything installed before the 1980s) is worth flagging to your contractor before demo starts, since some older vinyl and its adhesive can contain asbestos and needs to be handled and disposed of differently than ordinary construction debris — a roll-off dumpster is not the right container for suspected asbestos material, full stop. For straightforward tile, hardwood, carpet, and laminate tear-outs with no asbestos concern, the general rule for CSRA homes is to assume tile and hardwood behave like “heavy” debris and carpet/pad behaves like “light” debris when you're picking a size, and to mention the flooring type when you call for a quote so the container and any tonnage allowance actually match the job.
Whole-house renovations across the CSRA — the kind of project that touches kitchen, baths, flooring, and maybe a room addition all in one contract — almost never fit in a single dumpster, and trying to force it into one is usually what leads to a driveway full of loose debris waiting on a second delivery. The more reliable approach is to phase the container around the work itself. A common pattern for a mid-size whole-house job in Martinez or Evans looks like this: an initial demo container for the gut-out phase (cabinets, old flooring, drywall, fixtures), a swap partway through for framing and drywall scrap once rough-in is done, and sometimes a smaller final container for finish-stage waste like packaging, trim cutoffs, and paint materials.
Swapping a container mid-project — having the loaded box pulled and an empty one dropped in its place — is a normal part of roll-off service and something worth planning into the schedule up front rather than calling for at the last minute, since swap timing depends on truck availability. For a whole-house job, it's worth having the conversation with your contractor about how many total loads the project realistically needs before the first container even arrives, because a project that's going to generate three loads of debris is usually cheaper handled as three scheduled swaps of a mid-size container than as one oversized box sitting mostly empty for six weeks while the crew works room by room.
One of the most common questions homeowners in Augusta and North Augusta ask is whether it's worth separating debris by material type — wood in one pile, drywall in another, metal set aside — or just throwing everything in one mixed container. The honest answer depends on what's in the load. A single dumpster with everything mixed together is almost always simpler logistically and is the default for most residential remodels, since a homeowner or small crew doesn't have the space or time to sort materials into separate piles on an active job site.
Where separating pays off is with two specific materials: metal and concrete/heavy debris. Scrap metal — old appliances, copper pipe, aluminum flashing, steel fixtures — often has scrap value and, more importantly, adds weight to a mixed load that eats into a tonnage allowance without adding volume. Pulling metal out and setting it aside (even just in a truck bed for a scrap run) keeps it off the tonnage meter for the main container. Concrete, brick, and other heavy debris are the other big exception: these materials are so dense that even a small amount can max out a standard construction dumpster's weight limit while barely covering the container floor, which is exactly why concrete and heavy debris typically get their own dedicated container and pricing rather than getting mixed into a general remodel load. For a typical kitchen/bath/flooring remodel with no significant concrete or scrap metal, mixing everything into one container is the practical choice — the savings from separating only start to matter once heavy material categories are involved.
For a mid-size remodel — think one kitchen, one or two bathrooms, and flooring in a handful of rooms, in an average CSRA single-family home — a 20-yard container is the size that fits the most jobs without going oversized. It has enough cubic capacity to swallow cabinetry, a tub, tile tear-out, and flooring debris from a project like that, while still coming with enough tonnage allowance to handle the weight without triggering overage charges on a normal load. A 15-yard can work for a single-room remodel (one bathroom, or a kitchen without much flooring involved), and a 10-yard is usually too tight for anything beyond a small bathroom-only gut job once tile and a tub are factored in.
Whole-house projects, additions, or remodels that include a full-home flooring replacement generally call for a 30-yard, or a 20-yard with a planned mid-project swap as described above. As a rough national 2026 market reference, homeowners typically see flat-rate pricing in the $350-$550 range for a 10-20 yard residential container in most mid-size metro markets, with 30-40 yard containers running higher — but that's a general range, not an Augusta quote, and actual pricing depends on the specific job, weight, and location. The most reliable way to size a remodel container correctly is to describe the actual scope — number of rooms, whether tile or hardwood is involved, whether cabinets and a tub are coming out — when you call, since that tells us more than square footage alone.
Where the container sits matters as much as its size. Most CSRA remodel dumpsters sit on a driveway for the length of the project, which keeps things simple. If a driveway isn't available and the container needs to sit in the street, on a curb strip, or anywhere in the public right-of-way, Augusta-Richmond County requires a Right-of-Way Encroachment Permit, administered by the Augusta Engineering Department, before it's placed there — a dumpster kept entirely on private property such as a driveway generally does not need one. For homeowners in the other CSRA towns we serve — Martinez, Evans, Grovetown, Hephzibah, Blythe, Harlem, Appling, Waynesboro, Thomson, and the South Carolina towns of North Augusta, Aiken, Clearwater, Belvedere, Burnettown, and New Ellenton — we haven't verified a specific municipal permit rule for street placement, and rules vary town to town, so it's worth a quick call to that town or county office to confirm before ordering if the container can't stay on your driveway.
Beyond permits, remodel containers also need a spot with roughly the same footprint as a parked pickup truck plus swing room for the delivery truck's cable and rails, and overhead clearance if there are low tree limbs or power lines near the driveway — something to walk your delivery through when scheduling, especially on older Summerville or downtown Augusta lots with mature trees close to the house.
Talk to a real person
Call (762) 320-6882 and describe the job. Flat price, stated tonnage allowance, and a delivery window on the same call.
Mon–Sat 7:00am – 7:00pm
From this guide
For a typical single kitchen plus one or two bathrooms in an average CSRA home, a 20-yard container is usually the right fit — it has the cubic capacity for cabinets, tub, and tile debris along with enough tonnage allowance to handle the weight. A 15-yard can work if the project is smaller in scope, such as one bathroom without flooring changes.
Not usually. For a standard kitchen, bath, and flooring remodel with no significant concrete or scrap metal, mixing everything into one container is the simplest and most cost-effective approach. Separating pays off mainly for scrap metal and concrete or heavy debris, which are dense enough to affect weight limits and are typically better handled in a separate load.
Ceramic and porcelain tile are fine for a standard construction dumpster. Older vinyl flooring, especially anything installed before the 1980s, should be flagged to your contractor before demo, since some older vinyl and its adhesive can contain asbestos, and suspected asbestos material should not go in a roll-off container.
If the container stays entirely on private property, such as your driveway, a permit generally isn't required in Augusta-Richmond County. If it needs to sit in the street or public right-of-way, Augusta requires a Right-of-Way Encroachment Permit through the Augusta Engineering Department. For the other CSRA towns we serve, we recommend calling your town or county office to confirm local rules before ordering.
Most whole-house remodels need more than one load. A common approach is an initial container for demo debris (cabinets, old flooring, drywall, fixtures), a swap partway through for framing and rough-in scrap, and sometimes a smaller final container for finish-stage waste. Planning the number of swaps with your contractor before the first container arrives keeps the schedule and the driveway both under control.
Keep reading
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