# How do you charge for removing garbage from your smaller jobs.



## needs glasses (Aug 12, 2014)

I recently got a new van.

Old van had a trailer hitch and I have an old home depot trailer. 
Trailer sits in my yard and when It's full I haul it off to the dump.

The trailer looks unsightly sat in my back yard all year round, also it takes up a space the size of a small car, I live in a city where real estate is really expensive and that space taken up year round has a cost to it. In theory it takes up a car parking space every month. 

I looked into getting a trailer hitch for my new van and was quoted $700 fitted. Also the trailer is about on it's last legs, so maybe spend $2000 on a new one. Also here I have to insure trailer for about $120 a year. 

So the trailer in the back yard is convenient, but I don't think I've really charged my customers for what it really costs me to take the junk away. 

What do you do with the junk from smaller jobs?


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## Framer53 (Feb 23, 2008)

I have trailer in my back yard I do the same with.
I charge 15/ bag for removal of trash from jobs. Everyone pays.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

Why would you haul other peoples garbage?

If it is my own debris, I just put it in the job, or don't. I take small loads with my own.


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## Spencer (Jul 6, 2005)

I have a dumpster at my home that gets dumped twice a month. Sometimes I wonder why I have it, sometimes I don't know how I'd live without it. Its for the jobs that are to small to use the dump trailer, but to much debris to leave the trash on site.

If I give a fixed price I have a line item figured in for trash haul away. If its a T&M job I just put a line item on the invoice for trash haul away. How much I charge depends on how much I take away.


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## needs glasses (Aug 12, 2014)

VinylHanger said:


> Why would you haul other peoples garbage?
> 
> If it is my own debris, I just put it in the job, or don't. I take small loads with my own.



Been on the sauce?


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## mikeswoods (Oct 11, 2008)

That is a good topic for discussion---
I have a dumpster at my house----I build in the cost of disposal for my work---
But sometimes I do haul out trash that is not mine --I'd like to make the trash more profitable---

The local Servepro estimator helped me a bit---she said they get $250 a load for a truck my size---so at least I have some idea of value.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

needs glasses said:


> Been on the sauce?


Not yet.  But soon.

I don't really consider my construction debris garbage. It is more just a product of the job. Like was said above, T&M, I just add the time to the dump and the dump fees. If it is a flat bid, it is just part of the misc. line on my bid. It usually isn't enough to worry about, though I don't have a problem with room to store my trailer.

Now I am off to hit the sauce. Who knows what I'll think on the subject when I'm done.


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## BRShomerepair (Jun 28, 2015)

Being a one man show, I always look for ways to avoid the grunt work.

I just call a rubbish removal guy to take it away, send a couple pics and a description, he gives me a quote. He comes by one day when I'm at the finishing point in a job, the only work I do is phoning him up and paying him. Obviously cost gets passed on to the HO. I don't miss sitting in traffic taking a bunch of bags to the dump.


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## mikeswoods (Oct 11, 2008)

I wish I had a fellow like that----


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## FrankSmith (Feb 21, 2013)

I have a 4 yard dumpster at my shop. It is about 5 feet from the back of the van. The garbage man comes and empties it every Monday morning. It costs me $90 a month.


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## Rhode Island (Mar 24, 2015)

Aside from being a contractor I also owner other businesses. One of the perks is dumpsters. I haul as much debris as I can in my truck so I leave the job as clean as possible. 

Customers don't know where the crap goes, but the one thing they do know is it better not be in their home or yard! If the job doesn't call for a dumpster you are stuck. Do you bring it to the dump or leave it for the HO. It's my belief the HO should not be impacted in any way, so that includes debris.


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## pcplumber (Oct 12, 2008)

Rhode Island said:


> Aside from being a contractor I also owner other businesses. One of the perks is dumpsters. I haul as much debris as I can in my truck so I leave the job as clean as possible.
> 
> Customers don't know where the crap goes, but the one thing they do know is it better not be in their home or yard! If the job doesn't call for a dumpster you are stuck. Do you bring it to the dump or leave it for the HO. It's my belief the HO should not be impacted in any way, so that includes debris.


The contractor should always remove the trash, but I have seen many contractors leave tons of trash. I saw one contractor remove three layers of roofing and he told an elderly woman to find her own company to remove the material after he dumped in on all 4 sides of her home. There are some unscrupulous people out there.

One thing my company does is when we remove our debris we also haul away tons of crap that the customers have laying around their home. We do this because at the end of the job a clean property makes our work look cleaner and the removal of the debris is always appreciated. We probably remove about 15 to 30 cubic yards of the customer's debris every month and I usually have to pay to have our three 3-yard trash bins dumped a few extra times every month making our trash hauling bill about $650 per month vs. the regular $450.


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## greg24k (May 19, 2007)

Estimate how much to haul the garbage off site and since there is good money in garbage don't forget to add so you can profit from it.


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## stumbleandbleed (Jun 18, 2015)

By the hr. plus fees like everything else. I kind of enjoy that part of the job. If it's a lot I sub it out and pass the bill down the line.


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## MDjim (Mar 15, 2011)

We do mostly insurance work, so we have the standard $250 per truck load line item in exactimate. We have a dump trailer that is parked at our office. So if it's a small amount of debris, it gets brought back, or I'll take the trailer to the job for bigger loads. Trailer gets dumped when it's full. We don't usually mind taking the random piece of furniture or junk for the homeowner.


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## pcplumber (Oct 12, 2008)

MDjim said:


> We do mostly insurance work, so we have the standard $250 per truck load line item in exactimate. We have a dump trailer that is parked at our office. So if it's a small amount of debris, it gets brought back, or I'll take the trailer to the job for bigger loads. Trailer gets dumped when it's full. We don't usually mind taking the random piece of furniture or junk for the homeowner.


We do insurance work and refuse to use X-actimate nor any other insurance company preferred software because the suggested prices are far too low.

When we sub hauling debris the lowest price we can get a truck load of debris removed is $600. We have a 5 cubic yard dump truck and the fee at the dump is $400. Even with our own truck, we have to pay labor for loading the truck, the truck driver's labor, fuel, dump fee and travel about 120 miles round trip to the dump. 

For insurance work, I have a minimum debris removal charge of $500 even if the debris is only a few contractor-size trash bags. Someone has to pay me for the three 3-yard storage bins I keep on standby for trash.


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## TNTCONSTREMOD (Jun 27, 2015)

We charge a minimum of $500 on a job that is bid for a week or longer and $20 per bag on everything else. Roofing is $15 per square


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## MDjim (Mar 15, 2011)

Must be regional on the dump prices. Our 10ft trailer fully loaded costs about $70 to empty. So we make out ok.


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## MDjim (Mar 15, 2011)

And on bigger jobs, it's 250 x however many loads are needed. Most jobs only need 1


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## SuperiorHIP (Aug 15, 2010)

Depending on the distance of the dump from the jobsite I will generally charge an hour plus the dumps minimum fee of $25 for small loads if it all can fit in the bed of my truck. If its a trailers worth from one job usually figure 4 hours plus $50 - $100 dump fee depending on what it is and how much I estimate it will weigh.


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## TNTCONSTREMOD (Jun 27, 2015)

We are on the line of 4 counties so we heave to take debris to the county landfill where it was generated we also have to prove with contact so we charge what the highest landfill charges plus labor and drive time. We have a 5 yard dump truck we use everyday when it's full we dump typical dump fee is nearly $450 for us on normal debris roofing is extra


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## pcplumber (Oct 12, 2008)

TNTCONSTREMOD said:


> We are on the line of 4 counties so we heave to take debris to the county landfill where it was generated we also have to prove with contact so we charge what the highest landfill charges plus labor and drive time. We have a 5 yard dump truck we use everyday when it's full we dump typical dump fee is nearly $450 for us on normal debris roofing is extra


$450 is crazy and about the same we pay. When I was young I remember the average dump fee was free or the highest was about $2. I remember when people wanted trash to fill in holes so they could build. Then, they built a school on landfill that created methane gas and it blew a huge hole in the school yard. Now, the dumps are all engineered with all sorts of systems for methane gas, underground pollution and the cost for the systems is probably hundreds of millions.


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

We have a 20 yard dumpster at the shop, call it when its full. We add a fee to cover time and dumpster space into every job, it gets marked up with the rest of the line items.

We also have a 20 yard Big Tex we take to the dump an 1.5 hr away for jobs that warrant it, its fee covers the equipment and its maintenance. Usually just call in a dumpster to a normal job. Sometimes the dumpster company i use is out of them and we resort to the dump trailer. We generally have several on jobs though, and we have the company move them to our shop sometimes in between a job if its 2 or 3 days, they are ok with it as we use a lot of their porta pottys and dumpsters and im buddies with the owner. Been using him since his first day in business.


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## GCTony (Oct 26, 2012)

We very rarely work T&M, if I wanted to do that I would be an employee of someone else. Every estimate we generate has a line item for an on site roll off construction dumpster(s). We very rarely transport trash, if we do, it's a couple trash cans that we dump in our small 3 yd. shop container that gets picked up weekly. It's just not worth the expense to pay our staff to deal with hauling trash and having an on-site container doesn't give our subs an excuse not to clean up their own messes.


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## SamM (Dec 13, 2009)

I often forget to add a line for small jobs (1 or 2 small bags). I usually just chuck them with the regular trash. I charge for two hours time plus a flat dump fee for every trailer load I think I'll end up taking out. A full dump trailer would cost max $100 if it had heavy stuff.


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## Big Shoe (Jun 16, 2008)

I figure all my clean up/ labor and dump fees at time of estimate.

Make sure trash/debris removal is covered in your proposal. You should get pretty good at figuring that out. (Owners think it magically disappears.)

I usually hall one trailer load to the dump on most jobs. The I ask homeowners what day their garbage pick up is. And put clean light loads on the curb in cans that I supply for the duration of the job.

Also, I sometimes bring home small loads that go on my curb on my pickup days. I respect my garbage guys and always give them easy to handle loads. I have at least a dozen trash cans designated for this.


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## T-Hussy (Mar 8, 2012)

We have a dumpster company called Tubs in our area. They offer 3yrd dumpsters for $100 each or two for $180. I use two of these on bath jobs. They are delivered with a boom truck and can be more precisely placed than large dumpsters.


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## Windwash (Dec 23, 2007)

T-Hussy said:


> We have a dumpster company called Tubs in our area. They offer 3yrd dumpsters for $100 each or two for $180. I use two of these on bath jobs. They are delivered with a boom truck and can be more precisely placed than large dumpsters.


I haven't gotten one from them in a while but I heard their prices have gone up about 50% from what you have stated.


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