Sizing · 6 min read
Picking the wrong size is the most common — and most expensive — mistake in renting a dumpster. Too small and you are calling for a second haul; too big and you have paid for air. Here is how we size it on the phone.
For most home projects in Jackson and across the metro, a 20 yard dumpster is the one to start with. It is our most popular size and handles kitchen and bath remodels, whole-home cleanouts, roofing and landscaping. Go 10 yard for a small remodel, a single-room or garage cleanout, or anything heavy — concrete, tile, asphalt or roofing. Go 15 yard for a garage, attic or basement cleanout, carpet and flooring, a small deck or fence, or yard waste. Go 30 yard for a multi-room renovation, an estate or rental-property cleanout, or an office or retail remodel, and 40 yard for full-scale construction, demolition and warehouse cleanouts. Not sure? Call (601) 821-2292 and we size it for you.
The jobs we size most: home renovations (kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, additions), roofing (old shingles and underlayment add up fast), estate cleanouts, construction sites and landscaping and yard cleanup — branches, brush, dirt and landscaping debris.
All five are open-top roll-offs about 7.5 feet wide. The 10 and 15 are shorter boxes; the 20, 30 and 40 share a 22-foot footprint and simply get taller. Trash bags are a rough guide to volume. The weight column is the allowance included in the flat rate.
| Size | Approx. L × W × H | Holds about | Weight included | Typical job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 yard | 14' × 7.5' × 3.5' | 50–70 bags | 1–2 tons | Small remodel, concrete, roofing |
| 15 yard | 16' × 7.5' × 4.5' | 80–100 bags, 4–5 pickup loads | 2–3 tons | Garage cleanout, flooring, yard debris |
| 20 yard | 22' × 7.5' × 4.5' | 110–130 bags | 3–4 tons | Renovation, roofing, landscaping |
| 30 yard | 22' × 7.5' × 6' | 170–190 bags, about 9 pickup loads | 4–5 tons | Whole-home cleanout, large remodel |
| 40 yard | 22' × 7.5' × 8' | 230–250 bags | 5–6 tons | Commercial construction, demolition |
A quick way to estimate: one pickup-truck load is about 2 cubic yards. Count the truckloads in the pile, double it, and you have the yards. Most people under-count, so when your estimate lands between two sizes, go up.
Volume and weight are two separate limits, and dense material hits the weight line long before the box looks full. Concrete, brick, dirt, tile and shingles are the usual heavy hitters. Those go in a 10 or a 15 loaded level — not a 20 heaped high — because a heavy box is unsafe to haul and goes past the tonnage the price includes. If more than half the load is dense, call us first; the smaller box usually saves money. Go over the allowance and the container is weighed and an overage fee applies; we tell you where the line is before you load.
Why weight and type matter at the gate: disposal is the biggest cost inside the price. The City of Jackson rubbish site in Byram charges $5.00 a cubic yard for construction debris, concrete, dirt and vegetation (City Code §106-148), and the City of Canton landfill publishes $38 a ton plus small fixed charges. Clean debris and mixed household junk also go to different kinds of site under state rules — the disposal guide explains it.
There is a height limit too. Keep everything below the top rim: an over-full container cannot legally be hauled, so it waits until the top comes off.
Allow 20 to 22 feet of length for the box, room for the truck to line up, and clear space overhead for the lift — watch for low limbs and overhead lines. Lay plywood or boards under the wheels if you want extra protection for the driveway. A 10 yard is the easiest fit in tight driveways and older neighborhoods.
Keep it on your own property where you can. Jackson City Code §110-61 makes it unlawful to put containers or any obstruction in a street, alley or sidewalk; the closest thing to a street permit is written authorization under §110-21 for building work. In Madison, the zoning ordinance wants temporary storage units on the driveway (§5.07.15). Ridgeland, Canton and Pearl have their own street rules. The city-by-city permit guide covers all 21 places we serve.
People sometimes try to feed a remodel through city pickup. It rarely works. In Jackson the second collection day takes up to 2 bulk items, green waste is capped at 2 cubic yards with limbs no thicker than 4 inches (§106-117), and the City will not collect construction debris — concrete, sand, brick, rock, carpet or wood — or limbs from contracted tree work (§106-116). Clinton Public Works takes rubbish piles no larger than seven feet long and five feet high. In Madison, Pearl, Brandon and Richland the collector will not take construction debris either, and Pearl, Brandon and Richland put it on the owner or contractor by code or city page. A dumpster is for the pile that is bigger, heavier or sooner than that.
And if the job mixes a slab, a roof and a kitchen, say so — we size for the weight, not the look of the pile. Describe the job on the phone and let us do the arithmetic.
Talk to a real person
Call (601) 821-2292 with the address and what is going in. A flat price and a delivery window before you hang up.
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From this guide
A 20 yard is the usual call for a kitchen or bath remodel. A small bathroom or single-room job can fit in a 10. If tile or a slab is coming out too, keep the heavy material level and ask about the weight allowance.
Our 10 and 20 yard containers are the ones we recommend for shingles, tar paper and underlayment. Shingles are heavy, so the weight allowance usually decides it, not the volume. Tell us the roof when you call.
A 15 or 20 yard suits yard waste, tree trimmings and landscaping debris. A 15 suits most garage and attic cleanouts; an estate cleanout with furniture usually needs a 30.
Usually. It is about 22 feet long and 7.5 feet wide, so plan on 20 to 22 feet of length plus room for the truck and clear space overhead. We found no City of Jackson permit written for a roll-off on your own driveway.
Keep reading
The rest of the series, same approach — official sources, no filler.
Permits
No Jackson permit written for a driveway roll-off; written authorization for the street. Across the 21 places we serve the rules run from hauler permits and bonds to a flow-control law in Canton. Every city, from its own code.
Read the guideCost
Jackson-area dumpster rentals typically run $350–$750. What is inside that number — the disposal gate, the weight allowance, the days, the drive — the public rates that are published, and the fees that are not.
Read the guideGuide
Everything in one place: how a roll-off rental works in Jackson, sizes and weights, what the City collects and what it will not, placement and permits, the demolition paperwork, the towns around the city, and what goes in the box.
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