Bin hire punishes imprecision from both directions: hire big and you pay to transport air, hire small and you pay a swap out fee every time the lid will not close. Precision is four questions, answered in order.
One: what is the volume per week, honestly?
Not total volume, rate. The range maps to rates:
- Wheelie bins (240L): the office, lunchroom and packaging stream
- Portable skip bins (3m to 15m): the general site range, most jobs live here
- Mobile skip bins (4m): skip volume with trailer mobility, their own guide covers when
- Hook bins (12m, 15m, 16m): bulk demolition, major strip outs, high output commercial sites
Estimating rule: demolition and strip out waste measures two to three times bulkier out of place than in place. The pile is always bigger than the room it came from.
Two: what is actually going in it?
Waste type sets weight, and weight sets limits before volume does:
- Mixed general waste: the default, any bin
- Concrete, brick, soil: weight limited, small bins collected often, never a big bin filled to the brim, it cannot legally leave
- Timber and green waste: bulky but light, big bins shine
- Metals: separate them on any job with volume, mixed loads landfill the scrap value
- Never, in any bin: asbestos, liquids, chemicals, batteries, gas bottles, all have dedicated routes, and discovery at the facility converts a routine collection into an expensive incident
Three: what can the site physically take?
Hook bins need a clear truck run and overhead room. Standard skips need crane truck reach to the placement point. If the answer to either is no, tight lane, height bar, basement, the mobile skip tows in where trucks cannot. Surface matters too: skids on decorative concrete become a reinstatement claim, so flag placement surfaces at booking.
Four: what does the schedule look like?
Short jobs want one generous bin collected once. Long jobs want a rhythm: bin sized to the weekly rate, standing swap out schedule, and stream separation, general plus metals plus a wheelie for the light stuff, which usually beats one big mixed bin on cost alone. Sites with amenities put liquid waste in waste tanks on a pump out cycle, a separate system covered in the non sewered site guide.
The worked example
Two storey office strip out, six weeks, loading dock access, no crane reach: a 12m hook bin in the dock for the bulk, swapped weekly; a mobile skip towed floor to floor zone as the strip progresses; dedicated metals bin for the ceiling grid and ductwork, which pays for itself; wheelie bins for the crew stream.
Specify it once
Volume rate, waste type, access, duration: with those four, the configuration prices in one pass. Request a quote or get in touch.