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How Many Dumpsters Would a House Demolition Require?

When demolishing a house, you will need dumpsters to place the waste and have it taken away by the providers. This is because you do not want to have waste lying all over your property after a demolition project. Although you know that you need a dumpster to hold the demolition waste, you might not know the number of dumpsters you need to fulfill this purpose. This is the main reason we decided to write this article to provide you with a formula to know the number of dumpsters you will need for a house demolition project.

The Number of Dumpsters You Need for a Demolition Project

The total number of dumpsters you need to carry the waste after demolishing your house depends on a variety of factors such as the materials used to build it and its size.

house demolition dumpster full
If your house is 1,000 square feet, you might need 3.5 dumpsters (40-yard dumpsters) to carry about 135 cubic yards of debris. If your house is 2,000 square feet, you might need 6.75 dumpsters (40-yard dumpsters) to carry about 270 cubic yards of debris. If your house is 3,000 square feet, you might need 10.5 dumpsters (40-yard dumpsters) to carry 405 cubic yards of debris.

The Number of Dumpsters You Need in Detail

For a better understanding, let us have a look at the dumpsters you need to demolish a 2,000 square foot house. It is good to note that results may vary because houses are different, in terms of the way they are built and the materials used to build them. Some factors that might affect the number of dumpsters you need include whether your house is made of concrete, wood, or brick.

Dumpsters You Need From Home Debris

To analyze the number of dumpsters you may need for house demolition, let us have a look at the volume coming from home debris like wood, roofing, drywall, lathe, and any other materials making up the home. Remember, this part only looks at the debris from the house and does not include the concrete foundation.

Calculating the volume, in terms of cubic yards, of the demolition waste is quite easy because it entails converting your house’s cubic footage to cubic yards while paying attention to the air space in the house, which is usually 0.33. Therefore, let us say a house has 2,000 square footage and is two stories with dimensions of 40ft by 25ft and with a height of 20ft, this would mean that you are working with 244.4 cubic yards of debris. This comes about after the calculation: (40 x 25 x 20 x 0.33) /27, which equals to 244.4. To get the number of dumpsters needed, simply divide 244.4 by the cubic yard capacity of the dumpster you are getting. For instance, if you are getting 30 cubic yard dumpsters, then you will need about 8 of them.

Dumpsters Needed For Concrete Debris

Dumpsters needed for the concrete have to be calculated separately from the ones needed for the home debris. This is because these two types of wastes need to be considered as separate loads. A concrete load has to be dumped at the recycler instead of a normal landfill. Therefore, it is not a good idea to mix concrete with other types of waste.

To calculate dumpsters for concrete debris, you have to understand that the average foundation is about 8 and 10 inches in thickness. For instance, say the thickness is 8 inches and the 2,000 square foot house was built on a concrete slab. If you have a crawlspace or a basement, you have to calculate the concrete separately then add everything together.

A concrete slab foundation will produce 24.8 cubic yards of concrete debris. This comes about from this calculation: (40 x 25 x 0.67)/27. Since concrete is quite heavy, it cannot fit in a 30-yard dumpster because the concrete will be weighing over 50 tons. The average weight of concrete is about 4,000lbs per cubic yard. This means that 25 cubic yards of concrete debris will weigh 100,000lbs. In such a situation, 10 to 20-yard dumpsters would be required to carry all the waste.

Proper disposal of the waste and debris coming out of a construction project is quite important. In fact, disposal plays a major role in the overall cost of demolishing a house. Despite knowing the importance of a dumpster, you might not know the number of dumpsters you need to carry all the demolition waste that you have. You do not want to hire too many dumpsters or less than you actually need. This is the main reason why it is important to have the formula to help you out. However, for the best possible number, you might want to ask an expert to give you an estimate of the number of roll-off dumpsters you need. Your dumpster provider should be in a position to do this for you.