What Size Dumpster Do I Need in San Bernardino, CA?

Almost everybody estimates the volume of their project roughly right. What they get wrong is assuming volume is the constraint at all.

The question that actually matters

When somebody calls and asks for a 20 yard, the useful reply is not "sure, when would you like it." It is "what is going in it?" That answer changes the recommendation more than any estimate of cubic yardage.

Every roll-off has two limits: the space inside it, and a tonnage allowance set by what the truck can legally carry. You reach whichever comes first, and on a lot of San Bernardino jobs the weight limit arrives long before the container looks full.

Weight versus volume

Materials vary enormously in density. A cubic yard of loose household clutter might weigh a couple of hundred pounds. A cubic yard of broken concrete or decomposed granite weighs closer to two tons.

Roughly from lightest to heaviest per cubic yard: packaging and insulation, furniture and household contents, framing timber, drywall, decking, carpet, asphalt shingles, tile and stucco, brick and block, concrete, stone, and decomposed-granite spoil.

If your project sits in the top half of that list, order by volume and you will be fine. If it sits in the bottom half, order by volume and you will be paying overweight charges on a container that looks two-thirds empty.

The foothill soil factor

This is the local wrinkle worth its own section. The ground across the San Bernardino foothills is decomposed granite, rock and sandy alluvial soil - dense and heavy. So when you excavate a footing, a foundation, a pool or a grading job, the spoil that comes out is far heavier per cubic yard than the construction debris from the same job.

Any job that moves earth here produces spoil that dominates a disposal bill by weight. It belongs in its own dedicated 10 yard container, never mixed into general debris - it will hit the truck's weight limit while the box looks half full.

Underestimating decomposed-granite weight is probably the single most common sizing mistake on local excavation and hardscape jobs.

New subdivisions versus older homes

The Inland Empire is growing fast, so a lot of work is new construction and remodeling of newer homes across the subdivisions spreading around San Bernardino, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga and the metro. That housing produces bulky, light debris - drywall over stud, engineered flooring, packaging. You fill the box before you trouble the scale, so the larger container is usually right.

Older homes - around downtown San Bernardino, historic Redlands, the established Colton and Highland neighborhoods - give up denser material: heavier framing, plaster and stucco, layered flooring, sometimes masonry. That wants a smaller container filled properly. Older homes also raise the asbestos question, covered in its own article.

Size by size, honestly

10 yard. Twelve feet, one to two tons. The heavy-material container. Concrete, stucco, brick, stone and decomposed-granite spoil go here regardless of quantity, plus clean concrete kept for recycling. Also the one that fits tight and sloped foothill driveways.

15 yard. Fourteen feet, two to three tons. The one we recommend most often for dense demolition and renovation debris.

20 yard. Twenty-two feet, three to four tons. Most requested, right about half the time. Kitchen and bathroom together, a multi-layer roof, a large clearance.

30 yard. Six-foot walls, four to five tons. A volume container. Whole-house clearances, new construction framing, land-clearing debris.

40 yard. Eight-foot walls, five to six tons. Commercial work almost exclusively.

Project-by-project recommendations

Single bathroom remodel: 10 yard.

Kitchen alone: 15 yard in an older home, 20 in a newer one.

Kitchen and bathroom together: 20 yard.

Whole-house flooring: 20 yard, and tell us carpet or tile.

Asphalt roof tear-off: depends on squares and layers. Single layer, 15 yard. Multiple layers, 20 and expect it to look half empty when full.

Fully furnished family home clearance: 30 yard.

New construction or major addition: 30 yard, plus a 10 yard for the decomposed-granite fill.

Driveway, patio, pool deck or footing spoil: 10 yard, level, probably more than one.

Land clearing or defensible space: 30 or 40 yard for the bulky vegetative debris.

What the site will allow

Sometimes the material says one thing and the site says another.

A 30 yard needs around seventy feet of straight approach. A 10 yard needs about forty-five. On a short driveway, a tight lot or a sloped foothill approach, the larger container physically cannot be placed however much material you have.

Overhead clearance is the constraint people forget. The truck bed rises well above roof height when it tips - roughly twenty-three feet of clear air is needed. On tree-shaded streets, mature limbs stop more deliveries than narrow driveways do.

The fix is simple. Stand in the street, photograph the intended spot with the sky in frame, and send it when you call.

Getting it right in one call

Have four things ready and this takes ninety seconds: what the project is, roughly when the house was built, what the main material will be, and a photo of the spot from the street.

You will get a size recommendation and a flat rate covering delivery, the rental period, collection, recycling and disposal, and a tonnage allowance. If we think you have asked for the wrong container we will say so, including when that means selling you something cheaper.