ClickaSkip’s Ultimate Skip Size Guide

As the seasons change, so does your garden, and for a lot of people that means doing a big garden clearance once or twice a year. When it comes to these green waste and garden clearance activities, we strongly recommend the 4 yard skip, as it’s uncommon to produce a greater volume of waste than this. If your garden clearance involves a conservatory demolition or a total landscaping project, we recommend a 6 yard Standard Builders Skip.

If your garden clearance project takes place on a particularly large estate, and involves some orangery or construction demolition, as well as a considerable amount of green waste, it may, in some cases, we worth opting for the 8 yard Small Industrial Skip.

Kitchen refurbishments are one of several home renovation projects that create a considerable amount of waste. It’s better, in these instances, to hire a 6 yard Standard Builders Skip, as a minimum. If you take great care in the dismantling of your kitchen, and you find that there is a lot of reusable equipment and materials, it may be possible to reduce your waste needs and instead opt for a 4 yard Extra Large Mini Skip. If your kitchen refurbishment involves knocking walls down, and you’re going to be generating construction waste, it’s advisable to choose the 6 yard skip.

Due to the nature of a small building project, with a lot of materials or all different types and sizes being picked up and thrown into the skip, it’s best to have an open skip. In terms of size, a 6 yard Standard Builders Skip is the best option, in fact, it’s in the name! A small building project is likely to generate general waste, soil waste, recyclable materials, and a mixture of inert materials, like concrete, aggregates, ceramics, steel and plastics. All of these items are great to put in the skip.

If your small building project looks like it might actually be a medium or large sized project, and your estimations are optimistic, it’s better to be safe than sorry and upgrade to an 8 yard skip.

If you’re clearing a large garage or a storage lot of a similar nature, it’s common to have a mixture of junk, bulky furniture, and miscellaneous waste. If there’s a lot, and it’s looking like a daunting amount, we recommend going for the 8 yard Small Industrial Skip. If there are items among the garage clearance waste that you don’t wish to be stolen, it’s important that you opt for the 8 yard Enclosed Skip.

Depending on the size of the house, we would recommend at least an 8 yard Small Industrial Skip, as there is likely to be a lot of bulky waste to fit inside. Be cautious that your skip must be a level load, so no items can be poking out of the top. If you have bulky furniture to put in the skip, say for example a wardrobe, you’d be best placed breaking it down into its pieces. If that’s not possible, and you need a taller or longer skip, try the 12 yard Large Industrial Skip.

This is a tricky one, because offices can be huge, or they can be small. If you have a team clearing the offices and that waste is destined for the skip, the rule of thumb is that it takes a whole day to fill 6 Standard Builders Skips, which are 6 cubic yards each. Do you have that much waste, or would you be better off with fewer larger skips, such as the 12 yard Large Industrial Skip? We recommend hiring a skip one size bigger than you think you need. It’s also a good idea to try and donate or reuse as much of the office equipment as possible to avoid having to fill your skip with it.

As well as the various sizes, there are actually four different types of skip. Here at ClickaSkip, we hire out the two most common ones, the open skip, and the closed skip. The open skip has no cover or doors, whereas the closed skip can be shut completely and is lockable to stop waste being taken, or other people dumping their waste inside.

There is also the Roll-on Roll-of (RORO) skip, which is a huge open skip that is rolled on and off of lorries with the help of a hook, as opposed to a chain. They are much bigger than traditional skip.

Mobile skips are set on a four-wheeled trailer so that they can be dragged by a vehicle instead of being lifted onto the back of a truck.

Here at ClickaSkip, we offer open skips in 4 yard, 6 yard, 8 yard, and 12 yard options, with just the 8 yard skip being available to hire as an enclosed or covered version.

If you have the space to store your skip privately, you shouldn’t have a problem putting it in your parking space or driveway, the main thing to be considered is that we will require a width of 3.3m to get the lorry in to unload.

If you don’t have space on your private land, you will need to place the skip on a public highway, which requires permits, and in some cases, reflective lights.

See our Ultimate Guide To Skip Hire for more information.

It is sometimes the case that opportunists will see your skip in one of two ways. Firstly, they may see the contents as unwanted items that they can rummage around in and take from. The second way is that they may see the empty space in your open skip and they will try to add their own waste to it, often at night when nobody is watching. For these reasons, sometimes it’s preferable to get a lockable skip.

No. Your skip must be a level load, meaning no items can be poking out of the top. If you have ordered a skip that is not big enough, you will need a second skip for the surplus waste.

The word ‘Yard’ is commonly used to describe the size of a skip, and as a skip is 3-dimensional, the yards are cubed. For example, what is meant by a ‘4 yard skip’ is actually a 4 yards³ skip, but the cubed is implied.

A yard is 91.44cm, or three feet.

From our experience, the most common skip is the 6 yard Standard Builders Skip, as it is multi-purpose, can take a heavy load, and is easy to drop off and collect.

For our larger skips, which are between 6 cubic yards and 12 cubic yards in volume, we need a minimum of around 3.0m of width, or 9ft 10 inches, just to be sure. For our smallest skip, the 4 cubic yard option, a clearance width for access should be at least 2.0m, or 6ft 7 inches.

Two other things to consider for private placements are the strength of the ground surface, as both our vehicles and skips are very heavy, and height clearance, as our vehicles are tall. We don’t want any issues with cracks or sinking on your property, and neither do you.

• Mini skips are the smallest skips in the industry, the 2 yard or 4 yard options. These are great for spring cleans, garden clearances, or any clearance project where the volume of waste will be relatively small. They are perfect for sitting on your driveway as they take up a small space.
• Midi skips are generally 3 or 4 yard options, it depends on which waste management company you hire from. At ClickaSkip, we consider a 4 yard skip to be an Extra Large Mini Skip, as opposed to a midi skip. Midi skips are also great for domestic projects and can sit comfortably on your driveway.
• Large skips are considered to be the 8 yard and 12 yard skips, in our case, the Small Industrial Skip, and the Large Industrial Skip. These options are best for larger waste clearance projects where around 130 bin bags of waste equivalent will be thrown out. The large skips are much bigger than the midi and mini skips, and so there must be ample space around them for delivery, collection, and loading. Remember that only a small amount of heavy waste should be placed inside so that the collection truck can lift it.
• Builders skips, not to be forgotten, are 6 yard skips that are the most popular option for hire. Occasionally some skip hire companies will hire 8 yard builders skips, but the 6 yard Standard Builders Skip is more common, and is ideal for construction projects where there will be a lot of heavy waste.

The same lorries that arrive at your property and deliver a 4 yard, 6 yard, and 8 yard skip, are the same lorries that deliver a 12 yard skip. For this reason, it is not possible for the same lorry to pick up an 8 yard or 12 yard skip that is full of heavy inert materials, like brick, metal, soil and aggregate.

As a general rule of thumb, one cubic yard of waste is equivalent to 1,000kg (1 tonne) of waste, and when you add the weight of the skip itself to this, you are looking at up to 15 tonnes that would need to be lifted for a full 12 yard skip. We advise not overfilling the skip with heavy inert materials, or they may have to be partially emptied.

1. Following your waste limits is great practice, but making sure you don’t put hazardous materials inside is even better, as this will cause a big problem at the other end. See our Ultimate Guide to Skip Hire here to see what can’t go in a skip.
2. When you are booking your skip, confirm with your skip hire company as to whether you need permits or not. Quite often, they will be able to get them approved on your behalf. You will need a permit if the skip is going on the road, so first make sure your driveway is big enough to handle a skip, otherwise you will need to go down this route.
3. Consider the security of your skip, and whether you are concerned about people stealing from your skip, or adding their own waste to it when you aren’t looking.

There are three final considerations in this Ultimate Skip Size Guide, and they are:

If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

Send any enquiries to info@clickaskip.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible, or why not try our LiveChat to get an even quicker response.