Weight limits
Skip bin weight limits, and how to stay under them
Every bin has a weight limit as well as a size, and the two are not the same thing. This is the part of skip hire that catches people out, so it is worth five minutes.
Volume gets you a bin. Weight decides what fits in it.
A skip is sold by volume, in cubic metres, because that is what you can see. What limits it is weight, for two reasons that have nothing to do with us: a loaded truck has a legal maximum it can carry on the road, and the facility at the other end charges by the tonne.
That gap is why the same bin can be right for one job and wrong for another. A cubic metre of mixed household waste is light. A cubic metre of soil weighs well over a tonne. Fill a 6m³ bin with the first and it travels fine; fill it with the second and it cannot legally be lifted.
The rule of thumb
If you can feel a shovel of it in your back, it is heavy waste and it belongs in its own bin. Soil, brick, tile and concrete all count. So does anything wet.
Ask what the allowance is before you book.It changes with the bin size and it is the one number you cannot work out by looking.
Four ways a load goes over
None of these are unusual and none of them are anyone being careless. They are just how the maths works out.
Heavy waste in a general bin
Soil, brick, tile and concrete are dense enough that a bin can be a quarter full and already at its limit. This is the most common one by a distance.
Rain in an open bin
An uncovered bin left out in Hunter weather collects water, and soaks whatever is already in it. Carpet, plasterboard and soil all get much heavier wet.
A load heaped above the rim
A skip has to travel level with its rim to be carried legally. Anything above that line comes off before the truck moves, or the truck does not move.
One heavy item nobody mentioned
A pallet of pavers, a bathtub, an engine block or a slab of concrete off a path can use most of an allowance on its own.
What happens if a load goes over
Bins are weighed at the facility, not on your driveway, so an overweight load is usually discovered after the bin has been collected. The weighbridge docket is what settles it, and an excess weight charge is added to the invoice for the amount over the allowance. It is charged on top of the hire rather than instead of it.
That is the outcome nobody wants, and it is avoidable in almost every case, because it comes from a load being different to the one that was quoted. Describe the material when you enquire and the bin gets sized against it from the start.
The other outcome
If a bin is obviously over, or heaped above the rim, the driver may not be able to lift it at all. The truck has a legal limit and a load that breaches it cannot go on the road. In that case the options are to take material out before it goes, or to book a second bin.
Ask what the rate is
The allowance that comes with each bin, and what an extra tonne costs, are set by the operator. Both are fair questions to ask before you book, and you should have the answer in writing with your quote.
Staying under the limit
- Book heavy waste as heavy waste. A smaller bin loaded to its limit beats a big bin you cannot fill.
- Keep soil, brick and concrete out of a general load, even a bucket or two.
- Cover the bin, or tarp it, if rain is coming before pick-up.
- Break bulky items down and load flat, so the volume you are paying for is the volume you use.
- Load heavy material along the base rather than at one end, which keeps the bin safe to lift.
- Tell us what is going in when you enquire, and we will size it against the weight rather than the volume.
Not sure how heavy your load is?
Describe what you are clearing out and we will size the bin against the weight, not just the volume, before anything is booked.