Dumpster Size Guide for Midland and the Permian Basin

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How to estimate debris volume without guessing

Picture a cube measuring three feet on every side, or 27 cubic feet. It is the only unit a roll-off is sold in, and almost nobody thinks in it, which is why sizing goes wrong so predictably. Stop estimating the pile and measure it. Push the material into a rough rectangle, the way it would sit inside a container, then take three numbers in feet: long, wide, tall. Multiply, divide by 27. A pile 12 feet long, 8 wide and 4 high is 384 cubic feet, or 14.2 cubic yards. That is a 15-yard box, and finding out took thirty seconds.

Measuring beats eyeballing because sprawl reads as volume and is not. Debris scattered ankle-deep across a two-car garage looks like a mountain and measures like a 10-yard box. Stacked tight against one wall it looks like nothing and measures the same. Sizing off the sprawl is the most common route to paying for a 30-yard container that leaves with 12 yards in it.

When a tape measure is not practical, count containers instead. Furniture and packaging sit close enough to known volumes that a walkthrough with a notepad lands within a yard or two of the truth.

• 1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet = a cube 3 ft on a side
• Full-size pickup bed, level with the rails: 2 to 2.5 cubic yards. Heaped, call it 3.
• Mid-size or short-bed pickup, level: 1.3 to 1.5 cubic yards
• 33-gallon contractor bag of household debris: nine bags to the cubic yard
• Standard 1.5 cubic foot moving box: 18 boxes to the cubic yard
• Three-seat sofa: 2 to 2.5 cubic yards as it sits, about half that stood on end
• Queen mattress and box spring together: about 2 cubic yards, and neither compresses
• Full-size refrigerator or upright freezer: 1.3 to 1.5 cubic yards
• One roofing square, 100 square feet of stripped shingle: about half a cubic yard loose
• Loose irregular debris: add 15 to 25 percent for air. Anything that flattens or nests, such as cardboard, sheet goods and cabinet carcasses: subtract.

The 10 to 40 yard ladder, in units people actually use

Exact dimensions differ slightly by fleet, so ask before booking. The rungs sit further apart in capacity than in price: each step up costs $50 to $100 here, while a second delivery costs an entire second rental. Published Midland rate cards start at 15 yards; a 10-yard box exists mainly as a heavy-material container and gets quoted rather than listed.

Between two adjacent sizes, let the material decide rather than the nerves: size up for light bulky debris, size down for anything dense.

• 10 yard, about 12 by 8 by 3.5 feet, three to four level pickup loads. Built for density: a small patio slab, a sidewalk section, spoil off a footing trench, one tiled bathroom. Quoted by the ton.
• 15 yard, about 16 by 8 by 4 feet. Five to six pickup loads: one heavy garage, one room stripped, a fence teardown, or 15 to 18 roofing squares of single-layer shingle. Advertised locally at $350 to $400.
• 20 and 21 yard, about 22 by 8 by 4.5 feet, seven to eight pickup loads. Covers a two-car garage, a kitchen or bath remodel, or 20 to 25 roofing squares. Advertised locally at $399 to $450, and where most Midland households land.
• 25 yard, a rung many markets skip, listed by one local provider at about $500. Worth asking about when a 20 is tight but a 30 will not fit the drive.
• 30 yard, about 22 by 8 by 6 feet: the 20-yard footprint with taller walls. Ten to twelve pickup loads: a whole-house cleanout of a 1,500 to 2,500 square foot home, a large addition, a siding job, or a tear-off up to about 30 squares before tonnage caps it. About $550 locally.
• 40 yard, about 22 by 8 by 8 feet, fourteen to sixteen pickup loads. Strictly a jobsite box: torn-out cabinet carcasses, stud and joist offcuts, crating, shrink-wrapped pallet waste, commercial fit-out trash. About $650 locally. Eight-foot walls mean everything heavy gets lifted eight feet, and it is the wrong box for anything dense.

Weight versus volume, and which one actually bills you

Volume decides which container gets delivered. Weight decides what the invoice says. A roll-off quote here covers delivery, the rental period, pickup, disposal and a stated tonnage allowance; everything above that allowance bills per ton against a scale ticket. So the answer is both, with a caveat: volume is what people plan around, and weight is what produces the phone call afterward.

Allowances in this market run one to two tons on a 15-yard, two to three on a 20 or 21, and three to four on a 30 or 40, with overage commonly $50 to $100 per ton. Those figures vary further between providers than the headline rate does, which is how two containers advertised $50 apart finish $200 apart. Weight is easier to estimate than volume, because density barely varies: multiply cubic yards by pounds per yard, divide by 2,000, and check the result against the allowance.

Three examples show how far apart those densities land. A 20-yard box of household cleanout material at 250 pounds a yard weighs about 2.5 tons, right at a typical allowance. The same box of remodeling debris at 500 pounds a yard weighs 5 tons, two to three over, adding $100 to $300. Broken caliche hits a full legal load at three to four cubic yards, which is why that work gets a small box quoted by the ton.

Two local variables push weight the wrong way. Rain is scarce here, averaging a little over 13 inches a year, but an uncovered container that catches a convective downpour gains hundreds of pounds of absorbed water across drywall, carpet and insulation. Caliche off a Permian Basin lot is heavier damp than any table suggests. Covering a box is a weight decision as much as a wind decision.

• Mixed household junk and furniture: 200 to 300 pounds per cubic yard
• Yard waste, brush and small limbs: 300 to 500 pounds per cubic yard
• Dimensional lumber and framing scrap: 300 to 400 pounds per cubic yard
• Drywall and plaster: roughly 500 pounds per cubic yard
• Mixed remodeling and construction debris: 400 to 600 pounds per cubic yard
• Asphalt shingle tear-off: about 240 pounds per roofing square, so a 25-square single-layer roof lands near 3 tons
• Tile, brick, block and broken concrete: 2,000 to 4,000 pounds per cubic yard
• Caliche, hardpan and soil: 2,000 to 3,000 pounds per cubic yard, and more when damp

What fits, by project type

Project type is a faster route to the right size than a tape measure, because a given job produces fairly repeatable volume. The line worth reading is the binding constraint: whether space or tonnage stops the load first decides whether sizing up helps or wastes money.

• Two-car garage cleanout. Ten to sixteen cubic yards of mixed material. Take a 15 or 20 yard, $350 to $450. Binding constraint: volume, unless the garage holds tile, pavers or bagged concrete.
• Single-room remodel, bedroom or bathroom. Eight to fourteen cubic yards. Take a 15 yard. Binding constraint: weight, if a tiled floor or cast-iron tub is coming out.
• Kitchen remodel: cabinets, counters, flooring, drywall. Fifteen to twenty cubic yards. Take a 20 or 21 yard, $399 to $450. Binding constraint: weight, if the counters are stone. One granite run can add half a ton.
• Roof tear-off, single layer. Half a cubic yard and 240 pounds per square. A 15 covers about 18 squares, a 20 up to 25, a 30 about 30. Binding constraint: always weight. A second layer doubles tonnage and barely changes volume.
• Whole-house cleanout, 1,500 to 2,500 square feet. Twenty-two to thirty cubic yards once furniture is broken down. Take a 30 yard, about $550. Binding constraint: volume. Two 20s cost more than one 30.
• Flooring replacement, carpet and pad. About one cubic yard per 300 to 400 square feet pulled, so a whole house rarely exceeds a 15. Binding constraint: volume, until tile enters it.
• Deck, fence or shed teardown. Ten to twenty cubic yards of lumber and panels. Take a 15 or 20. Binding constraint: volume, though pulled concrete footings flip it to weight.
• New construction or commercial fit-out jobsite. A 30 or 40 on a swap schedule, $550 to $650 per pull. Binding constraint: volume, because framing scrap and packaging are bulky and light. The one job where a 40 is the right answer.
• Concrete, caliche, dirt or masonry removal. A 10 or 15 yard only, quoted by the ton. Binding constraint: weight, always. Three to four cubic yards is a full legal load.
• Estate or hoarding cleanout. Twenty to forty-plus cubic yards, often across more than one container because sorting runs over days. Binding constraint: the calendar more than the size.

The five sizing mistakes that cost the most

Four of these cost money directly. The fifth costs a week. All are avoidable in the ten minutes before a container is ordered.

• Sizing to the sprawl instead of the stack. Material spread across a floor reads two to three times its measured volume, and the impression is what gets ordered against. Measure, divide by 27, and buy the box the arithmetic asks for.
• Assuming bigger is always safer. It is, for framing scrap and cabinetry. It is the reverse for concrete, caliche, tile, brick and shingles, where the extra yardage cannot legally be filled and per-ton billing applies anyway. A 30-yard on a concrete tear-out is money spent on air.
• Comparing headline prices without comparing tonnage. A $350 fifteen-yard with one ton included and $100-per-ton overage finishes above a $400 fifteen-yard with three tons included on any load past a ton and a half. Three numbers make a quote comparable: rate, included tonnage, overage rate.
• Not checking that the box can get there and sit there. Delivery needs a straight run of roughly 60 feet, a lane 10 to 12 feet wide, and nothing overhead, because the hoist arm swings up past the cab. Carports, low branches and service drops decide placement more often than the ground does.
• Loading above the top rail, or leaving light debris uncovered. A container loaded proud of the rails cannot be covered for transport, so it does not get taken, turning one rental into a rental plus a trip fee plus another week. West Texas adds a second reason: the local record gust is 111 mph, so batt insulation, builder paper and flattened cardboard end up two streets over.