May 19, 2004
The Basement Chronicles Part IA - Dumpster Talk
filed under: Demolishments and Renewvations , Idle Chatter(Click here for Parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, or VII)
I mentioned in passing, in "Basement Chronicles Part I," that I was ordering a dumpster to remove the demolished remains of our downstairs living area. Never having ordered a construction dumpster, I was at a loss as to where to start - and I discovered that, unsurprisingly, the construction dumpster rental industry does not have an extensive online presence.
So I wrote down the phone numbers off the two construction dumpsters I passed on my way to work, and called them. As the emptiest of public services, since there is little chance that anyone who will read this will EVER need to order a construction dumpster, here is what you need to know:
Dumpsters are classified by the "yard," which makes no sense at all since they're not measured in yards. Thus, a "five yard" dumpster is 8' wide by 11' long by 2' tall. A "ten yard" dumpster is 8' wide by 11' long by 4' tall. You're not allowed to overfill them, but if you don't make the full ten yards by fourth down, I think you're supposed to punt.
WM WASTE MANAGEMENT ("Think Green!") has nice, clean, green dumpsters, with fancy stickers of their logo on the side. But their smallest size is ten yards, for which they charge - GET THIS - $620. That's right. Six HUNDRED and twenty dollars, for the honor of having a big green slab outside your house for four days and then having them take it away again.
CROWN, on the other hand, has ugly beat up dumpsters with their phone number badly painted on the side. This, I thought, was much more promising. They carry five yarders (listen to me, I'm up on the lingo) and charge $305. They're dropping one in front of our house tomorrow and it will remain in our custody for four days. I'll post pictures, since I can think of no conceiveable way this will be of interest to anyone.
The moral of this story is: try to never have more to throw away than can legally fit in the cans you already have out front.
Posted by rjt at May 19, 2004 03:46 PM