Skip Hire Dos and Don’ts

Hiring a skip is a perfect option if you want to remove waste from a location at a more leisurely pace. Having a skip on your driveway means you can perform the job of removing and storing rubbish over a number of days. This is especially useful if the scenario demands it, such as a renovation that could take weeks or months.

If you haven’t used a skip before you may be unsure of what items, you can put into it and what types of rubbish removal jobs a skip is best suited to. This blog has been split into two simple categories skip hire: dos and skip hire don’ts.

Skip hire dos

Fill to level load

It’s important to not overfill your skip. The actual height of the skip serves as the perfect guide, so once waste begins to reach the top you should consider getting the skip emptied. Overfilled skips are dangerous as they become too heavy to safely lift.

Furniture

Perfect for house clearances, you can use skips to dispose of old furniture. You should try to dismantle furniture as much as possible to lay the waste flat and get as much use out of your skip as possible.

Plastic

This difficult to get rid of material is fine to be placed into your hired skip.

Keep on private property

Although you can place skips on the road or even in parking spaces, this requires extra documentation and extra costs. If possible,it’s best to keep a skip on your own property to keep costs down.

Wood

Whether it’s from your garden or just pieces of scrap in your garage, you can safely put wood into a skip.

Acquire permits if necessary

The best part of using an efficient skip hire service provider such as ourselves is that we’ll acquire any extra documentation you require on your behalf.

Check weight limit

If you are unsure, you should enquire about the weight limit of your skip to ensure you don’t exceed it when filling your skip.

Allow for easy access

Skips are delivered by trucks that will need clear access to your desired delivery spot.

Cardboard

Skips are perfect to get rid of an excess of cardboard packaging especially if you’re already hiring a skip for another task.

Commercial customers

Roll-on roll-off (RoRo) skips for example are perfect for removing a large amount of waste from commercial settings.

Office furniture

Office clearances are a common job that requires large masses of items to be removed conveniently. Again, RoRo skips are perfectly suited to this job.

Skip hire don’ts

Park in front of the skip

Obstructing access to your skip on the day of your collection can result in us being unable to collect your skip and you’ll have to rebook your collection and pay for it again.

Liquids

Liquids should not be stored inside a skip as they can spill and create a mess that is not suited to a skip rubbish removal.

Asbestos

This is a very specialist type of waste that must be professionally and carefully removed, and it is definitely not to be put into skips.

Batteries

Batteries can be disposed of properly at places such as supermarkets. They should not be put into bins or skips as they can cause fires at waste processing plants.

Cover manholes

If you must place a skip on the road, ensure there are no manhole covers in your desired space.

Petrol

You can get rid of petrol, diesel, and other oils at your council’s waste centre.

Fridges, Freezers and other Electrical Items

Getting rid of items such as these is much better suited to our ‘Man and Van’ removal service.

Gas canisters

This is another type of waste that requires specialist care to be removed and should not be put into your skip even if they’re empty.

Set fire to waste

This should be obvious but just in case: don’t set fire to items in your skip. This is also why it’s important that you don’t add items like gas canisters as these can cause an unintentional fire.

Tyres

This is another type of waste that should be disposed of via your local council’s waste centres and tips. Some accept limited amounts of tyres for free while others will charge so be sure to check.

Paint

You should only put a paint can into a skip if it is completely empty. This means there shouldn’t be masses of dried paint in the bottom of the can as this is considered hazardous waste.

Fluorescent tubes

Fluorescent tubes can contain a couple of hazardous materials such as mercury. We can collect items such as these with our ‘Man and Van’ service for an extra charge.

Soil, bricks and dense waste

When hiring a skip, you should avoid using it for heavy and dense waste such as soil and bricks. This is because it’s hard to judge whether you’ve exceeded your weight limit.

Skip Hire with Clearabee

Looking to hire a skip? We’ll make life easy with our national skip hire service. At Clearabee we pride ourselves on providing convenient services so if we think you’d benefit from a quicker service we may recommend our ‘Man & Van’ service which can be at your door and clear your waste on a same-day basis. If you need any more questions answered regarding skips or any other Clearabee service, get in touch as we’re happy to help.