What size dumpster for flooring tear-out?
For carpet, pad, laminate or vinyl plank coming out of a typical house, a 15-yard can is the usual answer, and a 10-yard covers one or two rooms. Tile is the exception: ceramic or stone tile with its mortar is heavy enough that you hit the tonnage allowance long before the can looks full, so tile goes in a 10-yard sized by weight, not by square footage.
Size by what is coming up
Carpet and pad — bulky and light. Rolled tight and cut into manageable lengths, a whole house of carpet sits comfortably in a 15-yard; loose and unrolled it takes twice the room. Roll it, tape it, cut it.
Laminate, vinyl plank and engineered wood — light and packs flat if you stack it instead of pitching it in. One or two rooms is a 10-yard job; a whole floor of the house is a 15.
Solid hardwood nailed to a subfloor — heavier than it looks once the subfloor, sleepers and nails come with it. A 15-yard for most homes, and mention the subfloor when you ask for quotes.
Ceramic, porcelain or stone tile — a weight job. Thinset tile runs several pounds per square foot once the mortar and backer board come up with it, and old mud-set floors run a good deal more. A few hundred square feet can be a ton on its own, and quotes in this market typically include about 2 to 2.5 tons in total, with weight over that commonly running $50 to $100 per ton off the landfill scale ticket.
Check old vinyl before you pull it
A lot of Pine Belt houses were built or last floored before the 1980s, and vinyl floor tile from that era — especially the 9-inch-square tiles — along with the black mastic glue under it can contain asbestos. Sheet vinyl backing from the same period can too.
Asbestos is on every provider's prohibited list, and a load found to contain it is refused or handled at the customer's cost. More to the point, dry-scraping it is how it gets into the air in your house. If the floor is old and you are not sure, have a sample tested before the tear-out, not after it is broken up in the can. Mississippi's Department of Environmental Quality has guidance on residential asbestos.
Flood-damaged floors and when not to rent
After a storm or a burst pipe, wet carpet and pad weigh several times what they did dry. Sizing that you would trust for a remodel undershoots on a water job, so count the tonnage, not just the rooms. Also find out whether your city or county has announced a storm-debris pickup — after a named storm here, local governments typically run one, and paying for a can means paying for something that was about to be collected for nothing.
If it is one bedroom of carpet, a can is overkill. A few rolls fit in a pickup bed, and a county convenience site or a single landfill run is the cheaper call. Likewise, if an installer is laying the new floor, ask whether haul-off of the old one is already in their scope — flooring crews often include it or add it cheaply.
Pine Belt Dumpsters is an information site for the Hattiesburg, Petal and Laurel area. We do not own trucks, we do not haul and we are not currently taking orders, so nothing here is an offer, a price or a delivery — the figures above are what this market charges, published so you know what to ask before you call anyone.
Get in front of local providers
We’re not a hauler and we don’t quote prices. Tell us what the job is and we’ll pass your request to local dumpster providers who can service it. A request for contact, not an order — nothing booked, nothing charged.
More answers
- What does a dumpster rental cost in the Hattiesburg area? — What the market charges by size, what the tonnage allowance covers, and what adds cost.
- What size dumpster do you actually need? — Plain guidance on 10, 15, 20 and 30 yard cans and what each one really holds.
- Do you need a permit for a dumpster? — Private property vs the street, HOA rules, and who to call before delivery day.
- Dumpster rental or junk removal? — The honest comparison, including when junk removal is the better call.
- What can you put in a dumpster? — The allowed list, the prohibited list, and why the prohibited items matter.
Delivering across the Pine Belt
Hattiesburg · Petal · Oak Grove · Purvis · Sumrall · Laurel · Ellisville · Columbia · Lumberton · Wiggins