The headline comparison
A skip looks cheaper per cubic yard, and on paper it usually is. What the paper doesn't include is the permit if it's going on a public road, the hire period, the fact that you fill it yourself, and the strict rules about what you're allowed to put in it.
Our removal loads are £160 + VAT for a quarter, £290 half, £390 three-quarters and £550 full, and that price includes two people, the lifting, the carrying and the disposal. The comparison that matters isn't skip price versus load price — it's skip price plus permit plus your weekend versus our price.
For small to medium jobs, and for anything where the waste is inside the house, removal usually wins outright. For a long renovation producing a steady stream of rubble, a skip on a driveway often wins.
The costs people forget
The permit is the big one. If a skip goes anywhere other than your own driveway, you need permission from the council, and the cost and lead time vary by local authority. On a Glasgow or Edinburgh tenement street, where nobody has a driveway, this applies to essentially everyone.
The overnight filling is real too, and it's the complaint we hear most. An open skip on a residential street collects other people's rubbish, and you pay to dispose of it.
- Road permit from the council
- Lights and markings on a public road
- Extra days beyond the hire period
- Overloading charges
- Prohibited items removed at your cost
- Your own time loading it
- Neighbours filling it overnight
No permit, no waiting, no lifting
We load it ourselves and take it the same day. Send a photo and compare it against your skip quote.
What you can't put in a skip
Skips are more restricted than people expect. No fridges or freezers, no TVs or electricals, no mattresses at many operators, no tyres, no paint or solvents, no gas bottles, no asbestos, and no plasterboard mixed in with general waste.
That list covers a large proportion of what's actually in a house clearance. So you hire a skip, fill it with what's allowed, and then still need a separate solution for the fridge, the mattress, the telly and the tins of paint in the garage.
We take all of those in the same load — electricals under WEEE (anything with a plug or a battery) rules through WEEE disposal, mattresses through mattress removal, and plasterboard kept separate as covered in our plasterboard guide.
Which one to pick for your job
Choose a skip if: you've got a driveway, the job runs over days or weeks, it's mostly inert (the heavy stuff — rubble, concrete, brick and soil) rubble and soil, and you're happy loading it. A long garden or renovation project is the classic case.
Choose removal if: the waste is inside the house, it's on a street with no driveway, you want it gone the same day, you can't or don't want to lift it, or the load includes appliances, mattresses or electricals. Almost every house clearance falls here.
For heavy inert waste specifically, we price by weight at £149 per tonne, which is often competitive with a skip and doesn't need a permit — that's concrete and rubble removal.
