The sun comes out and suddenly patios get re-laid, fences get replaced, sheds are emptied and loft clearances that have been pencilled in since January finally get underway! At Morley Skips, we admittedly love this time of year; watching our clients get excited over their renovations makes Summer an especially enjoyable few months.
However, (if we’re being honest) it’s also the time of year when we see the most overloaded skips. Now we’re not saying this to catch anyone out(!) In fact, most people who overfill a skip don’t even realise that they’ve done it. So, this blog is here to offer some help and guidance, because an overloaded skip can cause real problems for both your project and our lovely team.
There’s something about good weather that makes jobs feel more manageable than they actually are. You start with a plan and the skip arrives looking enormous, but within a day or two you’ve discovered twice as much waste as expected hiding behind the shed or inside the walls that you didn’t plan on opening up. At Morley Skips we often see renovation projects that have grown massively once they got started. This is why it’s so important to think ahead, because once a skip is full, there’s no safe way to keep adding to it.
The fill line on the skip isn’t a guide, it’s an absolute. Containers have to travel on public roads once they’re collected and waste that’s piled above the top edge can shift in transit or, in the worst case, fall from the vehicle entirely. That’s a risk to our drivers and to other road users that we simply can’t take. If a skip is overloaded when we arrive to collect it, we can’t take it, under any circumstance. We’ll need to leave it with you until the excess is removed, which, during our busiest months, can cause delays that knock on to other customers too.
One of the most effective ways to avoid any of the above is choosing the right skip before work begins. We offer sizes from 2 to 14 yards, so there’s a practical option for pretty much every kind of project. If you’re not sure which size fits your project, just ask; the Morley Skips team are always happy to help and a quick conversation before you book can save a lot of bother once work is underway.
As a rough guide:
Not all summer projects produce the same kind of waste and that matters more than most people realise. Pulling out an old patio, breaking up a concrete path or shifting soil from a new flower bed creates heavy, dense waste that behaves very differently to foam from packaging or garden cuttings. A skip that looks only half-full can already be at, or close to, its weight limit if it’s been loaded with hardcore or rubble.
It’s worth mentioning that most people are also surprised to hear that an 8 yard skip is the largest container that can be used solely for rubble and hardcore. If your project involves significant quantities of heavy material, let us know when you get in touch. We can point you towards the right option based on what you’re actually removing, not just how much space you think you’ll need.
For large quantities of loose material like soil or rubble, grab hire can also be worth considering. Rather than manually loading everything, a grab lorry can lift waste directly from a pile; which is often quicker and more practical when you’ve got a lot to shift. For longer-term commercial or construction projects, our Roll On Roll Off (RORO) containers, available in 20 yard and 40 yard sizes, offer a higher-capacity solution that can reduce the need for repeated exchanges.
Something that catches a fair few customers off-guard, particularly over summer: if your skip is on the roadside or somewhere accessible overnight, there’s always a chance that someone else will decide to use it. Fly tipping into hired skips is more common than it should be and even though a couple of bags left by a neighbour might not seem significant, they can add up and eat into the space that you’ve paid for. If you’re concerned about unauthorised use, ask us about locking options when you book; it’s a simple way to protect your skip and give yourself peace of mind, especially if it’ll be left unattended for stretches of the day or overnight.
The best time to flag a potential problem is before it becomes one and if your project is producing more waste than expected and the skip is filling up faster than you’d like, give us a call. We’d much rather help you to work out a solution than arrive to a skip that we can’t legally collect; whether that’s an exchange, a size increase or something different altogether.
We’ve been helping homeowners and businesses across Essex and Suffolk to manage waste for over 25 years. We know how projects grow and we’re not going to judge anyone for underestimating the job; we just want to make sure that the waste side of your project doesn’t become the thing that slows you down.
This summer, whether you’re adding a loft conversion or finally getting round to clearing a garage, Morley Skips offers straightforward skip hire with honest pricing and a reliable service. We’re local, easy to get hold of and always happy to talk through the options before you commit.
To have a chat about what’s right for your project, call us on 01621 815 287 or simply book your skip hire here today.
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