Compare all five sizes
Dumpster Sizes in Hartford, CT — 10, 15, 20, 30 & 40 Yard
Five roll-off sizes, and the honest version of which one you actually need. In the Capitol Region two things decide it: what the debris weighs — broken concrete and brick, plaster, foundation spoil and wet basement contents all run heavier than they look — and whether the light material stays below the rails when a nor’easter comes through before we do.
All sizes
Pick by weight first, volume second
Scroll the table on mobile. If your load includes concrete, block, brick, roofing shingle, plaster, foundation spoil or fill, start at the 10 yard no matter how big the job looks — weight fills those long before volume does. Sizing calculators written for other parts of the country assume the whole house lives on one floor. Connecticut works to a 42-inch frost line, so footings reach three and a half feet whatever is built on top, and once that hole is dug a full basement costs almost nothing extra — which is why so much of the pre-war stock here has one. In Hartford the basement and the attic are the cleanout: storm windows, paint tins, a workbench, a chest freezer and thirty years of boxes come up the stairs and out the bulkhead. Drives are the constraint rather than volume, so measure before you order. Half of Hartford’s housing was built before 1950 and 81 per cent of it is multifamily, so the usual approach is a narrow shared drive beside a three-storey six-family in Frog Hollow or off Maple Avenue and New Britain Avenue, with granite kerbing at the apron and cars parked both sides of the street. Out in the western and northern towns — Avon, Simsbury, Farmington, Glastonbury — the approach is more often a long gravel or dirt lane with a maple, oak or white pine limb, a porch roof or the service drop that the hoist arm cannot swing under.
| Size | Capacity | Footprint | Weight allowance | Holds about | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Yard Dumpster | 10 yd³ | 12 ft x 8 ft x 3.5 ft | 2 – 3 tons | ~3 pickup truck loads | Concrete, brick, plaster and foundation spoil — weight fills it long before volume does. |
| 15 Yard Dumpster | 15 yd³ | 16 ft x 8 ft x 4 ft | 2 – 3 tons | ~4 – 5 pickup truck loads | A single room, a small tear-off, or one unit of a multifamily turnover. |
| 20 Yard Dumpster | 20 yd³ | 22 ft x 8 ft x 4.5 ft | 3 – 4 tons | ~6 – 8 pickup truck loads | A full basement and attic clear-out — the New England default — or a multi-room remodel. |
| 30 Yard Dumpster | 30 yd³ | 22 ft x 8 ft x 6 ft | 4 – 5 tons | ~9 – 12 pickup truck loads | A whole Perfect Six or three-decker with basement and attic, or a large remodel. |
| 40 Yard Dumpster | 40 yd³ | 22 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft | 5 – 6 tons | ~14 – 16 pickup truck loads | Bulky light debris only: porch framing, fencing, siding, insulation, fit-outs. |
10 Yard Dumpster
Concrete, brick, plaster and foundation spoil — weight fills it long before volume does.
View this size → 15yd³15 Yard Dumpster
A single room, a small tear-off, or one unit of a multifamily turnover.
View this size → 20yd³20 Yard Dumpster
A full basement and attic clear-out — the New England default — or a multi-room remodel.
View this size → 30yd³30 Yard Dumpster
A whole Perfect Six or three-decker with basement and attic, or a large remodel.
View this size → 40yd³40 Yard Dumpster
Bulky light debris only: porch framing, fencing, siding, insulation, fit-outs.
View this size →The two rules that decide it here
Weight beats volume on dense material, wind beats everything on light
This is the single most useful thing on the page. A container has two limits: how much volume it holds and how much weight a truck can legally lift and carry. Light debris runs you out of volume first. Dense material runs you out of weight first, and it happens far earlier than people expect.
Around the Capitol Region the dense material is broken concrete, brick, plaster, foundation spoil and wet basement contents. Concrete and block run in the range of 2,400 to 2,800 lbs per cubic yard — a front walk, a patio slab, a section of foundation wall or an old cellar floor will reach legal transport weight in a can that still looks half empty. Footing and foundation spoil is the one people misjudge most: because footings go down three and a half feet to clear the 42-inch frost line, a small addition or a wall repair produces far more soil and rubble than the hole looks like it should, and through the spring thaw it comes out wet. Plaster and lath is the other quiet one — a gutted six-family throws a startling amount of weight into a box that still looks half full. Roofing is measured in squares and layers, never in roof area, and it is common here to find a second course still sitting on the deck, which doubles the tonnage on a roof that looked like a one-can job. A tear-off on a six-family off Maple Avenue, Wethersfield Avenue or Sigourney Street that looks like a 20 yard job is often a weight job rather than a volume job, and it wants a 10 yard, sometimes twice. Worth knowing too: corrugated cardboard and scrap metal are mandatory recyclables in Connecticut under CGS §22a-241b, so they come out of the load first whatever else happens, and clean masonry is worth keeping as its own load because it goes to a crusher rather than to a disposal site.
The second rule is the one out-of-state sizing charts never mention. Weather beats everything on light material. A 30 or 40 yard holding insulation, cardboard, housewrap and trim offcuts will redistribute itself down the street when a nor’easter comes through, and the wet is as expensive as the wind. Rain and wet snow do not blow away — they soak into gypsum, carpet, cardboard and insulation, and you pay for that at the scale, which is the argument for covering a box you are filling slowly. Once anything stands proud of the top rail the load cannot be tarped or netted, which means it cannot legally be hauled either. So cap the load: heavy on the bottom, light on top, everything below the rails, and anything that can fly bagged or weighted before you walk away. Where the 40 earns its keep is bulk with no weight in it — a shed, porch or detached garage teardown, a whole-house cleanout, a basement full of panelling and storm windows — and the scrap metal and the flattened cardboard are worth pulling out first, because both are mandatory recyclables here and cannot be mixed back in once they are separated.
Tell us the material and the rough quantity on the phone and we will size it properly. Getting it wrong costs us more than it costs you, so we have every reason to get it right.
How it works
From phone call to empty driveway
- 1
Call us
Tell us the project, your address and when you want it. Two minutes on the phone and you have a flat price.
- 2
We deliver
Our driver walks the drop, lays protection boards and sets the container exactly where you want it.
- 3
You load it
Take your time within your rental window. Keep it level with the top rail and we handle the rest.
- 4
We haul it
Call or text when you are done. We pull it, sort what can be recovered and dispose of the rest properly.
Choosing a Size — FAQs
Which dumpster size is most popular in Hartford?
The 20 yard, by a wide margin. It handles a kitchen gut, a multi-room remodel, or a full basement and attic emptied in one go on a multifamily, and it still sits on a normal Hartford driveway. The 15 yard is next most common because it is the sweet spot for a single room, a tenant turnover or a shingle tear-off on an average house. Anything with concrete, brick, plaster or foundation spoil in it goes the other way, down to a 10 yard.
What size do I need for a roof tear-off?
For a Hartford house on asphalt or dimensional shingle, a 15 or 20 yard. Roofing is weight-driven rather than volume-driven, so squares and layers decide it, not roof area — and it is common to find a second course still sitting on the deck, which doubles the tonnage. What fills the roofing calendar here is ice. The Connecticut code requires an ice barrier under a new shingle roof, and the same winters that drive ice dams drive the ceiling and insulation tear-out underneath. Asphalt shingles are not banned from disposal in Connecticut — the state has no waste-ban list at all — but they are still worth keeping as their own load, because there is a recycling route for them. Remember that Hartford’s kerbside programme takes no renovation debris at any volume: DPW names construction debris as unacceptable material and there is no construction category in the free bulky pickup, so a tear-off is on the contractor or on you. Pre-1980 roofing felt, mastic and cement-asbestos shingle can contain asbestos, which stops the job until it is tested, and Connecticut is stricter than the federal rule here: RCSA §19a-332a-1 expressly includes single-family homes, so there is no owner-occupied carve-out. The Department of Public Health takes the abatement notification on ten days’ notice, CT DEEP issues the $300 Special Waste and Asbestos Disposal Authorization, and demolition contractors are licensed by the DAS Office of the State Fire Marshal — and a demolition notification is required whether or not asbestos is present. Our tear-off sizing guide has the full maths.
Is the 40 yard just the biggest and best?
No, and treating it that way is an expensive mistake. The 40 yard is a volume container for bulky light debris — framing, cabinetry, porch lumber, packaging and whole-house cleanouts. Put anything dense in it and you will exceed legal transport weight long before it is full. It is also the size a nor’easter punishes hardest: a big open box of light material has to be loaded below the rails and covered, or it empties itself down the street and soaks up its own weight in rain. And it needs the most approach room and overhead clearance, which rules it out on the shared drives around Frog Hollow and the older streets off Maple Avenue and New Britain Avenue, and on long gravel or dirt lanes out toward Avon and Simsbury.
Can I change size after I book?
Yes, as long as the truck has not been dispatched. If you describe the job and we think you have ordered wrong, we will say so before delivery rather than after. Changing on the phone costs nothing; discovering it at the scale house costs a great deal.
How much space do I need?
Roughly the container footprint plus working room: about 60 feet of straight approach for the truck, around 10 and a half feet of width, and 20 feet or more of overhead clearance while the hoist operates. There is also a placement rule that most national guides get wrong for Connecticut. There is no per-dumpster fire permit here. What the state has is IFC 2021 §304.3.3, adopted in the Connecticut State Fire Safety Code: a container of 1.5 cubic yards or more must not be stored in a building or placed within five feet of combustible walls, openings or combustible roof eave lines. Five feet is the figure, whatever a national sizing guide written for another state tells you. Keep hydrants, exits and fire-apparatus access clear as well. Look up before you decide — a maple, oak or white pine limb, a porch roof, a low gutter or the service drop into the house will stop the arm cold. Winter dictates placement more than summer does: snowbanks and the plough windrow decide whether a drive that took a 30 in October still takes one in February. Tell us what the approach looks like and we will bring the right box.
Services
What people put in them
Residential Dumpster Rental
Driveway placement for full-basement, attic, porch and shed cleanouts and remodels.
Learn more →Commercial Dumpster Rental
Containers for businesses and buildings over six units, which the City does not collect from.
Learn more →Construction Dumpster Rental
Mixed C&D in one roll-off, the way CT DEEP recommends, with next-day swap-outs.
Learn more →Roofing Dumpster Rental
Weight-rated cans sized by squares and layers for asphalt shingle tear-offs.
Learn more →Roll-Off Dumpster Rental
10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 yard roll-offs across Hartford and the Capitol Region.
Learn more →Same-Day Dumpster Rental
Call before the cut-off and we can usually get a container to you this afternoon.
Learn more →Talk to a real person
Not sure which size you need?
Tell us what you are clearing out and we will tell you the right size and the flat price to put it in your driveway. No forms, no waiting on an email — just call and we will sort it out in a couple of minutes.
Serving Hartford, the Capitol Region and Greater Hartford · Mon–Fri 6:30am–5pm, Sat 7am–1pm