15 Yard Dumpster Rental in Columbia, SC

A 15 yard roll-off is 16 feet long, 8 feet wide and about four feet tall, rated for roughly two to three tons — four to five pickup loads. It is the container for one defined project rather than one whole house. A single-layer asphalt tear-off, a bathroom taken to studs, a kitchen coming out before the new cabinets land, a rental cleared and repainted between tenants. The low side wall is the quiet advantage: you are throwing debris in, not lifting it over your head at two in the afternoon in August.

• Capacity15 cubic yards
• Footprint16 ft x 8 ft x 4 ft
• Weight allowance2 – 3 tons
• Holds about~4 – 5 pickup truck loads

Why people choose the 15 yard

Roofing is where this size earns its living, and roofing is sized by squares and layers, not by the area of the house. A square is a hundred square feet of roof surface, and one square of stripped architectural asphalt shingle runs somewhere around 250 pounds, more on a heavy laminate. A single-layer tear-off up to about twenty squares fits a 15 comfortably and stays under a legal payload. Where Columbia gets people is the second and third layer. On the older houses in Shandon, Melrose Heights, Waverly and Earlewood you routinely find a newer roof laid straight over the original, and sometimes over the one before that, so a job you counted as twenty squares turns out to be forty or sixty squares of material once the shovels start. Count the layers from a rake edge or an eave before you order, not after. Our roofing tear-off size guide works through squares, layers and weight properly, and roofing dumpster rental covers how we stage a set so the crew can shovel straight in. Spring hail is the other factor: one severe afternoon across the Midlands puts every roofer in the county on the same schedule for a month, so book early rather than the morning the crew arrives.

The other classic 15 is one interior room taken to studs. A bathroom gut is a tub or a cast iron tub, tile with its thinset bed, a vanity, subfloor and drywall, and it is denser than it looks because of the tile and the fixtures. A kitchen refresh is cabinetry, countertop, appliance boxes, flooring and drywall, which is bulkier and lighter. Either one fits a 15 with room to work. The Columbia complication is what is behind the wall. Termites are structural here, not a footnote — subterranean and Formosan termites are widespread in the Midlands and a termite bond is standard in a South Carolina house sale — so a cosmetic job goes structural the moment the trim comes off and you find a chewed band joist or a soft sill. Add plaster and lath at two to three times the weight of drywall in the pre-war stock and heart pine framing that is heavier than anything at the lumber yard today, and a modest-looking room can push the weight. Keep an eye on it, and see what can and cannot go in a dumpster in Richland County before you start throwing.

Then there is the University of South Carolina calendar, which nobody outside Columbia sizes for and everybody in Columbia plans around. Tens of thousands of students turn over rental houses and apartments in the same two windows — May move-out and August move-in — across Five Points, Olympia, Rosewood, Shandon, the Vista and the streets around campus. A make-ready is furniture somebody left behind, mattresses, a broken futon, carpet, blinds, and the contents of a closet nobody emptied, and a 15 is usually right for a single unit or a small house. What it is not right for is a whole property with several units, which needs a 20 or a 30. Our notes on student rental turnover cleanouts cover the sequencing, and junk removal is the option when you would rather not touch any of it. In those two fortnights containers, cleaners and painters all book solid, so get on the board weeks ahead. Compare sizes on our dumpster size guide if you are between this and the 20.

Good fit for

• Single-layer asphalt tear-off up to about 20 squares
• Bathroom gut down to the studs
• Kitchen refresh and cabinetry removal
• Student rental make-ready in the May and August windows
• One-room remodel, flooring and drywall
• Attic clear-out of heat-ruined boxes, tape and photographs
• Carport, shed and garage clear-outs
• Small deck or fence section removal

Not the right size for

• Multi-layer tear-offs on older Columbia houses
• Whole-house or estate cleanouts
• Concrete, brick, pier rubble, sand or clay spoil
• New construction and additions in Blythewood or Chapin
• Wet flood or crawlspace material of any volume

Will it fit?

Sixteen feet of box wants about 60 feet of straight approach, roughly 10 and a half feet of width and 20 feet or more of overhead clearance so the hoist arm can stand the container up. In the newer subdivisions around Irmo, Chapin, Lexington and Blythewood that is usually a straightforward set on a two-car drive; on the older lots in Shandon, Rosewood and Olympia it is worth measuring. The constant obstruction is a low water oak or live oak limb over the approach, so look up before you commit to a spot. The four-foot side is the selling point for hand loading, and for roofing it lets a crew shovel from a ladder set rather than pitch high. Protection boards are standard, and on a July or August asphalt drive that has gone soft in the heat they are not optional. Sandhill sand gives way under a loaded truck and red clay ruts and holds water, so tell us the surface when you book. Long gravel drives out toward Eastover, Hopkins, Gaston and Swansea rut when wet, and septic tanks, drain fields and well heads need flagging on acreage. In a covenanted subdivision, check the HOA day limit for a container before you schedule, and if you are working a USC turnover window in May or August, say so and we will book the swap around it.

Before delivery, move cars and bins, mark irrigation heads and septic lids, and tell us about new concrete, soft ground, a steep grade or low power lines. Our delivery and driveway protection guide covers all of it.

Compare all four sizes