Should You Choose Junk Removal or Dumpster Rental?
When you have acquired any quantity of debris that needs to be disposed of, you will most likely be left with two options. Should you choose junk removal or dumpster rental. There are pros and cons to both of these styles of debris removal services and they differ in many ways. In this article, we can dig into the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding the differences between junk removal and dumpster rental services.
Dumpster Rental Pros
Renting a dumpster can be a pleasing experience in more ways than one. You may find yourself renting a dumpster for the first time in your life and for the first time, you may be getting rid of unwanted debris and material that you no longer need. After taking the proper steps to donate material or give away unwanted items to friends, family or church acquaintances, it’s time to rent a dumpster! Within most dumpster rental processes, you will have an option to choose how long you want to rent the can for. The time periods offered for rental usually span from 3,7,14 or 30 days. If you are a business that is looking for a commercial dumpster rental contract you may be able to negotiate longer rental periods than a homeowner or residential client. Here are a few things to think about when going over the pros of renting a dumpster.
- Timing- With a dumpster rental, you have a good amount of time to go through things in your home to choose what to and what not to discard. This alleviates the pressure of getting things together and staged for a junk removal company to pick them up. With a dumpster rental, you have lots of time to haul junk out of your home or away from your business, ensuring that the proper items get removed.
- Accessibility- Renting a dumpster can solve some accessibility issues. Most roll-off dumpster cans offer an option for walk-in loading methods. They have a wide door that will open from the floor to the top of the dumpster, allowing you to literally walk inside the unit in order to efficiently load it with debris.
- Various Dumpster Styles- There are many companies that see the need to offer more than one style of dumpster to rent to their clients. Some companies will offer dumpsters that actually roll off of a hook lift truck, some roll the dumpsters off of a dumpster trailer, and some drop dump trailers to mitigate the problem of cracked driveways or any kind of ruts in your yard. Each style of dumpster offered may suit a unique need for the client that another style may not complement.
- Load The Dumpster Yourself- When renting a dumpster to load on your own time, you can surely break items down in order to fit more debris into your dumpster. This will also allow you to use your skills to load the debris with efficiency in regards to how you stack the junk. If you just throw junk into a dumpster, you can lose space due to accidentally "fluffing your load". If you do not stack the junk properly in your dumpster then you will have air pockets around the debris, causing you to be able to fit less volume into your rented dumpster can.
Junk Removal Pros
There is a wide array of services that any junk removal service may offer. Most professional junk removal and hauling companies offer full-service junk removal, curbside junk removal, and further dumpster rental alternatives. When hiring a junk removal company, you can always be sure that the amount of labor that you do will be lessened. These kinds of services are perfect for people who may not be able to move heavy items themselves or that may just not want to do the work on their own. We all know how time-consuming loading your own dumpster can be, not to mention, difficult. Here are a few pieces of insight into the plusses of hiring a real junk removal company.
- Efficiency- Hiring a junk removal service provider can be an efficient way of getting rid of debris because instead of doing the labor of leading yourself, you have a team of seasoned experts doing the work for you. Most junk removal professionals have years of experience, are physically fit, and have the proper tools necessary to put their expertise to the test. If you are short on time or lacking the physical capability to load a rented dumpster, a junk removal service is going to be a huge plus for you as opposed to renting a dumpster.
- Cost- In many cases, a junk removal company can remove junk for a fraction of the cost that is takes to rent a dumpster. For large amounts of debris, a large dumpster may make a lot of sense price-wise but for smaller loads, even a small dumpster rental may be too large to fill with a smaller amount of debris. Junk removal services usually have load rates and can effectively price curbside junk removal jobs at around the same price or less than renting a dumpster. For really small amounts of debris or for single-item pickups, hiring a junk removal company to remove the junk is going to be cheaper than renting a dumpster.
- Eco-friendly- Hiring junk removers to remove your junk can oftentimes be an eco-friendlier way of getting rid of debris. This is because when you rent a dumpster all of the junk and trash goes to the landfill, even the recyclable items you may throw inside the can. Junk removal companies are known to do their due diligence when it comes to loading unwanted items in a way that separates the salvageable or recyclable items. Take scrap metal, for example, most junk removal services will separate the metal in their junk loads and take it to a facility where they can actually sell it. Another reason hiring a junk removal company can be thought of as a more eco-friendly option for debris removal is that the average junk hauler will only have to come to you once instead of twice. A dumpster rental company has to come to you twice Once to drop the dumpster off, then a second time to pick the dumpster up. A junk removal company is almost always more likely to use a lot less fuel than a dumpster rental service.
- Complimentary services- A junk removal company that you hire will most likely be able to assist you in getting harder to move items out of your home and will be able to take items that you can put into a rented dumpster like tires, refrigerators, and air conditioners. You may also have projects around your property that call for extra services that a junk removal company might be able to provide further estimates for while on site. Some complementary services that a junk hauling company might be able to offer include but are not limited to carpet tear outs, shed removal, hot tub removal, kitchen demolition, yard waste removal, or junk car removal.
Now that we have talked about some of the pros of renting a dumpster and hiring a junk removal service, let’s look at the possible cons of both service types.
Cons of Dumpster Rental
As awesome as it is to rent a dumpster with its many pros, there are also a few cons to take note of. Some of the biggest cons of dumpster rental is property damage, signing contracts, putting a card on file and hidden charges that a company might have. Let’s get a little more in depth about some of these issues that surround the act of renting any style of dumpster.
Top Four Cons of Renting a Dumpster
- Property Damage- Roll-off dumpsters have been known for an array of instances surrounding the property damage issues. When a big metal can is rolled off of a truck or a trailer to land on your driveways, it puts your driveway at risk. Dumpster can weigh between 3,000LBS and 4,000LBS. Cracked driveways that are caused by dropping a dumpster onto a concrete driveway is one thing that you should think about when deciding to rent and place a dumpster. Dumpsters can also leave ruts in your lawn if the ground is wed or if the driver is unexperienced. One way to mitigate the issue of possibly getting your driveway cracked by a roll-off dumpster is to rent a driveway safe dumpster.
- Dumpster Rental Contracts- Every company that is going to rent you an expensive asset like a dumpster is going to have their clients sign a dumpster rental contract. These contracts can cover anything from theft to damage. Once signing a contract with a dumpster rental company, you as a home or business owner make yourself liable for anything that happens to the unit while on your property. This includes damage from a vehicle recking into it, a fire that starts inside the can, someone stealing the unit from your property or more. The act of having to sign a contract with a company that is going to rent you a roll-off or driveway safe dumpster can certainly be seen as a con.
- Card On File- Due to some of the items in the contract that are set as extra fees, most dumpster rental company will insist that they put your card on file. Rented dumpsters almost always come with weight limits, with any amount of weight over the allowed limit being subject to an over-tonnage fee. These fees can add up and be charged to your card that you place on file.
- Hidden fees- Hidden fees that are placed into your dumpster rental contract include but are not limited to over-tonnage fees, over the fill line fees, delivery fees or trip charges. You may also be subject to a dry run fee if your neighbor parks their car in front of your rented dumpster so that the dumpster pickup driver can’t effectively get to the unit. If the driver has to leave and then return to grab the can at a later time, a "dry run fee" is usually charged to the client’s card on file.
Cons of Junk Removal
There are very few, if any, cons when it comes to hiring a junk removal service as opposed to renting a dumpster. A junk removal company can most likely accommodate you with any job type that doesn’t require a 30 or a 40-yard dumpster and even in those cases, the junk removal company can offer services to match the dumpster that you rent. When it comes to pricing, the only time renting a dumpster should make sense is if you don’t have a designated area to stage a load and go service or if you are a DIY residential home owner that refuses to hire help. Removing junk yourself can be a very enjoyable process and in many cases can be a healthy form of exercise.
Properly Vet Junk Removal Services Before You Hire
One con about hiring a junk removal service provider is that it is a lower barrier to entry business to get into so you need to vet the companies that you aim to receive quotes from to make sure that they are fully insured for your protection and not just a person that happens to have a pickup truck and flatbed trailer with nothing to lose. When hiring a junk hauler make sure that they have the adequate equipment to get your job completed at an adequate price. If someone needs to make ten trips to the landfill when another company can take away all of your junk in one trip, the company that hold more volume is most certainly going to be able to give you a better rate.
Conclusion
Now that we have gone over a few of the differences between hiring a junk removal company and renting a roll-off dumpster, you may be at the conclusion that both service types work well for getting rid of junk that you just don’t want to mess with. Both industries are valuable to society and furthermore, junk removal and dumpster rental services are not going anywhere, any time soon. The history of dumpster rental as a service goes back further thank junk removal but stay tuned as junk removal grows in popularity.
