Most people default to a skip because that is what you do. It is worth two minutes to check, because for the majority of household jobs it is now the more expensive option, always the slower one, and it is the one where you end up doing the work.
The bit that never appears on the quote
Skip hire and a man with a van are not the same product priced differently. One of them delivers a container. The other one clears your house.
With a skip
You are the labour
The price you are quoted buys an empty steel box on your drive. Everything after that is you: every bag, every broken wardrobe, every panel of the old fence, lifted by you and heaved over a wall that is four feet high whichever skip you picked.
- You carry it out of the house yourself
- You lift it in, over the side
- It has to be filled level or they will not take it
- You sweep up what is left behind
- It sits outside your house for a week
With us
You point at it
That is your entire job. It can be in a heap, in the back bedroom, up a loft ladder or exactly where it has sat for six years. We carry it out, we load the van, we brush up after ourselves, and it is gone the same day.
- We do every bit of the lifting and carrying
- From wherever it is, not just the kerb
- No pile to make, no sorting, no stacking
- We sweep up before we leave
- One visit, and your drive stays clear
And for most household jobs it comes in under what the skip would have cost you - before you count your own Saturday.
The actual numbers
Typical Cardiff prices, with every skip drawn to the same scale so the sizes are honest:
| Skip | Size | Holds about | Hire | On the road | Who fills it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 yard mini1.2m long, 0.9m high | 20 to 30 bin bags | £65 to £110 | +£88 | You do | |
| 4 yard midi1.8m long, 1.0m high | 30 to 40 bin bags | £95 to £165 | +£88 | You do | |
| 6 yard builders2.6m long, 1.2m high | 40 to 55 bin bags | £132 to £220 | +£88 | You do | |
| 8 yard builders3.7m long, 1.2m high | 60 to 80 bin bags | £178 to £302 | +£88 | You do |
Skips are drawn to scale against each other, so you can see the thing people get wrong when they order: an 8-yard skip is no taller than a 6-yard, it is only longer. You are still lifting every single thing over a 1.2m side either way. Capacities are the ones skip firms publish. The road charge is Cardiff Council’s current 28-day licence under section 139 of the Highways Act 1980 - check it yourself here. Other councils in the area differ. On your own drive you do not need one.
Now compare
A 6-yard skip
£220–£308with the permit, on the road
- You load every last bit of it, yourself
- Permit needed, and it takes days to come through
- Sits outside your house for a week or more
- No sofas, armchairs or upholstered furniture
- No fridges, freezers or electricals
- Fill it above the line and they will not lift it
- You pay for the full skip whether you fill it or not
A half load with us
One fixed priceall in, nothing to add
- We do every bit of the lifting
- No permit, no application, no wait
- Gone the same day, often within hours
- Sofas handled properly under POPs rules
- Fridges taken for degassing at a permitted facility
- No fill line – if it fits in the van it goes
- You pay for the space you actually use
When a skip is genuinely the better buy
We are not going to pretend it never is.
- A long job producing waste over days or weeks. If you are stripping a house over a fortnight, having something on the drive to keep chucking things into beats booking us six times.
- A large volume of nothing but rubble. Heavy inert waste is what skips are built for, and at high volumes the economics tip.
- You have got a drive and plenty of time. No permit needed, no hurry, and you do not mind the loading.
If your job is one of those, we will tell you so on the phone. We would rather give you a straight answer and have you come back to us next time than take a booking you should not have made.
Where the van wins
- Anything you cannot lift. The biggest hidden cost of a skip is your own back.
- Awkward access. Terraced streets, back lanes, flats, residents’ parking – places a skip lorry simply cannot get to or leave a skip legally.
- Speed. Same-day versus a permit application and a delivery slot.
- Mixed loads. Sofas, fridges and mattresses are all skip-prohibited and all completely normal for us.
- Small and medium jobs. Up to about half a van load – roughly thirty bin bags – the van wins almost every time once the permit is counted.
One thing that applies either way
Whoever you use – skip firm or van – check they are a registered waste carrier. In Wales that means checking the Natural Resources Wales public register, not the Environment Agency one. If your waste ends up fly-tipped and you did not check, you can be issued a £300 fixed penalty. Here is how to check us, and anyone else.