Start with the size, because that is where the confusion is
People compare a skip price to a clearance price and think the skip is cheaper. It usually is not, and the reason is that they are not comparing the same amount of rubbish.
An 8-yard skip — the yellow builder's skip you see on driveways, the most commonly hired size in Cardiff — holds 8 cubic yards. Our van holds 16 cubic yards. One van load is two 8-yard skips. So the honest comparison is not one skip against one van. It is two skips against one van.
The comparison, with actual numbers
| Two 8-yard skips | One van load from us | |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 16 cubic yards | 16 cubic yards |
| Hire or clearance cost | £480 – £760 (£240 – £380 each) | £450 |
| Road permit | Extra, per skip, if it is not on your own drive | None — the van parks and leaves |
| Who loads it | You do. Twice. | We do |
| Who carries it out of the house or garden | You do | We do |
| Time on your street | Days, sometimes weeks | An hour or two |
| Site left tidy afterwards | Your job | Ours — we sweep up before we go |
| Waste transfer paperwork | Ask the skip firm | Given to you as standard |
Even at the cheapest end — two skips at £240 — that is £480 against our £450, and you have not yet paid for a permit or picked up a single bin bag. At the top end it is £760 against £450, and you are still doing all the work yourself.
What the £450 actually covers
Our full van load is £450 for up to 16 cubic yards and up to 1.1 tonnes. In that price:
- We load it. You do not lift anything, and you do not need to bring it out to the front.
- We carry it from wherever it is. Back garden, loft, third-floor flat, behind a side gate. Access charges are published rather than improvised — £10 per flight of stairs, £30 where items are carried more than 10 metres to the van — and you are told before we set off, not after.
- We dismantle what needs dismantling. Wardrobes, bed frames, sheds, corner sofas that will not go back out through the door they came in through.
- We clean up. The spot the pile was sitting on gets swept. That is the bit skips do not do — anyone who has had one collected knows what the driveway looks like underneath.
- We sort it for recycling. Not everything into one hole in the ground.
- You get the paperwork. A receipt showing our Natural Resources Wales carrier registration, which is your legal cover under the household duty of care.
The 1.1 tonne limit is worth saying out loud rather than hiding in small print. Volume is what usually runs out first — furniture, bags, boxes and garden waste fill 16 yards long before they weigh a tonne. The exception is soil, rubble, concrete and tiles, which hit the weight limit while the van still looks half empty. If your load is heavy inert waste, say so up front and we will quote it as rubble rather than by volume. Skips have exactly the same problem, incidentally — overloaded skips get refused or surcharged.
The costs that do not appear in a skip quote
The permit
On your own driveway, a skip needs nothing. On the road — which in most of Cardiff's terraced streets is the only place it can go — it needs a permit from the council, plus lights and markings, and the permit runs for a fixed period that has to be renewed if the job overruns. That is money and lead time on top of the hire price. Check the current fee on the Cardiff Council or Newport City Council site before you assume the quoted skip price is the whole price. And if you need two skips, that is two permits.
Your weekend
The skip price buys a metal box and a collection. Everything that goes in it, you carry — down the stairs, out of the garden, over a side wall that is chest height once the skip is half full. Filling two 8-yard skips properly is a serious two days for two people. Put whatever you think your Saturday is worth into the comparison, because it belongs there.
The things it will not take
Mattresses, sofas, armchairs, fridges, TVs, paint, tyres and plasterboard are banned or surcharged in most skips. People find this out after the skip is full and the mattress is still in the bedroom. We take all of those except fridges and asbestos, which need specialist routes — and we price them openly: mattresses at £50, sofas from £40.
Other people's rubbish
An open skip on a residential street collects donations overnight. You are paying by volume for the privilege, and a skip that fills up with someone else's fly-tipping is a second skip you did not budget for.
The bit underneath
Skips scratch driveways, crack block paving and leave a rectangle of crushed grass and broken glass behind. A van parks on the road for an hour.
When a skip is genuinely the right call
We are not going to pretend it never is. If you are mid-renovation and waste is being generated daily over three weeks, a skip sitting there absorbing rubbish as it appears beats booking a van six times. If trades are on site and need somewhere to throw things, same answer. And for a single bulk load of pure hardcore off a driveway dig, a dedicated skip is efficient.
The rule of thumb is simple: if the rubbish already exists as a pile, clearance wins. If the rubbish has not been created yet, hire the skip.
Smaller than a full load?
Most jobs are not 16 yards, and you do not pay for space you do not use. A half load is £290 and a quarter is £160 — and a quarter van is still roughly the same space as a small skip, loaded for you, with no permit and no waiting. Garden waste is cheaper again at £250, £140 and £80, because green waste costs us less to dispose of and there is no reason to pretend otherwise.
A skip, by contrast, is the same price whether it goes away full or a third full.
The one thing to check either way
Skip firm or clearance van, whoever takes your waste has to be a registered carrier, and you are entitled to see the number. Ours is CBDU034669, on the Natural Resources Wales public register for anyone to check in a minute. If waste from your address gets fly-tipped by someone you did not check, the fixed penalty comes to you — see fly-tipping and your duty of care.
Get the number before you book a skip
Send a photo of the pile on WhatsApp. You will get a fixed price back the same hour, and you can hold it against the skip quote and decide with both numbers in front of you. Full pricing, including the load calculator, is on the prices page.