Renovation waste is the worst kind of rubbish. It is heavy, awkwardly shaped, and there is never quite as much of it as you thought — or rather, there is exactly as much as you thought, but you were optimistically wrong about how much a skip holds.
We clear old kitchens, bathrooms, plasterboard mountains, rubble, timber and the general aftermath of building work across Cardiff and Newport every week. Some of it is from homeowners who have just finished a DIY extension. More of it is from tradespeople who need the job site cleared before the final snagging walkthrough. Either way, the question is the same: what is the cheapest, fastest way to get this stuff off site?
So here is how renovation waste pricing works, what you can and cannot put in a skip, and when you are better off just sending us a photo.
Skip hire or man and van for renovation waste in Cardiff?
Skips make sense when you have got weeks of work ahead and the waste builds slowly — a bit of packaging here, a length of pipe there. But renovation waste arrives in one big burst. You take the sledgehammer to the wall tiles on Friday, the whole lot lands on the driveway by Saturday, and a skip that comes Tuesday and sits for a week costs you £240-£350 just for the hire + permit before you have put a brick in it.
With us you send a photo, get an estimate and we come same day. A half van load of builders rubble — typical for a bathroom or small kitchen rip-out — costs £290 for mixed waste. A full van, which handles a whole kitchen + floor removal, runs £450. And we do all the lifting from wherever the rubbish is — driveway, back garden, upstairs bathroom, first-floor window. No barrowing it round the side of the house. The skip stays where it is and you do not wait days for it.
Compare that with an 8-yard skip at roughly £260 delivered, plus a council permit if it has to sit on the road, and you are well past £260 before you have lifted a single bag. Then you still have to load it yourself.
What about waste transfer notes?
If you are a tradesperson reading this, you already know the answer — your waste is your responsibility until it reaches a licensed site, and a skip company gives you a waste transfer note. So do we. Every load we take away comes with a WTN as standard. For commercial customers we also offer repeat collections with consolidated paperwork at the end of each month.
What renovation waste can we take away?
The honest answer is most of it. Our 16 cubic yard van takes mixed loads, so you do not need to separate plasterboard from timber from rubble. A few ground rules:
- Bricks, blocks, concrete, tiles — yes, no problem. They are heavy but our van takes up to 1.1 tonnes per load. A full bathroom rip-out usually sits at three-quarters of a van.
- Plasterboard — yes. It goes to a different disposal point than mixed rubble (it produces hydrogen sulphide in landfill if mixed with organic waste), but we handle the segregation. You just pile it all together and we sort the routing.
- Timber and MDF — yes. Old floorboards, stud wall offcuts, kitchen carcasses, fencing. Clean timber and treated go together in our load.
- Old kitchen units and worktops — yes. We dismantle them on site. The carcasses, drawers, doors and laminate worktops all go in the van.
- Bathroom suites — yes. Cast iron bath, ceramic basin, toilet, shower tray. A cast iron bath alone weighs a lot but fits in a quarter van load alongside the other bathroom waste.
- Fridges, freezers, asbestos and hazardous waste — no. That includes chemicals, oils, solvents, fuel, clinical waste and gas bottles. Fridges need a separate F-gas registered collector and asbestos requires a licensed handler. We can point you to the right route for each.
Builders rubble removal prices, by the van load
| Load size | What it holds | Mixed / rubble |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter van | A small bathroom rip-out, or 15-20 rubble bags | £160 |
| Half van | A kitchen removal + floor tiles, or a single-skip-equivalent | £290 |
| Full van | Whole-kitchen + two bathrooms, or a full extension strip-out | £450 |
Wood loads from garden clearances run on our cheaper garden waste rates. Renovation timber and plasterboard in mixed loads are priced at the general mixed rate. We separate everything at our end so you do not need to — wood goes to a wood recycler, plasterboard to a specialist processor, and metal is recovered.
Why is autumn a good time for renovation waste removal?
Three reasons. First, if you have been working on an extension or loft conversion through the summer, the waste has probably been piling up in the garden or a corner of the driveway and the neighbours are starting to glance sideways. Rain and wind turn tidy stacks into a mess. Getting it gone now saves you the winter clean-up.
Second, November and December are our busiest months — people rush to finish spaces before guests arrive. Booking a clearance now means we come same week rather than you waiting while the rubble sits through Christmas preparations.
Third, if you are a landlord turning over a property between tenancies, the window between “old tenant out” and “new tenant in” is tight. A day wasted on rubbish could push the renovation schedule. We clear the whole lot in one visit, often within hours of a WhatsApp message, so the plasterer and the floor fitter are not working around a pile of old kitchen carcasses.
Quick answers
Do I need a waste carrier licence to use you?
No. That is on us — we are registered with Natural Resources Wales (CBDU034669). Your duty of care is satisfied as long as you check we are licensed (public register) and get a waste transfer note for each load. We provide that automatically.
Can you take rubble and old materials from the first floor?
Yes. We carry it out from wherever it is — upstairs bathroom, first-floor extension, loft hatch. No need to bag it and drag it downstairs; we are set up for that.
What if I only have a small amount of rubble?
From £160 for a quarter van on mixed waste. If it is genuinely just a few rubble bags that can sit on the pavement for a morning, the quarter-load price covers it. Single items like a cast iron bath or toilet suite — send a photo and we will price it individually.
Do you do weekly collections on live building sites?
We do. If you are mid-renovation and producing waste over several weeks, we set up a regular schedule. Same day, same time. Consolidated paperwork at the end of the month. Get in touch to arrange it.
Does the waste need sorting before you arrive?
One load, no sorting needed on your end. We separate at our end — wood goes to a wood recycler, plasterboard to a specialist processor, metal is recovered, and the rest goes to an energy-from-waste facility. You just point at the pile.