How to price junk removal
Junk removal has a contradiction built into it. Customers think in volume: a couch, a garage, half a truck. The landfill bills you in weight. Most pricing trouble in this business comes from that gap. You quote by the yard, the load turns out to be shingles, and the tipping fee eats the job. The calculator above closes that gap by weighing the load before you price it.
1. Know what things weigh
Every material has a rough weight per cubic yard. The spread is enormous.
| Material | Lbs per cubic yard | 15-yard bed full |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture and mattresses | 120 | 0.9 tons |
| Household junk and boxes | 150 | 1.1 tons |
| Electronics | 300 | 2.3 tons |
| Appliances, yard waste | 350 | 2.6 tons |
| Wood and lumber | 400 | 3.0 tons |
| Construction debris, drywall | 500 | 3.8 tons |
| Dirt, tile, stone | 2,000 | 15 tons |
| Roofing shingles | 2,200 | 16.5 tons |
| Concrete, brick, block | 2,400 | 18 tons |
A full bed of household junk is about one ton. A full bed of concrete is eighteen. Your truck's payload is probably 6,000 to 10,000 pounds. That means half a bed of shingles is already over most payloads, and a "full truck" price for it would be a disaster twice: once at the scale, and again at the weigh station.
2. Check weight before you check volume
Multiply each material's cubic yards by its weight per yard and add them up. Compare the total to your payload, which is the GVWR on the door sticker minus the empty weight of the truck. If the load is over, it is two trips, and the price is for two trips. This check is the single most valuable thing the calculator does, and it takes five seconds.
3. Price from cost, then compare per yard
The job has four costs: crew time, truck time, disposal and overhead. Crew and truck are per hour, so the loading, drive and dump time matter. Disposal is tons times the tipping fee, or the transfer station's minimum trip charge if the load is light. Overhead is your annual fixed costs spread across billable hours.
Add them up, divide by one minus your target margin, and you have a price. Then divide that by cubic yards. Dollars per cubic yard is the number to compare across jobs. If it drifts down over a month, you are underpricing or taking on heavy material at light prices.
4. Disposal is a bigger share than you think
On the worked example below, disposal is a third of the cost. On a construction debris job it can be half. Two things follow. First, your tipping fee should be an input you know to the dollar, not a guess, and the transfer station with the lowest fee per ton is not always cheapest once you count the drive (the dump fee calculator works that out). Second, anything you can divert, metal to a scrap yard, usable furniture to a donation center, cardboard to recycling, comes straight off the biggest cost line.
5. Surcharges are not padding
Mattresses, refrigerant appliances and tires carry their own disposal fees at most transfer stations, often $8 to $30 each. Charge them as line items on top of the volume price. Stairs, long carries and no-driveway jobs cost real crew time and should carry a flat surcharge. Customers accept line items they can see. They resist a mysterious higher number.
Worked example
Garage cleanout: 5 yards of mixed construction debris, 3 yards of drywall, 2 yards of lumber. Two-person crew, 1.5 hours loading, 45 minutes of driving, 30 minutes at the dump.
| Load: 10 cubic yards, 4,800 lbs (2.4 tons), 67% of bed, 60% of payload | OK |
| Crew: 2.75 hrs × $66.50 | $182.88 |
| Truck: 2.75 hrs × $26.50 | $72.88 |
| Disposal: 2.4 tons × $65 | $156.00 |
| Overhead: 2.75 hrs × $23 | $63.25 |
| Total job cost | $475.00 |
|---|---|
| Price at 30% margin (÷ 0.70) | $679 |
| Price per cubic yard | $67.86 |
Swap the construction debris for 5 yards of concrete and the load becomes 14,300 pounds. Same volume, overweight, and $465 of tipping instead of $156. That is why you weigh first.
Common mistakes
- One price per "truckload" regardless of material. A truckload of couches and a truckload of tile are not the same job by a factor of ten.
- Forgetting the drive. The truck and crew cost the same per hour on the highway as in the driveway. Loading time is often the smaller half.
- Ignoring the minimum trip charge. A single mattress still costs $35 at the gate. Your minimum job charge has to cover it plus the drive.
- Pricing a full truck by the bed. Check payload. Being overweight is a fine and a wrecked suspension, and neither is on the quote.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for junk removal per cubic yard?
Most companies land between $45 and $90 per cubic yard for household junk, with a $100 to $150 minimum for a single item. Heavy material should be priced by weight.
How much does a cubic yard of junk weigh?
Household junk about 150 pounds, furniture 120, construction debris 500, shingles 2,200, concrete 2,400. A full 15-yard bed of household junk is a little over a ton.
How do I know if my junk truck is overweight?
Multiply each material's yards by its weight per yard, add them up, and compare to payload (GVWR minus empty weight). If it is over, split the load and price two trips.
Should I charge by volume or by weight?
Quote light material by volume because that is what customers understand. Quote heavy material like concrete, dirt and shingles by weight, or by the yard at a rate that reflects the weight. Never quote heavy material at your household-junk rate.
Every default in the calculator is a placeholder. Weights are working averages; tipping fees range from $40 to $140 per ton by region. Replace them with your own numbers and scale tickets. This tool does not provide legal, tax, insurance or accounting advice.