Skip sizes & dimensions — first time.

Match the skip to the job, not the other way round. A bathroom rip-out or small clearout fits a 2 yard mini — about 20 bin bags, from £130. A kitchen refit or a bigger clearance wants the 4 yard midi — about 40 bags, from £170, and our most-booked size. A renovation, an extension or any serious load of soil and rubble takes the 8 yard builder’s skip — about 80 bags, from £270, and the largest we run for heavy waste. Big light-waste strip-outs — shopfits, offices, house clearances — suit the 16 yard maxi: around 160 bags, from £510, but strictly no soil, rubble or hardcore. Two rules of thumb: when in doubt, go one size up, because the step up costs less than a second delivery; and on tight jobs with awkward access, two smaller skips a week apart can beat one big one.

A 2 yard mini skip handles a typical bathroom rip-out — suite, wall tiles and the odd bit of boxing-in — with room to spare. If the floor is coming up or you’re replastering as well, step up to a 4 yard. Both take heavy waste, so tiles and rubble are no problem.

The 4 yard midi is our most-booked skip by some distance. It swallows a full kitchen refit or a serious clear-out, still fits on most driveways, and costs from £170 including VAT, delivery, collection and seven days’ hire.

An 8 yard skip measures roughly 3.66m long, 1.68m wide and 1.22m high — about 12ft by 5ft 6in by 4ft — and holds around 80 bin bags. It’s the standard builder’s skip, and the largest size we hire for heavy waste like soil, rubble and hardcore.

No — the 16 yard maxi is for light, bulky waste only. Filled with hardcore it would be too heavy to lift and carry legally, so the 8 yard builder’s skip is the biggest size for soil and rubble. For serious volumes of muck, grab hire usually works out cheaper again.

The 2 and 4 yard skips sit comfortably on a standard single driveway, and an 8 yarder needs about the footprint of a large estate car. The delivery lorry needs roughly 2.9 metres of clear width to get in. If access looks tight, ring 0113 539 9836 before you book and we’ll tell you straight whether it goes.

Ring the office. If the skip hasn’t been loaded yet we can usually swap it for the right size, and if you’ve filled one and there’s more to go we’ll get a second out to you, often next day. You won’t be the first — it’s an easy fix.

Level with the top rim — it’s a legal limit on transport, not us being awkward. An overfilled skip can’t be sheeted or lifted safely, and the driver may have to ask you to take the excess off before it leaves. If you’re regularly heaping them, you need the next size up.