The Do’s and Don'ts of Skip Hire
Whether you’re looking for a skip for a domestic DIY job, household clear out or a commercial building job, there are plenty of considerations to take before looking into skip hire. It is essential that you follow all safety procedures and local/legal legislation, breaching these could get you/your firm into trouble and could incur extra costs.
If you follow the Browns Skip Hire Do’s and Dont’s, you will ensure that you stay within the terms of your skip hire agreement.
Order the right sized skip
Ordering the right sized skip is very important, getting this wrong could end up with you having to pay more than you need to on a bigger skip or not having a big enough skip to fit all of your waste. Not having a skip big enough would make you have to rent another skip, paying even more money than is needed.
If you’re not sure on what size skip is needed for the skip hire or how much will fit into the retrospective skip, you can see our handy skip size guide. The guide will tell you how much waste can be fitted into it and how many big bags will be able to fit in.
Skip placement
There are many things to consider when you’re working out where to place your skip, read below on our pointers for skip placement.
Could you safely park your car there?
You can place a skip on the road as long as you can safely park your car there. We have no problem placing the skip there, as we can usually place a skip wherever a car can safely be parked. We’ll even apply to the council for the relevant road permit, at no extra cost. We’ll also provide lights and cones for maximum safety and visibility.
Driveway
We get a lot of customers that fear their driveway and access is too small to accommodate the typical size skip trucks. We always run a smaller 7.5ton truck to tend to these jobs as they have the access to getting the skips on to smaller properties. We noticed the demand for residential access early and decided to be different from other skip hire companies.
Before we place a skip on the driveway, we perform a risk assessment, considering the following:
1) Is the drive of sufficient construction to take a skip?
2) Are there any trees which will be damaged?
3) Are there any low-level telephone cables?
All drivers carry wooden planks that can be used to protect the driveway, should you be concerned about damage.
Don’t overfill the skip
All of the skips must be filled only to the top of the container, overfilling a skip makes the skip exceed the maximum permitted weight and is also a major safety risk. If the skip was over the maximum weight, it would make our drivers liable for prosecution. It would also be a risk for other road users as excess waste/debris could fall out of the skip during transportation.
You run the risk of the skip driver of potentially refusing to take the skip or an excess charge for the removal of excess waste.
Make sure you know the time period of the rental
Be sure that you know and fully understand how long you will be renting the skip for, the standard time length of rental may not be long enough for your requirements. We state the length of our rentals in our FAQ page, however, you can always contact us if you need a longer duration or need a different agreement.
We also ask that you please contact the office as soon as the skip is finished with, as we will not collect immediately without instruction. This will give you the peace of mind that we won’t randomly come to collect.
Don’t burn rubbish/materials in the skip
You should never use a skip to house fire for burning rubbish or materials, doing so will be breaking the safety guidelines for renting a skip. It will also damage the skip and the paintwork. As a result, you will be charged for any excess damage and the cost of the repairs of the skip. You could also run the risk of being reported to the Environment Agency and the Fire Service who may choose to prosecute.
These are the do’s and dont’s of renting a skip, if there are any other questions you may have about renting a skip, you can contact us to find out more!