Do You Need a Skip for a Roof Replacement?

How much waste a strip makes

Concrete tiles are heavy, and a whole roof of them weighs tonnes, which is why they are never left for general bin collection. Add the timber battens, torn underlay, old ridge mortar, nails and any rotten rafter ends, and a standard house produces a pile that fills a skip quickly. A slate roof is lighter than a concrete one but still substantial, and the stripping of lead flashings and old chimney flaunching adds a little more.

The size of the skip depends on the roof, and we work it out from the survey. Larger roofs may need two skips or a skip changed halfway through. Overfilling is not allowed, so the waste is loaded level, and the skip company will refuse a load that sits above the sides. That is a legal point for the road, not a preference.

Where the skip goes

The easiest place is the drive, close to the house, because tiles are passed down by chute or carried a short way. If the drive is too small or there is none, the skip can go on the road, but a skip on the public highway needs a permit from the council, along with lights and sometimes cones at night. Check with your council's highways team if you are unsure. The permit takes time to arrange, so it has to be sorted before the start date. If a skip cannot go on the road, a smaller one, a grab lorry or a series of collections might be the answer.

Tell your neighbours where it will sit and for how long, because it can take up parking space. If you are not sure how to broach the subject, the notes on letting the neighbours know are a good start.

A chute, a grab lorry or a hoist

The old covering has to travel from the roof to the skip. A tile chute, a lightweight tube or channel clipped to the scaffold, lets tiles slide into the skip without being thrown, which keeps the noise and breakage down. A grab lorry is a lorry with a hydraulic arm that lifts waste from a pile and loads it directly, useful when there is no room for a skip. A hoist lifts new materials up to the scaffold at the same time.

Which one is used depends on access. A terraced street with no front drive is a different problem from a detached house on a wide plot, and we plan it at the survey. Our page on scaffolding for a roof replacement covers how the scaffold supports the chute and the hoist.

What cannot go in a general skip

Most roofing waste is inert or timber and goes in a mixed skip, but a few things need separate handling. Lead is stripped and sold for scrap, not skipped. Asbestos cement sheets or other asbestos materials, found on some older garages and outbuildings, must never go in a general skip and need controlled removal with a risk assessment, as the HSE explains. If the roof has been sprayed with foam insulation, removal is a separate job with its own waste. Tell us at the survey if you think any of those apply.

Why waste has to be sorted

Mixed roofing waste is taken to a transfer station, where inert material like tile and brick is separated from timber and metal. A skip contaminated with plasterboard, paint tins or garden soil can be refused or charged at a higher rate. Clean loads are cheaper to dispose of and more of the material can be recycled. Old concrete tiles may be crushed for hardcore, and clean timber can be chipped.

Who pays and who arranges it

The skip is part of the job. A quote should say plainly that waste removal is included, and a figure that leaves it out is not comparable with one that includes it. When you compare quotes, check that each one names the skip, the permit if one is needed and the final site clearance. Our page on comparing roof replacement quotes lists the other items that tend to be missing.

We include skip hire and disposal in our fixed written quote, and when the roof is finished the site is left clear, with the rubbish carted off, including the loose nails and offcuts around the garden. Take a look along the drive and flower beds with us on the last day, because a magnet sweep for nails is worth doing. The wider process is on our roof replacement page.