15 cubic yards
15 Yard Dumpster Rental on Cape Cod
The middle ground between a small heavy-debris can and a full renovation box. Five extra cubic yards over the 10, still short enough for a single-car driveway.
- Licensed & insured
- Same-day on the Upper Cape
- Flat-rate pricing
- All 15 Cape towns
- Dimensionstypically about 16 ft long × 8 ft wide × 4 ft high
- Holdsabout 4-6 pickup truck loads
- Weight included2 tons
- Space neededabout 26 ft of length and 10 ft of width including room for the truck to load and unload
The 15 yard container on Cape Cod
Fifteen cubic yards sits in a box that runs typically about 16 ft long × 8 ft wide × 4 ft high, holds about 4-6 pickup truck loads of debris and carries 2 tons of disposal in the flat rate. Four feet of sidewall is still low enough to throw over comfortably, which is why crews who have used one rarely go back to a 10 for anything except pure concrete.
Most Cape jobs that feel too big for the smallest can and too small for a renovation box land here. A bathroom plus a hallway. A garage plus the shed behind it. A cottage porch rebuild in Dennis. A summer rental turnover where four years of tenant leftovers come out at once. Fifteen years of drops across Barnstable County have made this our quiet default recommendation when a homeowner describes a project and then adds "and probably some other stuff too" — because there is always other stuff. Compare it against the 10 yard and the 20 yard before you book, or call (774) 208-0570 and describe the pile.
What a 15 yard container holds in real terms
Picture the box full and level: fifteen cubic yards is roughly the contents of a two-car garage with the shelving included, or a single-story cottage stripped of its furniture. Eighty to a hundred contractor bags fit. A kitchen remodel — upper and lower cabinets, countertop, backsplash, vinyl flooring and underlayment — goes in with space left for the packing debris from the new appliances.
Sheet goods stack well because the box is sixteen feet long. Full sheets of drywall, plywood subfloor and old paneling lie flat instead of standing on end and wasting the corners. Deck boards up to about fourteen feet drop straight in. That length is genuinely useful and is the practical reason this size beats a 10 for anything involving lumber.
Furniture is where it starts to run out. Four to five upholstered pieces plus a mattress set will take a fraction of the box. Massachusetts bans mattresses and textiles from ordinary disposal, so those come out of the load and get handled separately — worth knowing before you plan around them.
For a straight furniture and household purge with no construction debris, our junk removal service is often the cleaner answer.
The volume-versus-tonnage trap
Every roll-off has two ceilings. One is the physical space inside it. The other is the 2 tons of disposal weight included in the price. People plan for the first and get surprised by the second, and the gap between them is enormous depending on what you are throwing away.
Two tons is 4,000 pounds. That is roughly fifteen to sixteen squares of single-layer asphalt shingle, or about a cubic yard of broken concrete plus a little breathing room, or the plaster and lath off two rooms of an antique house. It is also, on the other end of the scale, something like three times more household junk than a 15 yard box can physically hold. Bags of clothing, cardboard, particleboard furniture and old insulation will fill the container completely and still weigh under a ton.
The practical rule: if the material is a construction product that used to be part of the ground — concrete, brick, tile, stone, dirt, asphalt — weight governs, and you should be looking at the 10 yard instead. If the material used to be inside a house, volume governs, and you can fill this box to the rails without concern.
Mixed loads sit in between. Tell us the rough proportions and we will tell you which limit you will hit first.
Driveway placement on narrow Cape streets
Allow about 26 ft of length and 10 ft of width including room for the truck to load and unload. That is more than the sixteen-foot box because the truck needs a straight run to back in, tip its rails and winch the container clear. A dogleg driveway or a tight turn against a stone wall will stop the delivery, and there is no way around it once the truck is on site.
Look up as well as down. The hoist reaches roughly 23 to 25 feet during the drop and again at pickup. Mature pitch pine and scrub oak overhang plenty of driveways in Brewster, Harwich and Wellfleet, and the overhead service drop to an older cottage often hangs lower than people think. Neither is negotiable.
Underfoot, Cape Cod is sand. Crushed shell and pea stone move under load, soft shoulders give way after a nor'easter, and a fresh sealcoat will scar where a steel rail sits. Plywood cribbing under both rails is standard on every drop we make. On a soft site we may ask to place the box closer to the street where the base is compacted.
Village lanes off Route 6A in the Old King's Highway district are narrow by design. If your street will not take a truck, say so when you call and we will work out the staging.
Jobs that land squarely in the 15 yard range
Single-room renovations with the flooring included. Bathroom plus closet. A kitchen where the cabinets come out whole rather than in pieces. Deck demolition on a 12 by 16 foot pressure-treated platform, railings and all. A garage cleanout that turns into a garage-plus-shed cleanout, which is how those always go.
Roofers use a 15 for a small to medium tear-off — a garage, an ell, a modest ranch with a single layer. Twelve to fifteen squares is a comfortable load and stays inside the tonnage. Anything past that and we move you up; see roofing dumpster rental for how we stage those.
Landscapers use it for brush, sod and hedge removal, though loose branches are mostly air and fill fast. Massachusetts bans leaves and yard waste from disposal, so clean organic material goes to a composting or processing facility rather than a landfill, and it should be kept separate from construction debris. Our yard waste removal page covers how that works on the Cape.
Summer rental turnover is the seasonal one. Between Labor Day and Columbus Day, cottages from Falmouth to Orleans get emptied of everything tenants left behind, and 15 yards is usually right for a two or three bedroom.
Deciding between 10, 15 and 20 yards
Start with material, not project. Dense and mineral means down; light and bulky means up. A homeowner tearing out a tiled bathroom needs less box than one clearing a bedroom of old furniture, even though the bathroom feels like the bigger job.
Then count rooms. One room of finishes is a 10 yard job. Two rooms, or one room plus a garage, is this size. Three or more, or a whole floor, and you want the 20 yard — the extra five cubic yards costs far less than a second delivery, a second disposal ticket and a day of your schedule.
The honest field test is to build the pile before you order. Stage everything in the yard or the garage bay and look at the footprint. Fifteen cubic yards packed is a heap around sixteen feet long, eight feet wide and four feet high. Debris never compacts as well as people assume, especially cabinetry and framing lumber, so if your pile is close to that number, go up rather than down.
Still uncertain? Describe the job on the phone. We have sized thousands of these and the conversation takes two minutes. Our Cape Cod dumpster size guide walks through the same logic in more depth.
Capacity
What actually fits in a 15 yard container
Rough working figures. Weight, not volume, is what stops most loads.
| Material | How much fits |
|---|---|
| Asphalt shingles | roughly 15-16 squares of a single layer before the weight allowance runs out |
| 33-gallon contractor bags | about 80 to 100 bags packed reasonably tight |
| Drywall sheets, 4 ft × 8 ft | roughly 75 to 100 sheets of standard half-inch board laid flat |
| Broken concrete or brick | about a third of the box, roughly 25 wheelbarrow loads, and then the tonnage is gone |
| Carpet and pad | roughly 3,500 to 4,500 square feet pulled up and rolled |
| Furniture | about 7 to 9 large pieces, or a small cottage's worth of living room and bedroom items |
Suitability
Is the 15 yard the right size for you?
Choose the 15 yard for
- Kitchen remodel with cabinets, countertop, backsplash and vinyl flooring removed
- Bathroom plus hallway renovation in a 1960s Cape or ranch
- Deck demolition, roughly 12 ft by 16 ft with railings and stairs
- Two-car garage and backyard shed cleared out together
- Small to medium roof tear-off, about 12 to 15 squares of single-layer shingle
- Summer rental turnover cleanout for a two or three bedroom cottage
- Basement clearing after a wet winter, including ruined storage and shelving
- Hedge, sod and brush removal from a front yard landscape rebuild
Pick a different size for
- A load of broken concrete, brick or stone patio — you will hit the tonnage at a third full, so use the 10 yard dumpster.
- A full roof tear-off of 25 squares or more with a possible second layer — step up to the 20 yard dumpster.
- A whole-house estate cleanout with decades of furniture and boxes — the volume calls for a 30 yard dumpster.
- A cottage gut renovation taking framing, plaster and flooring out at once — plan on the 30 yard dumpster.
- Commercial or multi-unit demolition debris on a running schedule — the right container is the 40 yard dumpster.
Placing a 15 yard container on a Cape Cod property
A 16 ft box needs a straight, firm approach, and on the Cape that is not a given. Sandy shoulders in Eastham and Truro soften after a nor'easter, crushed-shell drives in Cotuit and Osterville shift under the rails, and pea stone simply flows. We set plywood cribbing under both rails on every drop, which spreads the point loading and keeps steel off sealcoat, brick pavers and shell alike.
Never over the septic. Title 5 tanks, distribution boxes and leach fields sit shallow in Cape sand, and a loaded roll-off is a genuine crushing risk. Your as-built plan is normally on file with the town health department, and the state's Title 5 septic system guidance is worth a look if you are unsure what runs where.
Overhead limbs and utility drops along narrow lanes off Route 6A and Route 28 are the other recurring problem. Material rules matter too: check the MassDEP waste disposal bans before you load.
Compare
Every size side by side
It holds five more cubic yards and six more inches of wall than the 10 yard while staying short enough for most driveways, and gives up five cubic yards, six feet of length and a ton of allowance to the 20 yard.
| Size | Dimensions | Capacity | Weight included | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Yard Dumpster | typically about 12 ft long × 8 ft wide × 3.5 ft high | about 3-4 pickup truck loads | 1-2 tons | Heavy, dense debris and tight driveways: concrete, brick, tile, one-room gut. |
| 15 Yard Dumpster | typically about 16 ft long × 8 ft wide × 4 ft high | about 4-6 pickup truck loads | 2 tons | Two-room remodels, garage and shed cleanouts, small roof tear-offs. |
| 20 Yard Dumpster | typically about 22 ft long × 8 ft wide × 4.5 ft high | about 6-8 pickup truck loads | 2-3 tons | Full roof replacement, whole-floor renovation, three or four bedroom cleanout. |
| 30 Yard Dumpster | typically about 22 ft long × 8 ft wide × 6 ft high | about 9-12 pickup truck loads | 3-4 tons | Cottage gut renovation, whole-house estate cleanout, storm debris, demolition. |
| 40 Yard Dumpster | typically about 22 ft long × 8 ft wide × 8 ft high | about 12-16 pickup truck loads | 4-5 tons | Structural demolition, commercial and multi-unit work, high-volume bulky debris. |
Not quite right?
- 10 Yard Dumpster — the next size smaller
- 20 Yard Dumpster — the next size larger
- Compare all five sizes
- Read the full Cape Cod sizing guide
Talk to a real person
Book a 15 yard dumpster on Cape Cod
Call (774) 208-0570. Tell us the material and the town, and you will get a flat price and a delivery window on the same call.
Mon–Sat 7:00am – 6:00pm · Sun by appointment
Answers
15 Yard Dumpster — questions we get asked
How much weight is included with a 15 yard dumpster?
The flat rate includes 2 tons of disposal, confirmed when we quote your job, with anything over that billed per ton at the scale weight. Household and renovation debris rarely approaches it. Shingles, plaster, tile and masonry can reach it well before the box is full, because those materials are dense. Describe the load when you call and we will tell you which limit you are likely to hit first.
Is a 15 yard big enough for a kitchen remodel?
For a standard Cape kitchen, yes. Upper and lower cabinets, countertop, backsplash tile, vinyl or laminate flooring and underlayment fit inside fifteen cubic yards with room left over. Two things change the answer: a large open-plan kitchen with an island and a pantry, or a remodel that also pulls out an adjacent dining room floor. In either case the 20 yard is the safer order.
How much room does the truck need?
Plan on about 26 ft of length and 10 ft of width including room for the truck to load and unload, plus roughly 23 to 25 feet of overhead clearance while the container comes off the rails. The truck needs a straight backing run, not a curve. If your driveway doglegs around a stone wall or a mature pine, send a photo before delivery day and we will tell you honestly whether it will work.
Can I put yard waste and brush in it?
You can, but it has to be kept clean and separate. Massachusetts bans leaves and yard waste from landfill and combustion disposal, so organic material goes to a composting or processing facility instead. Mixing brush with construction debris means the whole load gets handled as trash, which costs more. If your project is mostly vegetation, tell us at booking and we will set the container up as a dedicated yard waste load.
When is the best time of year to book?
Off-season, November through April, is the practical window for larger Cape projects. Contractors schedule around Memorial Day to Labor Day, and containers are tight through the summer when rental turnover and storm cleanup compete for the same trucks. Shoulder season in September and October is the busiest stretch for cottage cleanouts. Same-day and next-day delivery is available year round when the schedule allows, but a few days of notice always helps.
Service area
15 Yard Dumpster delivered across Cape Cod
We run roll-off containers out of our 19 Tradesman Cir yard in East Falmouth to all fifteen Cape Cod towns and the villages inside them — from Woods Hole and the Bourne bridges through the Mid Cape and Route 6A, out past the Orleans rotary and up the Outer Cape to Provincetown. Outer Cape runs are scheduled rather than same-day, and in July and August everything books up early. If your village is not listed, call anyway. We almost certainly get there.