20 cubic yards
20 Yard Dumpster Rental on Cape Cod
The size most Cape homeowners actually need. Long enough for framing and full sheets, low enough to load by hand, big enough for a whole-floor renovation.
- Licensed & insured
- Same-day on the Upper Cape
- Flat-rate pricing
- All 15 Cape towns
- Dimensionstypically about 22 ft long × 8 ft wide × 4.5 ft high
- Holdsabout 6-8 pickup truck loads
- Weight included2-3 tons
- Space neededabout 34 ft of length and 10 ft of width including room for the truck to load and unload
The 20 yard container on Cape Cod
Twenty cubic yards in a box that measures typically about 22 ft long × 8 ft wide × 4.5 ft high, holding about 6-8 pickup truck loads with 2-3 tons of disposal included. This is the container that leaves our yard most often, and the reason is simple: four and a half feet of sidewall is still throwable by hand, while twenty-two feet of length takes framing lumber, full sheets of plywood and long deck boards without breaking them down first.
For a typical Cape Cod project — a full roof, a floor of a house gutted, a summer property emptied before it goes on the market — this is the size that finishes the job in one container. Nate Souza has been dropping them across Barnstable County since 2011, and the pattern holds: people who order a 20 rarely call back for a second box, while people who order small frequently do. Look at the neighbors on either side, the 15 yard and the 30 yard, then call (774) 208-0570 for a flat quote.
A realistic inventory of what goes in a 20
Twenty cubic yards absorbs the debris from three to four rooms of interior renovation, or a whole floor of a modest cottage taken back to the studs. Around 110 to 130 contractor bags fit. A complete roof tear-off on an average Cape house — call it twenty to twenty-four squares of single-layer asphalt — lands inside both the space and the 2-3 tons allowance if the deck stays on.
Length is what people underrate. At twenty-two feet, 2x10 joists, 16 ft deck boards, full sheets of subfloor and old wall paneling lie flat. In a shorter box those same pieces stand at an angle and waste a third of the volume in dead air. Cabinetry stacks better here too, because you can lay the boxes on their backs in a row instead of jamming them in corners.
Bulk items are comfortable rather than tight. Eight to twelve large furniture pieces, a full basement of storage, a garage plus a shed, a deck and its railings. For a whole-property clear we would still steer you toward estate cleanout service and a bigger container, but for anything short of that, twenty yards holds.
What it will not do is dense mineral debris. That is a different conversation entirely.
Heavy debris changes the math
Volume and weight are separate limits, and a 20 yard box makes the gap obvious. Twenty cubic yards of broken concrete would weigh somewhere between thirty and forty tons. The included allowance is 2-3 tons. You would blow through it before the box was a tenth full, which is why we do not put masonry in a 20 unless it is a small incidental amount mixed into a renovation load.
Roofing is the borderline case worth understanding. Asphalt shingle runs about 230 to 250 pounds per square for three-tab, 350 to 430 for architectural. Twenty-four squares is roughly three tons, right at the edge. Add a second layer discovered mid-tear-off and you have doubled the weight without adding much volume, which is the single most common overage we see on the Cape. Our roof tear-off guide walks through how to count squares before you commit.
Antique housing stock creates the same trap. Plaster and lath from an 18th or 19th century Cape weighs two to three times what modern drywall does, because the base coats are sand and lime over sawn strapping. A room of plaster is not a room of drywall.
For concrete, brick, asphalt, tile, stone or soil, use a 10 yard and our heavy debris service instead.
Where a 22-foot box sits on a Cape property
You need about 34 ft of length and 10 ft of width including room for the truck to load and unload. That is the number that surprises people. The container is twenty-two feet, but the truck has to back straight in, raise its rails and roll the box off, and it cannot do that at an angle. A driveway that turns, narrows or ends at a bulkhead will not take a 20.
Overhead clearance runs roughly 23 to 25 feet at the moment of the drop. Pitch pine and scrub oak overhang a great many Cape driveways, and older cottages often have a low service drop from the pole. Both stop the delivery. Walk out, stand where you want the box, and look straight up.
Ground conditions decide the rest. Sand, crushed shell and pea stone all move under concentrated load, and a full 20 yarder is a serious weight sitting on two steel rails. Plywood cribbing goes under the rails on every drop we make. On a soft or freshly sealed driveway we may recommend staging closer to the street where the base is compacted.
Placement over a septic tank, D-box or leach field is off the table in every case, and on the Cape those systems are shallower than you would expect.
Renovations and cleanouts suited to 20 yards
Full roof replacement on an average Cape or ranch is the classic. So is a kitchen and two bathrooms taken out together, a whole first floor stripped of flooring and finishes, or a 1960s cottage gutted room by room over a two-week window. See roofing dumpster rental for how we stage tear-offs around a crew's schedule.
Cleanouts fit well. A three or four bedroom house emptied before a sale, a basement and attic done in the same weekend, a long-term rental turned over after a tenant leaves everything behind. Furniture, boxes, old exercise equipment and decades of stored paint cans (emptied and dried) all go.
Contractors use the 20 as their default residential box. New construction offcuts, siding tear-off, window and door replacement debris, framing scrap. Our construction dumpster rental covers scheduled swaps for crews running multi-week jobs.
Storm work is seasonal but real. After a nor'easter or the remnants of a tropical system come through, downed pitch pine, torn shingle, blown-off trim and soaked interior material come out together. Branches trap enormous amounts of air, so a 20 fills faster than the volume suggests when brush is involved.
When to step up to a 30 or drop to a 15
Go down to the 15 yard if the project is genuinely one or two rooms and your driveway is short. Twenty-two feet plus truck room defeats a lot of village driveways in Provincetown, Woods Hole and the older parts of Chatham, and there is no point ordering capacity you cannot park.
Go up to the 30 yard if any of these are true: the job involves framing lumber coming out of walls, you are clearing an entire house rather than part of one, brush and branches are a large share of the load, or the project will run more than two weeks and things will keep appearing. Bulky debris is deceptive, and a 30 costs far less than a 20 plus a second 20.
Stay at 20 when the material is mixed household and renovation debris, the driveway is a normal suburban length, and the job has a defined end. That describes most Cape work.
One caution in the other direction: do not size up to make heavy debris fit. If the load is concrete or soil, a bigger box does not raise your tonnage allowance — it only gives you more room to overload. That is a weight problem, not a space problem, and the answer is a smaller container and more of them.
Capacity
What actually fits in a 20 yard container
Rough working figures. Weight, not volume, is what stops most loads.
| Material | How much fits |
|---|---|
| Asphalt shingles | roughly 20-24 squares of a single layer, which is a typical Cape roof if the deck stays on |
| 33-gallon contractor bags | about 110 to 130 bags packed reasonably tight |
| Drywall sheets, 4 ft × 8 ft | roughly 100 to 130 sheets of standard half-inch board laid flat |
| Broken concrete or brick | under a quarter of the box, and honestly the wrong container for the job |
| Carpet and pad | roughly 3,000 to 4,200 square feet pulled up and rolled |
| Furniture | about 8 to 12 large pieces plus boxes, or a three bedroom house of living room and bedroom items |
Suitability
Is the 20 yard the right size for you?
Choose the 20 yard for
- Complete roof tear-off on an average Cape or ranch, about 20 to 24 squares of single-layer shingle
- Whole first floor stripped of flooring, trim and finishes in a 1960s cottage
- Kitchen and two bathrooms renovated in the same project window
- Three or four bedroom house emptied of furniture before it goes on the market
- Basement and attic cleared out together after a wet winter
- Cedar shingle siding tear-off on one or two elevations of a coastal home
- Window and door replacement across a whole house, including old sash and frames
- Storm cleanup combining downed limbs, torn shingle and soaked interior material
Pick a different size for
- Broken concrete, brick, stone or soil — twenty cubic yards of it weighs about forty tons, so use the 10 yard dumpster.
- A one-room bathroom or small deck tear-out — you are paying for space you will not use, so take the 15 yard dumpster.
- A full cottage gut with framing, plaster and flooring coming out at once — order the 30 yard dumpster.
- A whole-house estate cleanout with decades of furniture and stored belongings — the volume needs a 30 yard dumpster.
- Commercial demolition or a multi-unit renovation running on a fixed schedule — go to the 40 yard dumpster.
Placing a 20 yard container on a Cape Cod property
A 22 ft container is a serious object on a Cape driveway. Sandy soil, crushed shell and pea stone all move under the concentrated load of two steel rails, and soft shoulders on older lanes in Eastham, Truro and Wellfleet give way quickly after heavy rain. Plywood cribbing under the rails is standard on every drop, and it protects sealcoated asphalt and brick pavers as much as it protects the footing.
The hard rule: no loaded container over a Title 5 septic tank, distribution box or leach field. Cape systems sit shallow in sand and a crushed D-box is an expensive, avoidable failure. Your as-built is usually filed with the town health department, and the state's Title 5 septic system information explains what each component does.
Narrow lanes in the Old King's Highway district, low pitch pine limbs and overhead service drops all need a look before delivery day. What can go in the box is governed by the MassDEP waste disposal bans.
Compare
Every size side by side
It adds five cubic yards, six feet of length and a half foot of wall over the 15 yard, and gives up ten cubic yards and a foot and a half of height to the 30 yard while occupying the exact same 22 ft footprint.
| 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?
- 15 Yard Dumpster — the next size smaller
- 30 Yard Dumpster — the next size larger
- Compare all five sizes
- Read the full Cape Cod sizing guide
Talk to a real person
Book a 20 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
20 Yard Dumpster — questions we get asked
Is a 20 yard dumpster big enough for a full roof?
For an average Cape or ranch with a single layer of asphalt shingle, yes. Twenty to twenty-four squares fits inside both the volume and the 2-3 tons included. The complication is a hidden second layer, which doubles the weight without adding much bulk and pushes you into overage. Count your squares and check for layers at the eave before ordering, or call us and we will size it from the roof dimensions.
How much driveway do I need for a 20 yard dumpster?
About 34 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 box comes off the rails. The truck needs a straight backing run. Driveways that curve around a stone wall or a mature pine often cannot take a 22 ft container even when the parking area itself looks big enough. Send a photo if you are unsure.
Can I mix concrete or dirt into a 20 yard load?
A small incidental amount from a renovation is usually fine, but a deliberate concrete or soil load is not. Twenty cubic yards of masonry weighs roughly forty tons against a 2-3 ton allowance. Massachusetts also regulates asphalt pavement, brick and concrete as banned from ordinary disposal, so those go to a processor and should be kept clean and separate. Call and we will set up a dedicated heavy debris container instead.
What does the flat rate include?
Delivery, the rental period, pickup, and disposal up to the stated tonnage of 2-3 tons. Nothing is added for fuel or the drive out to the Outer Cape. Weight beyond the included allowance is billed per ton at the scale ticket, and a small number of materials such as mattresses, appliances and tires are handled separately under state rules. Ask for the full breakdown when you call and we will give you the whole number.
How fast can you deliver on Cape Cod?
Same-day and next-day delivery are both available depending on the day and the season. Off-season, November through April, we can usually be there quickly. Summer is tighter because rental turnover, contractor schedules and storm work compete for the same trucks, and everything has to cross the Bourne or Sagamore bridge. A day or two of notice makes the schedule far easier for everyone.
Service area
20 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.