30 cubic yards
30 Yard Dumpster Rental on Cape Cod
Thirty cubic yards for gut renovations, whole-house cleanouts and demolition debris. Same 22 ft footprint as the 20, with a foot and a half more wall.
- Licensed & insured
- Same-day on the Upper Cape
- Flat-rate pricing
- All 15 Cape towns
- Dimensionstypically about 22 ft long × 8 ft wide × 6 ft high
- Holdsabout 9-12 pickup truck loads
- Weight included3-4 tons
- Space neededabout 34 ft of length and 11 ft of width including room for the truck to load and unload
The 30 yard container on Cape Cod
A 30 yard roll-off runs typically about 22 ft long × 8 ft wide × 6 ft high, takes about 9-12 pickup truck loads of debris and includes 3-4 tons of disposal in the flat rate. Note what changes and what does not: the footprint is identical to a 20 yard, so if a 20 fits your driveway a 30 will too. The extra capacity comes entirely from taller sidewalls.
Six feet of wall is above shoulder height, which changes how you load. Most crews toss over the side for light material and use the rear swing door for anything they cannot lift. That is worth planning for. This is the size for gut renovations, whole-house cleanouts, demolition debris and big storm work — the jobs where debris keeps appearing for two weeks straight. Compare it with the 20 yard below it and the 40 yard above, or call (774) 208-0570 and describe the project. Fifteen years of Cape work means we have almost certainly sized your job before.
How much a 30 yard roll-off swallows
Thirty cubic yards holds roughly 170 to 190 contractor bags, or the entire contents of a three to four bedroom house including furniture, mattresses, boxed storage and the garage. A 1950s summer cottage taken back to the framing — plaster, lath, insulation, flooring, trim, cabinetry, fixtures — generally fits in one container if the framing itself stays put.
For demolition it covers a detached garage, a screened porch, a small barn or a large deck with its substructure. Twenty-two feet of length takes full-length joists and rafters without cutting, which saves a crew real time. Six feet of wall means you can stack rather than spread.
Storm work is where the volume genuinely earns out. Downed pitch pine and scrub oak, limbs, root balls and brush trap enormous amounts of air, and a load that looks like nothing on the ground fills a container fast. After a nor'easter or a tropical remnant we drop far more 30s than any other size; see storm debris removal for how those get scheduled.
What it does not swallow is weight. Thirty yards of anything mineral will exceed the allowance long before it fills the box.
Tonnage limits on a big container
The included allowance is 3-4 tons, or 6,000 to 8,000 pounds. That sounds generous until you look at what it covers. Roughly 25 to 30 squares of single-layer asphalt shingle. Three or four inches of broken concrete spread across the floor. Two or three rooms of plaster and lath off an antique Cape, where the sand-and-lime base coats weigh two to three times what modern drywall does.
The trap is thinking a bigger box raises your ceiling proportionally. It does not. Going from a 20 to a 30 adds fifty percent more volume but only about a ton of allowance, so the ratio of space to weight gets worse, not better. That is deliberate: the container and the truck have legal road limits, and once you cross those the load cannot legally leave your driveway.
Where a 30 shines is exactly the opposite material: light and bulky. Furniture, cardboard, insulation, carpet, brush, cabinetry, siding. You can fill it level and still come in comfortably under four tons.
Anything dense belongs in a small container. Concrete, brick, asphalt pavement, tile, stone and soil all go through heavy debris service in a 10 yard box, often several loads rather than one.
Clearance, approach and footing for a tall box
Allow about 34 ft of length and 11 ft of width including room for the truck to load and unload. The extra foot of width over a 20 is for the rear swing door, which needs to open fully and needs someone standing beside it. Length is unchanged because the container is the same twenty-two feet.
Height is what changes overhead. The box stands six feet on its own, and the hoist still needs roughly 23 to 25 feet of vertical clearance while it comes off the rails. On top of that, a tall container sitting under a low limb blocks the pickup even if the drop went fine. Look at the whole arc, not just the parking spot.
Footing is the other issue. A loaded 30 is a lot of weight on two rails, and Cape driveways are sand, crushed shell or pea stone more often than they are concrete. Plywood cribbing under the rails is standard, and on soft ground we will suggest staging nearer the street where the base is compacted. Fresh sealcoat scars easily; tell us if yours is recent.
Septic placement is absolute. A loaded roll-off never sits over a tank, D-box or leach field, and shallow Cape systems make that non-negotiable.
Gut jobs, additions and whole-house cleanouts
Cottage gut renovation is the signature job. Plenty of 1950s to 1970s Cape cottages are being converted to year-round use, and the tear-out phase produces a startling amount of material in a short window. Plaster, lath, knob-and-tube, blown-in insulation, subfloor, cabinetry, fixtures and old aluminum windows come out over four or five days. See our cottage renovation debris guide for how to phase it.
Estate cleanouts are the other constant. Families clearing a property they have held for forty years find far more than they expect, and a 30 lets the work continue rather than stopping while a smaller box gets swapped. Our estate cleanout service covers the logistics, including which items state rules require to be handled separately.
Additions, dormers and second-story pop-ups generate framing scrap, sheathing offcuts and old roofing all at once. So does whole-house siding replacement, especially where old cedar shingle comes off over a layer of building felt.
Contractors running multi-week Cape projects often keep one on site and swap it. Demolition debris removal and construction dumpster rental both run on that model.
Sizing up or down from 30 yards
Drop to the 20 yard if the job has a hard boundary — one floor, one roof, one defined cleanout — and the material is ordinary renovation debris. Six feet of wall is genuinely harder to load by hand, and there is no reward for renting height you will not use.
Move up to the 40 yard when volume is the whole problem: commercial work, multi-unit properties, large-scale demolition, or a site where the crew cannot afford to pause for a swap. The 40 is two feet taller again on the same footprint.
Stay at 30 for the middle case, which is most substantial residential work on the Cape. Whole-house cleanouts, gut renovations, storm debris, big landscape clears.
The measurement people skip: estimate volume before you order. Thirty cubic yards is a heap roughly twenty-two feet long, eight feet wide and six feet tall, packed. Loose debris never compacts the way you imagine, and brush compacts worst of all. If your estimate lands close to thirty, go up — a second delivery costs more than the difference between two sizes, and the crew loses half a day waiting. Our Cape Cod size guide works through the arithmetic.
Capacity
What actually fits in a 30 yard container
Rough working figures. Weight, not volume, is what stops most loads.
| Material | How much fits |
|---|---|
| Asphalt shingles | roughly 25-30 squares of a single layer, with the weight allowance reached before the box is full |
| 33-gallon contractor bags | about 170 to 190 bags packed reasonably tight |
| Drywall sheets, 4 ft × 8 ft | roughly 160 to 200 sheets of standard half-inch board laid flat |
| Broken concrete or brick | about a foot deep across the floor and the tonnage is gone — the wrong container entirely |
| Carpet and pad | roughly 5,000 to 6,500 square feet pulled up and rolled |
| Furniture and household goods | an entire three or four bedroom house, garage included |
Suitability
Is the 30 yard the right size for you?
Choose the 30 yard for
- Gut renovation of a 1950s or 1960s Cape cottage back to the framing
- Whole-house estate cleanout of a three or four bedroom property
- Detached garage, screened porch or small barn demolition
- Second-story addition or shed dormer, including framing scrap and old roofing
- Whole-house cedar shingle siding replacement over building felt
- Major storm cleanup with downed pitch pine, limbs, root balls and brush
- Large deck removal including substructure, footings excepted
- Multi-week contractor renovation with scheduled container swaps
Pick a different size for
- Broken concrete, asphalt, brick, stone or soil — the tonnage runs out at a fraction full, so use the 10 yard dumpster.
- A single-room remodel or one bathroom gut — that is a 15 yard dumpster job and six feet of wall just makes loading harder.
- A standard single-layer roof tear-off of about 20 squares — the 20 yard dumpster covers it for less.
- A short driveway that cannot take a 22 ft box plus truck room — step down to the 15 yard dumpster and take two loads.
- Ongoing commercial or multi-unit demolition where a swap would stall the crew — order the 40 yard dumpster.
Placing a 30 yard container on a Cape Cod property
Because a 30 shares the 22 ft footprint of a 20, the placement question on a Cape property is really about height and weight rather than length. Six feet of loaded steel bearing on two rails will sink into pea stone, crushed shell or sandy shoulder, which is why plywood cribbing goes under the rails on every drop and why we sometimes recommend staging nearer the street where the base is compacted.
A loaded container never sits over a Title 5 septic tank, distribution box or leach field. Cape systems are shallow and the sand around them offers little support. Town health departments hold the as-built for most properties, and the state's Title 5 septic system information is a useful primer.
Overhead limbs matter more with a tall box: pitch pine and scrub oak along lanes off Route 6A and Route 28 can clear a truck and still foul a full container at pickup. If excavation is part of the job, notify Dig Safe 811 first.
Compare
Every size side by side
It holds ten more cubic yards than the 20 yard on exactly the same 22 ft footprint by adding a foot and a half of sidewall, and gives up another ten cubic yards and two more feet of height to the 40 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?
- 20 Yard Dumpster — the next size smaller
- 40 Yard Dumpster — the next size larger
- Compare all five sizes
- Read the full Cape Cod sizing guide
Talk to a real person
Book a 30 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
30 Yard Dumpster — questions we get asked
Will a 30 yard dumpster fit where a 20 fits?
Almost always. Both are typically about 22 ft long and 8 ft wide, so the ground footprint is the same. The 30 is taller at about 6 ft, which matters for overhead limbs and for the pickup rather than the drop, and we ask for about a foot more width so the rear swing door can open with someone beside it. If a 20 has worked at your property before, a 30 will too.
How much weight is included with a 30 yard?
The flat rate covers 3-4 tons of disposal, confirmed when we quote. That is the right allowance for light bulky debris such as furniture, insulation, cabinetry, siding and brush, where you will fill the box and stay comfortably under it. Dense material is a different story: shingles, plaster and masonry reach the limit long before the container is full. Overage is billed per ton at the scale ticket.
Can I load it from the back instead of over the side?
Yes. Six feet of sidewall is above shoulder height, so most crews use the rear swing door for anything heavy or awkward and toss lighter material over the side. Leave enough room behind the container for the door to swing fully open and for someone to work there. Close and latch the door before pickup, and do not load past the top rail, since an overfilled box legally cannot be hauled.
Is a 30 yard right for a whole-house cleanout?
For a three or four bedroom Cape house, yes, including the garage in most cases. Furniture and boxed storage are bulky and light, which is exactly what this size is built for. Two things change the answer: a property with a full basement and attic packed after decades of use, or a family home nobody has cleared since the 1970s. Both regularly need a second container or a step up in size.
What can't go in it under Massachusetts rules?
The state bans a specific list of materials from ordinary disposal, including asphalt pavement, brick and concrete, metals, clean gypsum wallboard, leaves and yard waste, whole tires, and since November 2022 mattresses and textiles. Hazardous waste, asbestos, paint that is still liquid, propane tanks and refrigerant-containing appliances are all separate problems. Tell us what you have and we will route it correctly rather than have a load rejected at the scale.
Service area
30 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.