Renovation debris removal in Columbus

The short answer

Loose volume runs the truck ladder: quarter $241, half $431, full $732. Visit minimum $75.

Weight versus volume, and why it matters here

Household junk is a volume problem. Renovation debris is a weight problem, and the two price differently for a good reason: a truck runs out of legal weight long before it runs out of space when the load is masonry.

That is why concrete and masonry are priced per quarter truck at $219 rather than on the standard ladder. A quarter of a truck bed of broken concrete weighs more than a full bed of furniture.

Columbus makes this acute because of what the older housing stock is made of. A pre-war house here is plaster over wood lath, not drywall. Plaster is dense, it comes off in heavy chunks with nails in it, and two rooms of it will fill a weight allowance while the pile still looks modest. Add a brick foundation wall, a cast iron tub and three radiators and you have one of the heaviest residential loads there is.

The rehab neighborhoods and what they produce

Different parts of the metro generate different debris, and if you know which one you are in you can price the job before you start.

Italian Village, Olde Towne East, Franklinton, Old North, King-Lincoln. Full rehabs of century houses. Plaster and lath by the bag, cast iron radiators at $123 each from steam-to-forced-air conversions, a cast iron tub at $185, old-growth trim, a detached toilet at $64, and frequently a brick or stone foundation repair on top.

German Village, Victorian Village, Schumacher Place. Smaller footprints, historic review, and access as the main constraint. The rear service alley is usually the route.

Clintonville, Beechwold, Merion Village. Kitchens and basements. Cabinets out in one piece, laminate countertop sections at $56, carpet at $68 rolled or $71 per room removed.

Upper Arlington, Bexley, Worthington, Grandview. Mid-century houses getting current kitchens and baths. Stone countertop sections at $111, fiberglass tubs at $90, vanities at $69, and a lot of cabinetry.

Dublin, Westerville, Hilliard, Gahanna. Basement finishing and kitchen updates in newer stock. Lighter debris, easier access, bigger volumes.

Lead and asbestos: get this right first

Anything built before 1978 may have lead paint, and older Columbus houses commonly have asbestos in pipe wrap, duct tape mastic, floor tile and some plaster and joint materials. That is not scaremongering; it is the age of the housing stock.

Assessment and abatement are a licensed contractor's work, not a hauler's, and they need to happen before material is disturbed rather than after it is in bags on the porch. If you are gutting a century home in Olde Towne East or Old North, budget for the assessment as part of the demolition phase.

We remove ordinary construction debris. We do not remove regulated material, and we will tell you plainly if something looks like it needs a specialist rather than take the booking.

Bag it, do not pile it

Contractor bags are the most efficient way to handle plaster, lath, tile and general demolition waste, for three reasons. They contain the dust, they can be carried down a narrow century-home stairwell one at a time, and they price predictably.

The ladder: 10 bags $132, 15 bags $196, 20 bags $259, 25 bags $322, 30 bags $385, 40 bags $449, 50 bags $575. A single contractor bag on its own is $41.

Two practical notes. Do not overfill them with plaster; a bag you cannot lift is a bag nobody can carry, and on a stairwell it splits. And keep the nail-bearing lath separate from the soft debris if you can, because it punches through everything.

Timing the haul

The most common mistake is booking removal daily during demolition. That is three or four visit minimums and three or four afternoons of site disruption.

The better pattern for a typical Columbus renovation: one haul at the end of demolition, when the plaster, the fixtures, the cabinets and the carpet are all out and bagged; then a second at the end of the build, for packaging, offcuts and the pile that accumulated in the garage.

If the project runs for weeks with a crew producing debris daily and you have somewhere legal to put a container, a dumpster is the right tool for the middle of it. Placement is the catch in the older neighborhoods: narrow brick streets, permit parking, no driveways, and a right-of-way permit if it has to sit in the street. Check the current requirement with the city.

What does not go on the truck

• Paint, stain, solvents and thinner, which every renovation generates.
• Adhesives, sealants and pressurized cans.
• Fluorescent tubes and anything containing mercury.
• Fuel, oil and automotive fluids.
• Anything regulated for lead or asbestos, which needs a licensed abatement contractor.
• Tires, which follow their own track in Ohio.

Franklin County runs household hazardous waste collection through the county solid waste authority. Check the current schedule and set these aside before the haul.

A worked job

A bathroom gut in a Clintonville century home: cast iron tub, detached toilet, vanity, one room of carpet in the hallway outside, and twenty bags of plaster and lath.

That is $185 + $64 + $69 + $71 + $259 = $648. A three-quarter truckload is $587, so if the material genuinely fills that much space, book the load instead. If it is heavy and compact, which plaster and cast iron are, itemizing is usually the better route because you are not paying for space you did not use.

That is the rule for renovation work in general: dense and compact, price the items; bulky and light, price the truck.

Frequently asked questions