Dumpster Size Calculator
In the workshopYards, tons & the right can
Store name: “Dumpster Size Calculator”
See it run.
About twenty-five seconds of Dumpster Size Calculator doing its job, recorded straight off the phone. No captions, no voice-over, nothing staged — the same clip the App Store shows.
Watch on YouTubeComing soon
Not out yet — but it’s close.
A dumpster size calculator that also weighs the load.
- 39 debris materials, each carrying the published source and the quoted line its factor came from — EPA volume-to-weight conversion factors, manufacturer data sheets, hauler sizing pages
- A can counts as full at 90% of its nominal yards, the way haulers require the load level with the rim: a 10-yard holds 9.0 cubic yards of loose debris
- Heavy debris — concrete, asphalt, brick, dirt, gravel, shingles — is ordered by volume and never upsized, because haulers price it by the ton and most will not take it in a big can at all
- Included tonnage starts at the median of a national snapshot of 120,452 hauler offers and can be set to match your own quote, with your price per extra ton turning the overage into dollars
Free web tool
What size dumpster do I need?
Start with the yards: add up what you're actually throwing out — roofing by the square, drywall by the sheet, concrete by the slab, furniture and appliances by the piece — remembering that a can counts as full at 90% of its nominal size, so a 10-yard holds about 9 cubic yards of loose debris, a 20-yard about 18 and a 40-yard about 36. Then check the weight against the tonnage your hauler includes, which is typically 2 tons on a 10-yard, 1.5 on a 15, 2 on a 20, 3 on a 30 and 4 on a 40 — anything past it is billed by the ton, and a load of shingles or dirt blows through that limit long before the walls fill up. Heavy debris is the exception that catches people out: concrete, asphalt, brick, dirt, gravel and shingles go in a 10-yard priced by the ton, because a bigger can costs the same per ton and most haulers will not take them in one at all.
Order a 10-yard
8.9 yd³ loose · 3.3 tons
1.3 t over the 2.0 t included
Heavy debris — priced by the ton.
Every size against this load
10
yard
Over 1.3 t
15
yard
Over 1.8 t
20
yard
Over 1.3 t
30
yard
Over 0.3 t
40
yard
Fits
What’s going out?
150 lb/cu ft x (4 in. / 12 in.) = 50 lb per sq ft of slab.
- Asphalt shingles, architecturalheavy30 squares · 8.9 yd³ · 3.27 t
Where these numbers come from
Asphalt shingles, architectural
Per layer of roof: one square = 100 sq ft. Source range 211-225 lb/square; midpoint (211+225)/2 = 218.
CertainTeed, Landmark Shingles Technical Data Sheet CTRCOMM-015 (2408) (accessed 2026-09-11), https://certainteed.widen.net/content/xnk5hrkbzv/pdf/Landmark_TDS_CTRCOMM-015_2408_E.pdf + US EPA, Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors, April 2016 (accessed 2026-09-11), https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2016-04/documents/volume_to_weight_conversion_factors_memorandum_04192016_508fnl.pdf
Container sizes and included tonnage
Dumpsters.com, 10 Yard Dumpster (accessed 2026-09-11), https://www.dumpsters.com/sizes/10-yard-dumpster + Budget Dumpster, 10 Yard Dumpsters (accessed 2026-09-11), https://www.budgetdumpster.com/budget-dumpster-sizes/ten-yard-dumpster.php + Aaron's Budget Dumpster pricing snapshot 2026-08-18, vendor_zip_matrix.csv (120,452 vendor x ZIP x size offers, 403 named haulers, 33,786 ZIPs)
Loose volume is the weight divided by the material’s as-thrown density (bulky items carry their own cubic yards), and a can counts as full at 90% of its nominal yards, because haulers require the load level with the rim. Heavy debris — concrete, asphalt, brick, dirt, gravel, shingles — is ordered by volume and billed by the ton, so it is never upsized. Same engine as the app, same cited factors.
Typical figures — confirm sizes, limits and heavy-debris rules with your hauler.
Take it with you
The full Dumpster Size Calculator app adds saved jobs you can name and come back to, sharing the estimate with whoever's ordering, your hauler's own included tonnage and price per extra ton so the overage lands in dollars, and the published source behind every factor — fully offline, bought once.
Coming soon to the App Store
What it is
Dumpster Size Calculator answers the two questions a roll-off rental turns on: which size to order, and whether the weight will get you. List what's going out — roofing by the square, drywall by the sheet, concrete by the slab, brick by the piece, dirt by the yard, furniture and appliances one at a time — and the can fills up on screen, loose cubic yards on one side and tons on the other, against the tonnage your hauler includes. The verdict is one line: the size to order, or the size that holds the volume and how many tons you're over.
Why we built it
Every dumpster-sizing page on the web is a rental company's lead form, and almost all of them size by volume alone — which is exactly the mistake that produces an overage bill. A roof tear-off or a concrete patio fits a 10-yard on volume and blows past the two tons it includes long before the walls fill up. This does the weight arithmetic too, from published factors you can check, and says what haulers actually do with heavy debris instead of quietly upsizing you.
Want one like this?
Dumpster Size Calculator is one of 27. We can build yours.
Every app on the shelf started as one honest problem, scoped small and built native, end to end. That’s exactly how we approach client work — designed, built and shipped, without the bloat.
