Renovation debris removal in Denver

The short answer

Renovation debris is excluded from essentially every bulky-item program in the metro, because those programs are for household goods and not for the results of a project. So the options are a roll-off container, a self-haul with a confirmed gate rate, or a crew.

Published prices: Construction Debris $120, Drywall (per sheet / small bundle) $37, Lumber / Wood Scrap (bundle) $41, Roofing Shingles (per bundle) $48, Concrete / Masonry Debris (per 1/4 truck) $219, Carpet (rolled) $68, Carpet — Removal (per room) $71. By volume, a half truck is $431 and a full truck is $732. Minimum $75.

The four Denver projects that generate this

• The basement finish. The most common renovation in this city, because Denver houses have basements and most of them were never properly finished. What comes out first is the 1970s layer: wood panelling, a dropped ceiling, a wet bar, old carpet, and sometimes a half-built partition somebody abandoned.
• The pop-top and the scrape-off. Constant through the warm months in Berkeley, Sloan's Lake, the Highlands, Platt Park and West Highland. Roof structure, framing, siding, windows, and whatever contents got left behind.
• The kitchen and bath update in a 1950s ranch. Harvey Park, Virginia Village, Athmar Park, Applewood. Original cabinets, a cast iron tub, a wall-hung sink, tile that was set in mortar.
• Hail repair. Roof tear-off, siding, screens, gutters and window wraps across Aurora, Centennial, Lakewood and the eastern suburbs, generated across whole streets at once.

What each material costs

An old Denver basement stripped back to studs is usually the panelling and carpet as one job: carpet removal for two rooms and a lumber bundle is $71 + $41 = $112 on the light end, with the bulk of it priced as a half truck at $431.

Kitchens and bathrooms, itemized

A 1950s ranch bathroom gut is typically the fiberglass tub and the detached toilet at $90 + $64 = $154, plus the vanity. A kitchen rip-out with one stone countertop section is $293 + $111 = $404.

The cast iron items deserve their own mention. Older Denver houses hide two of them: a cast iron bathtub, which is a genuinely dangerous object on a stair and usually gets broken up in place, and cast iron radiators left over from an original boiler system. Both are heavy enough that they are the reason a project stalls.

Getting it out of a Denver basement

This is the part contractors underestimate and homeowners discover. The basement is where most Denver renovation happens, and the route out is a steep flight that turns hard at a landing, often with under seven feet of headroom, into a kitchen or a back hall, then out a narrow door.

Everything you demolish has to come back up that way, by hand, in armloads or in bags. A roll-off in the driveway does not change that; it just gives you somewhere to put the material once you have carried it up. That is the practical reason a crew often makes more sense here than a container: the carry is the job, and it is included at no extra charge.

Exterior basement entrances help where they exist, but many of the older ones are steep concrete stairwells with a low bulkhead — better than the interior stair, not good.

Keep materials separated if you can

Clean, sorted material recovers. Mixed material mostly does not, and the difference is entirely within your control on site.

• Concrete and masonry crush for aggregate. Keep them out of the general pile. A quarter truck is $219.
• Clean untreated lumber recovers. Painted, treated and composite does not.
• Metal — old ductwork, radiators, roofing, flashing, copper pipe — is the most valuable stream and should never be buried under drywall.
• Clean drywall has a recovery route. Wet drywall does not, which matters because an open container through a Denver hail storm soaks everything in it.

Sorting costs you nothing but a few minutes of staging and it genuinely changes where the load ends up.

Timing, buildings and the season

Denver packs renovation into the warm months along with everything else, so late spring through September is when every trade you need is busy and the hauling calendar is tightest. If your demolition date is flexible, a winter interior project is far easier to schedule, and the price does not change — there is no seasonal rate.

Two more practicalities. If the work is in a RiNo, LoHi, Golden Triangle or Cherry Creek building, management will want a certificate of insurance naming the property and a reserved freight elevator before debris moves; send us the requirements and we will handle the certificate. And if you are working behind a bungalow with a detached alley garage, check the alley in winter — a plow berm across the mouth means loading from the street instead.

Book the haul after the demolition rather than during it. Debris that has been staged neatly for one visit costs less and moves faster than debris collected in three passes.

Frequently asked questions