The arrival of spring weather means it is finally time to reclaim your backyard. If you have been staring at a sagging, splintering, or dangerously rotting wooden deck all winter, this is the season to finally do something about it. Upgrading your outdoor living space often begins with a heavy dose of demolition. Tearing down an old deck paves the way for that beautiful new stamped concrete patio, a modern composite deck, or simply a lush, open lawn for the summer barbecue season.
However, once you grab your crowbar and start prying up those weathered floorboards, a harsh reality quickly sets in. Tearing down a deck generates an absolutely staggering amount of heavy, awkward waste. If you want your spring backyard makeover to be a success, you need a proactive plan for managing the demolition debris. Here is exactly how to navigate the messy process of a deck removal and why a residential roll-off is your best tool for the job.
At first glance, a backyard deck looks like a relatively simple structure. It is just some boards and a few posts, right? Wrong. Decks are heavily engineered structures designed to hold thousands of pounds of snow, furniture, and people.
When you begin dismantling one, you are dealing with hundreds of linear feet of thick wood. You have the surface decking, the underlying network of two-by-eight joists, heavy structural beams, the staircase stringers, and the thick wooden support posts. Furthermore, wood that has been sitting outside for ten or twenty years is often water-logged and decaying, making it incredibly heavy to carry. A deck that measures just twelve by twelve feet can easily yield thousands of pounds of dense, nail-riddled debris. You cannot simply stack this mountain of old wood against your fence and hope it goes away.
A common mistake eager DIYers make is assuming they can slowly sneak their demolished deck into their weekly municipal trash bin. This is a surefire way to get your trash skipped or face fines from your local city waste management department.
First, standard garbage trucks are not equipped to handle the sheer volume and weight of construction debris. Second, and more importantly, most older outdoor decks are built using pressure-treated lumber. Wood manufactured prior to 2004 was heavily treated with chemicals like chromated copper arsenate to prevent termite damage and wood rot. Because of these chemical treatments, old deck wood often requires specific handling and cannot be burned or randomly dumped.
When you rent a dedicated construction dumpster, you bypass the curbside restrictions entirely. However, it is always a smart idea to double-check local regulations and review what can and cannot go in your container before you start tossing older, potentially hazardous materials into the bin.
Efficiency is the secret to a smooth backyard demolition. To maximize the space inside your rented dumpster, you need to break the deck down methodically. Use a reciprocating saw or circular saw to cut long joists into manageable, flat-laying sections.
When you utilize professional waste removal services with heavy-duty bins, you can safely dispose of almost every component of your old deck in one single place. Here is a breakdown of what you should be tossing into your container during a deck demo:
Decking Boards and Balusters: The surface wood and the thin vertical slats from your railings. Cut them down so they lay flat, which prevents wasted air pockets in your dumpster.
Heavy Joists and Support Beams: The structural underbelly of the deck. These are heavy and densely packed with rusted screws and framing nails.
Metal Flashing and Hardware: Rusted joist hangers, lag bolts, galvanized brackets, and old metal flashing from where the deck attached to your house.
Concrete Footings: The heavy cement blocks buried in your yard that held the wooden support posts.
Pro-Tip: Take full advantage of the walk-in doors on your roll-off. Instead of throwing heavy concrete footings over the side wall and risking an injury, simply open the back door and carry them directly inside to the floor of the bin.
To avoid paying for wasted space or, conversely, having to rent a second bin because you ran out of room, you need to match your dumpster size to your deck’s square footage.
For a small, ground-level floating deck or a minor balcony tear-down, a 15-yard dumpster is typically the perfect fit. It comfortably handles the lumber while taking up minimal space in your driveway.
If you are removing a standard elevated deck attached to your home—anything in the realm of two hundred to three hundred square feet—you will want to upgrade to a 20-yard container. This provides the extra length needed to lay down longer cut joists without awkwardly stacking them.
For massive, multi-level wraparound decks, sprawling pool surrounds, or demolition projects that include tearing down a wooden pergola at the same time, a 30-yard dumpster is highly recommended to handle the extreme bulk.
Tearing down an old deck is an exhausting, sweat-inducing project. The absolute last thing you should be worrying about is making endless trips to the local dump in a scratched-up pickup truck.
At Rocket Rolloff, we specialize in helping homeowners clear out residential demolition waste quickly and safely. We prioritize your property by placing sturdy wooden boards under our wheels to ensure your driveway stays completely damage-free. If you are prepping your backyard for a major spring upgrade anywhere within our Nebraska service area, let our local team handle the heavy hauling. Grab your work gloves, fire up the saw, and let us take care of the mess.
©Copyright 2022. Rocket Rolloffs. All Rights Reserved. Website Design by Five Rivers Marketing
