September is when the guttering calls start. A summer of neglect, a first heavy downpour, and suddenly the water is running down the wall instead of into the downpipe. Replacing rainwater goods is one of the most sensible jobs to book before autumn properly arrives, and it produces more waste than most people anticipate once the old runs come down. We handle Aintree skip hire for this work throughout the autumn, and skip hire in Aintree for a guttering job is usually smaller and shorter than customers assume.
What comes down with the old guttering
On a modern property the answer is simple. Plastic gutter, plastic downpipe, brackets and a few fascia boards if they are being refreshed at the same time. It is light, it is bulky, and it breaks down small if you cut it. That is a modest load.
On the older housing stock around Aintree the answer is different. Cast iron guttering is still in place on a good number of properties, and it is extremely heavy. A single length of cast iron gutter is a two person lift, and a full run around a semi comes to a weight that surprises everybody who has only handled plastic. Cast iron is also worth separating, because it is a recoverable metal rather than general waste.
Then there is what has been sitting inside the gutters. Years of leaf mould, silt, moss and grit come down with the runs, and it is wet. Add the fascia and soffit boards if they are being replaced, plus the timber behind them, which is often rotten and holding water, and the job produces a mixed load that is heavier than its volume suggests.
The one thing that must never go in the skip
Some properties from the middle of the last century have asbestos cement rainwater goods rather than cast iron or plastic. Asbestos cement gutter and downpipe looks like a grey, slightly rough concrete, it is brittle, and it is entirely possible to have lived under it for thirty years without knowing. It cannot go in a skip under any circumstances, and it must not be broken up, cut or dropped from height.
If there is any doubt about what the downpipes are made of, the job stops until it is identified. Our guide to asbestos and skip hire and what to do instead explains how to have it assessed and who removes it. This matters more on a rainwater job than most people realise, because the material sits at high level and the temptation is to drop it into the skip from the ladder rather than lower it down.
Sizing the skip for a rainwater goods job
For guttering alone on a single property, a 4 tonne midi skip hire is normally more than enough, and it will sit on a driveway for the two or three days the job takes. Where the work extends to a full fascia, soffit and bargeboard replacement, or where the roof is being stripped and repointed at the same time, an 8 tonne builders skip hire gives room for the tile, timber and old felt that come with it.
Where several neighbouring properties are having the same work done, which happens more than you would think once one house on a row has scaffolding up, sharing a larger skip across the terrace is far cheaper per household than three small ones. Looking at our range of skip sizes together with the neighbours is worth a conversation before anyone books individually.
Placement, scaffolding and keeping the drive usable
A guttering job usually comes with scaffold or at least a tower, and the two compete for the same ground. The skip needs to go where the scaffold is not, and where the lorry can still reach it when the scaffold is up. That sounds obvious and it is the single most common cause of a failed collection on this type of work. Deciding the skip position at the same time as the scaffold position, rather than a week later, avoids it entirely.
Most Aintree properties have a driveway or a hard standing that takes a midi skip comfortably, which is why driveway skip hire is the usual arrangement here and avoids the permit question altogether. Where the property has no off street space and the skip must go on the carriageway, a permit is required and the authority depends on the street. We confirm which authority issues it for your address before we deliver rather than guessing, because the conditions attached differ.
Booking skip hire in Aintree before the wet weather
The practical argument for doing this work in September rather than November is access. Ladders and scaffold on wet ground in December are slower and less safe, the debris coming out of the gutters is heavier once it has taken a month of rain, and the trades are busier. Booking the skip early in the autumn window means the whole job takes fewer days.
Everything we collect returns to our recycling centre, where the metal, plastic and timber are separated properly. As a family run business working with our own vehicles across Merseyside, we also cover Maghull skip hire and Litherland skip hire for the same autumn maintenance work.
To get a skip on site for the week the scaffold goes up, ring us on 0151 909 6399 or contact our team. Tell us what the existing guttering is made of and whether a scaffold is involved, and we will size it and place it so the job runs without a second visit.
