A kitchen is the biggest single room project most people take on, and it produces waste in three quite separate categories that want handling differently. Kitchen refit waste is also the job where the most items turn up that cannot simply go in a container, and finding that out on the morning of the strip out is inconvenient. Our Penwortham skip hire service covers a steady run of these.
The units are bulk without much weight
Carcasses are chipboard, doors are usually MDF or foil wrapped board, and the whole lot comes apart more easily than people expect if you take the doors and drawers off first.
Dismantle rather than smash. Flat panels stack in a skip and take up a fraction of the room that broken carcasses do. It is slower by perhaps an hour and it can be the difference between one container and two.
Do not burn any of it. Chipboard and MDF are bonded with resins and burning them releases what is in those binders. It goes in the skip and comes back to us, and our environmental and recycling page explains how board waste is handled once it reaches our site.
If the kitchen is sound and simply dated, it is worth offering locally before it comes out. Complete kitchens in reasonable condition find takers, particularly if someone can collect them themselves.
Worktops are where the weight is
This is the item that changes the sizing. A laminate worktop is light and cuts down easily. Granite, quartz and solid stone are another matter entirely.
A single run of stone worktop is a genuine two or three person lift, and a full kitchen’s worth is a substantial tonnage on its own. It also does not break down usefully, so it goes into the skip in large heavy slabs that take up floor area and cannot be redistributed once they are down.
Put the stone in first, flat across the base of the container, before anything else goes in. If it goes in last, on top of a skip full of units, it sits high and awkward and makes the lift difficult.
Tiling adds to it. Where tiles are on plaster or render, the wall covering usually comes off with them, and a fully tiled kitchen produces more rubble than most people plan for. Our page on skip size versus weight limits explains why that matters.
Appliances do not go in the skip
This is the category people most often get wrong, and there are three separate reasons.
Fridges and freezers contain refrigerant in the cooling circuit and need that recovering properly before the shell can be scrapped. They cannot go in a container. Tell us if there is one and we will point you in the right direction rather than having a driver decline it on the day.
Everything else electrical, which in a kitchen means the oven, hob, extractor, dishwasher, washing machine and microwave, is electrical waste and belongs in that stream rather than in a general load. Our guide to how to dispose of electrical waste responsibly covers where it goes.
The third category is the cupboard under the sink. Every kitchen has one and it is invariably full of part used cleaning chemicals, oven cleaner, drain unblocker and things nobody can identify. None of that is skip waste, and our guide to hazardous waste and why it cannot go in a skip explains what to do with it. Clear that cupboard out as a separate task a week before the strip out.
The metal is worth separating
A kitchen produces more metal than people notice. The sink, taps, old radiator if it is being moved, appliance housings, handles and any steel splashback. It has a scrap value and it is easily kept in one corner as you work.
Copper pipe from a rearranged layout is worth keeping aside specifically. It is the most valuable thing likely to come out of the room.
The same goes for the old radiator if the layout is changing. Steel panel radiators are bulky in a container and worth something at a merchant, and taking one out to the side rather than throwing it in takes a couple of minutes.
Sizing it
For a typical kitchen strip out, an 8 tonne builders skip covers most jobs, with the appliances dealt with separately. Where the room is small, the worktop is laminate and there is no significant tiling, a 4 tonne midi skip will often do.
The variable is stone. If there is stone worktop coming out, say so when you book, because it moves the answer more than the size of the kitchen does. A small galley kitchen with a granite top will need more container than a large one finished in laminate, which is not what most people expect.
Where the refit is part of a wider project, tell us the sequence as well as the scope. Kitchens are frequently done alongside flooring or a knock through, and the waste from those phases arrives at different points. We would rather plan two deliveries around your programme than have one container standing full for a fortnight in the middle of it.
Access and local coverage
Most properties here have driveway space, which keeps things simple and avoids a permit entirely. Get the skip as close to the door as you can, because a kitchen strip out involves a great many trips with awkward loads.
We work across this side of the Ribble daily, running Leyland skip hire and Longton skip hire jobs alongside Penwortham.
Ring us on 01772 364399 and tell us about the worktop and the appliances. Those two answers size the job. Our contact page is there if you would rather write.
