The morning after a proper westerly blows through Birkdale, our phone starts at seven. Fence panels flat across the garden, ridge tiles off, a shed roof somewhere it should not be. Storm damage waste clearance is a different job to a planned clear-out because nobody chose the timing and nothing has been sorted. If you need a skip quickly, our Birkdale skip hire service runs from our own yard rather than through a broker, which is why we can usually turn a call around fast.
Why storm damage waste clearance is worse this close to the coast
Birkdale takes weather that inland West Lancashire does not. There is very little between here and the Irish Sea, and the wind coming off it in January carries salt as well as force. That has two effects on what ends up needing clearing.
The first is simply that more comes down. Fencing that would survive a winter in Ormskirk gives up here, and it tends to go in runs rather than singly, because once one panel folds the next one takes the full load. We routinely clear eight or ten panels from a single garden after one bad night.
The second is that coastal timber is already weaker than it looks. Salt air accelerates rot in fence posts at ground level, so a post that seems solid when you push it at chest height is often gone at the base. When people ring us to say the whole run went over in one gust, that is usually why.
What to deal with first and what can wait
Make the site safe before you think about the skip. Anything with nails pointing upwards, any glass, and anything still hanging off a roof needs sorting before you start piling waste. A shed roof that is half off is more dangerous than one that has fully gone, because it will come down eventually and it will choose its own moment.
Greenhouse glass deserves particular care. Old greenhouses in this area are often horticultural glass rather than toughened, and when it goes it goes into long shards that hide in wet grass for months. We will take glass in a skip, but we would ask you to keep it contained rather than loose, both for our drivers and for whoever handles it at our end.
Photograph everything before you move it if there is any chance of an insurance claim. We have had customers clear a garden efficiently on the Saturday and then discover on the Monday that their insurer wanted to see it. Nothing we can do at that point.
The material that cannot go in the skip
This is the part of storm damage waste clearance that catches people out, and it matters more in Birkdale than in newer estates because of the housing stock. A good number of garages, outhouses and older sheds around here have corrugated cement sheet roofs. If that sheeting dates from before the mid nineteen nineties there is a reasonable chance it contains asbestos, and a storm that lifts and cracks it is exactly the situation where it becomes a problem.
We cannot take it. Not in a midi, not in a builders skip, not tucked under other waste. It needs a licensed contractor and separate disposal, and our guide to hazardous waste and why it cannot go in a skip sets out what to do instead. If you are unsure what a broken sheet is, leave it where it lies, keep people off it and ring us. We would far rather advise you over the phone than have you handle something you should not.
Fencing, timber and getting the size right
Fence panels are bulky, awkward and deceptively heavy once soaked, which after a storm they always are. Our advice on how to get rid of fence panels covers the practical side, but the short version is that breaking them down before loading roughly doubles what you fit in a given skip.
Concrete posts are the other consideration. If the storm took posts as well as panels, you have gone from a light bulky load to a seriously heavy one, and that changes the size we would recommend. A run of ten concrete posts is a substantial weight on its own. For a full fence run with posts and a shed on top of it, an 8 tonne builders skip is usually the sensible call rather than trying to make a smaller unit work.
Permits and where the skip can go
Birkdale sits within Sefton borough, so any skip going on the road here needs a permit from Sefton Council rather than the county, and their requirements are worth reading before you assume it is a formality. Our guide to skip permits in Southport covers the same authority and the same process.
After a storm, though, the road is often the worst option anyway. The wind that took your fence has usually left debris on the street, and neighbours are frequently dealing with the same thing at the same time. If you have a driveway, that is where we would put it, and it saves you the permit fee and the wait.
Where we cover and what happens next
We work right along this stretch of coast, taking in Ainsdale skip hire and Southport skip hire jobs alongside Birkdale, and after a bad night we are usually running all three at once. Storm timber is one of the better materials for recovery once it dries out, and because everything comes back to our own site we can process it properly rather than sending it on. Our environmental and recycling page explains how that side works.
If a storm has left you with a garden full of what used to be a fence, ring us on 01704 779345 and tell us what came down. We will size it sensibly and get a skip to you as quickly as we can. You can also reach us through our contact page if it is easier.
