Windows go in during the spring for the obvious reason, which is that a house with holes in it is a better proposition in April than in January. Window replacement waste is simple in one sense and awkward in another, and the first thing worth establishing is whether it is your problem at all. Our Formby skip hire service handles the jobs where it is.
Check the quotation before you book anything
Most reputable installers remove and dispose of the old frames and glass as part of the price. It is a standard inclusion and it is one of the things worth confirming in writing before the job starts.
Where you may still need a container is if you are doing the work yourself, if the installer has quoted excluding removal, or if the job is producing more than just windows. That last one is the common case. New windows frequently mean new window boards, plastering or making good internally, sometimes new sills externally, and often the removal of old secondary glazing or shutters that nobody was thinking about at the quotation stage.
So ask the question first. There is no point paying for a skip to sit on the drive while a fitter takes everything away in a van.
Old timber frames and what may be on them
Formby has a lot of older housing, and older housing means original timber frames. Two things about them are worth knowing.
The first is that painted joinery in a property built before the late nineteen seventies may well have lead based paint underneath the later coats. That does not stop it going in a skip, but it does mean you should not sand it, burn it or otherwise create dust or fumes from it. If frames are being removed rather than restored, take them out whole and put them in the container.
The second is that old frames are heavy. Hardwood sashes with the weights still in them are considerably heavier than the uPVC replacing them, and the cast iron sash weights themselves are worth pulling out and keeping separate. They have a scrap value and there is no sense burying them in a mixed load.
uPVC and aluminium are better separated
If you are replacing uPVC frames that went in twenty five years ago, the frames themselves are a recoverable material provided they are kept reasonably clean and separate. Mixed into a general load they are not.
Aluminium frames, which turn up on a good number of nineteen eighties extensions and porches around here, have a genuine scrap value and should not go in a container at all. Take the glass out, separate the frames and take them to a merchant.
Either way, cutting frames down helps considerably. A whole window frame is mostly fresh air and takes up an absurd amount of room in a skip.
Sealed units are the heavy part
Double glazed units are two panes of glass with a spacer between them, and they weigh what two panes of glass weigh. A house full of them is a substantial load.
They also need handling with respect. Modern units are usually toughened, which breaks into blunt fragments, but not always, and a large unit that slips while being carried is a serious matter. Two people, and somewhere prepared to put it down.
Glass in the skip wants containing rather than loose, particularly if any of it is broken. Somebody has to handle that load at our end. And it does not go to a bottle bank, because flat glass and container glass are separate recycling streams entirely.
What else comes out with the windows
The making good is usually the bulk of the waste on a domestic job. Old window boards, plaster from around the reveals, render or mortar from the external sills, and any secondary glazing coming out at the same time.
If new plasterboard is going in around the reveals, the offcuts have to be kept separate from the general load. Our page on plasterboard disposal and building waste separation explains why that separation is required rather than optional.
Any old expanding foam, sealant tubes and packaging from the new units adds bulk without weight, and there is always more packaging than anybody expects. A house of new windows arrives wrapped, cornered and strapped, and all of it has to go somewhere. Flatten and stack it rather than letting it fill the container loose, because window packaging is almost entirely air once it comes off.
Sizing and placement
For making good around a full house of new windows, a 4 tonne midi skip is usually adequate. Where the old frames and glass are also yours to dispose of, or the job includes a conservatory or porch coming out, an 8 tonne builders skip is the safer choice.
Most properties here have driveway space. Where the skip has to go on the road, Formby sits within Sefton borough and a permit from Sefton Council at £36 per month applies, covered in our guide to skip permits in Southport.
Local coverage
We work this coastal stretch daily, running Ainsdale skip hire and Southport skip hire jobs alongside Formby, and everything comes back to our own recycling centre for sorting rather than being handed on. Our environmental and recycling page explains that side.
Ring us on 01704 779345 once you know what the installer is taking and what is staying. Our contact page is there if you would rather write it down.
