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Construction & Demolition Debris

Remodels, interior demolition, framing and site clear-down. In this county the sizing question is nearly always plaster versus drywall.

(607) 247-9634Contractors: ask about standing orders

The Jackson problem

Plaster and lath, not drywall

The majority of houses in the City of Jackson went up before 1940, and a great deal of the county's housing predates the war. Those interiors are plaster over wood lath. If you have only ever demolished drywall, the first room will be a surprise.

Plaster comes off in slabs with lath still nailed to it. It is dense, it is awkward, and it does not compact — you cannot tread it down the way you can drywall offcuts. A single room stripped to the studs in a 1920s foursquare will put more weight in a container than a whole kitchen rip-out in a 1990s house, while looking like considerably less material.

The consequence is counter-intuitive and it is the most useful thing on this page: for plaster demolition you want a smaller container and a swap-out, not a bigger one. A ten or fifteen yard filled to its weight limit will leave your property. A thirty yard filled to the same weight will not, because an overloaded container legally cannot be lifted.

By job

What contractors here actually order

Job	Container	Note
Single room to the studs, pre-1940 house	10–15 yard	Weight-limited by the plaster, not volume
Single room to the studs, postwar house	15 yard	Drywall is light and compacts
Kitchen gut	20 yard	Cast iron, old tile and layered sheet vinyl add up fast
Bathroom gut, older house	10 yard	Cast-iron tub plus mortar-set tile is extremely dense
Whole-floor interior demolition	20 yard plus swaps	Plan the swap schedule before you start, not on day three
Addition or framing work	20–30 yard	Offcuts are bulky and light — volume is the limit here
Siding, soffit and trim removal	30 yard	Bulky, light, awkward. Cut it down and it halves.
Deck or porch demolition	20–30 yard	Cut the stringers and joists short; whole lengths waste the box
Garage or outbuilding demolition	30 yard, often two	Concrete slab goes in a separate clean container

Keep the loads separate

One bag of rubbish re-classifies a clean load

Concrete, brick, block, stone and soil go to a different facility from mixed construction debris, and that only works if the heavy container stays clean. One bag of site rubbish, one length of timber, one coffee cup — and the whole load is mixed waste.

On a demolition job where you are taking out both a slab and an interior, that means two containers: a small clean one for the concrete and a larger one for everything else. It sounds like more work. In practice it is less, because a rejected or re-classified load is a far bigger problem than a second container.

Mark them if there is a crew on site. We have seen plenty of clean fill loads ruined by one helpful person tidying up at the end of the day.

Two things to settle before demolition starts

Asbestos. In a pre-1980 Jackson building, assume it is present until tested. Nine-inch floor tile and its black mastic, pipe and boiler insulation, some plaster skim coats, cement-board siding. It is legal in place and hazardous when disturbed, it requires licensed abatement, and it cannot go in any container we own. Finding it on day two of a demolition is the worst way to find out.

Lead paint. Effectively universal in this housing stock. The debris can go in the container; the dust is the problem. The federal renovation, repair and painting rules apply to contractors working in pre-1978 housing, which covers most of what we deliver to in the city.

Neither of these is a reason to avoid the work. They are reasons to test first and sequence properly, and we would rather hear about them at booking than at collection.

For trade

Working with contractors

Swap schedules

If you know the job will run three containers, say so at the start and we will plan the run rather than fitting each one in as it comes.

Site access windows

Tell us when the site is actually accessible. A delivery that arrives while the crew is laying a drive helps nobody.

One point of contact

Give us the person on site who can answer a placement question. It saves more time on a multi-container job than anything else.

Common questions

What people ask when they call

Why would I want a smaller container for demolition?

Because every container has a weight limit as well as a volume, and plaster reaches the weight limit first. An overloaded container cannot legally be lifted, so it sits on site until somebody levels it by hand.

Can I mix the slab in with the demolition debris?

Not if you want it treated as clean fill. Keep the heavy material in its own container and the rest separate — mixing them re-classifies the whole load.

Do you deliver to commercial sites?

Yes — fit-outs, property turnovers and clear-downs across the county. Tell us about access constraints and whether there is a window when the lot is clear.

How quickly can you swap a full container?

Usually next working day, and sometimes same day where the run allows. If the schedule is tight, tell us at the start so the swap is planned rather than squeezed in.

What about dirt from a foundation dig?

Its own container, clean, and a smaller one than you think — soil is extremely heavy, especially wet. Spring excavation in Michigan clay is the heaviest material we carry.

Can the container stay over a long project?

Yes, with swaps as it fills. Longer placements on the street need the permit kept current, which is the contractor's or owner's responsibility rather than ours.