Compare all five sizes
Dumpster Sizes in Mesa, AZ — 10, 15, 20, 30 & 40 Yard
Five roll-off sizes, and the honest version of which one you actually need. In the East Valley two things decide it: what the debris weighs — tile, rock and caliche all run heavier than they look — and whether a monsoon outflow can lift the light material back out of the box before we come for it.
All sizes
Pick by weight first, volume second
Scroll the table on mobile. If your load includes concrete, block, roof tile, landscape rock, decomposed granite, caliche or fill, start at the 10 yard no matter how big the job looks — weight fills those long before volume does. Sizing calculators written for other parts of the country assume an extra floor of stored contents below the living space. Mesa houses have nothing under the floor at all — the stock here is slab-on-grade, and the subdivisions from the 1990s on sit on post-tension slab — so the volume in a cleanout comes out of the garage first, then the attic, the Arizona room, the carport, the side yard and the shed. Lots are wide and flat and most drives take a 30 without argument, but measure anyway: out toward Gold Canyon and San Tan Valley the approach is often a long dirt or decomposed-granite lane, and there is usually a palm frond canopy, a mesquite limb, a shade sail, carport framing or the service drop that the hoist arm cannot swing under.
| Size | Capacity | Footprint | Weight allowance | Holds about | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Yard Dumpster | 10 yd³ | 12 ft x 8 ft x 3.5 ft | 2 – 3 tons | ~3 pickup truck loads | Landscape rock, caliche, concrete, block and roof tile — weight fills it long before volume does. |
| 15 Yard Dumpster | 15 yd³ | 16 ft x 8 ft x 4 ft | 2 – 3 tons | ~4 – 5 pickup truck loads | Single-room remodels, small tear-offs, park model and 55-plus unit turnovers. |
| 20 Yard Dumpster | 20 yd³ | 22 ft x 8 ft x 4.5 ft | 3 – 4 tons | ~6 – 8 pickup truck loads | Garage, attic and Arizona room clear-outs, multi-room renovations, patio tear-offs. |
| 30 Yard Dumpster | 30 yd³ | 22 ft x 8 ft x 6 ft | 4 – 5 tons | ~9 – 12 pickup truck loads | Whole-property clears, new construction, additions and large remodels. |
| 40 Yard Dumpster | 40 yd³ | 22 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft | 5 – 6 tons | ~14 – 16 pickup truck loads | Bulky light debris only: patio covers, carport framing, furniture, insulation, fit-outs. |
10 Yard Dumpster
Landscape rock, caliche, concrete, block and roof tile — weight fills it long before volume does.
View this size → 15yd³15 Yard Dumpster
Single-room remodels, small tear-offs, park model and 55-plus unit turnovers.
View this size → 20yd³20 Yard Dumpster
Garage, attic and Arizona room clear-outs, multi-room renovations, patio tear-offs.
View this size → 30yd³30 Yard Dumpster
Whole-property clears, new construction, additions and large remodels.
View this size → 40yd³40 Yard Dumpster
Bulky light debris only: patio covers, carport framing, furniture, insulation, fit-outs.
View this size →The two rules that decide it here
Weight beats volume on dense material, wind beats everything on light
This is the single most useful thing on the page. A container has two limits: how much volume it holds and how much weight a truck can legally lift and carry. Light debris runs you out of volume first. Dense material runs you out of weight first, and it happens far earlier than people expect.
Around the East Valley the dense material is concrete, grouted CMU block, roof tile, landscape rock, decomposed granite and caliche. Concrete and block run in the range of 2,400 to 2,800 lbs per cubic yard — a driveway apron, a pool deck, a stretch of block property wall or a garage slab will reach legal transport weight in a can that still looks half empty. Rock is the one people misjudge most: decorative granite, rip-rap and river rock come in around 1.3 to 1.5 tons per cubic yard, so a 10 yard box of a stripped-out front yard is at payload long before it looks full, and caliche hardpan out of a pool dig or a footing trench behaves the same way. Roofing is measured in squares and layers, never in roof area, and here it is mostly concrete tile: roughly 900 to 1,000 lbs per roofing square against about 250 lbs for asphalt shingle, three to four times the weight for the same roof. A tile tear-off in Red Mountain, Las Sendas or Superstition Springs that looks like a 20 yard job is a weight job, not a volume job, and it wants a 10 yard, probably twice.
The second rule is the one out-of-state sizing charts never mention. Wind beats everything on light material. A 30 or 40 yard holding insulation, cardboard, housewrap and trim offcuts will redistribute itself across the block when a monsoon outflow comes through, and a microburst gust front gives you no warning worth the name. Once anything is standing proud of the top rail the load cannot be tarped or netted — which means it cannot legally be hauled either, and Maricopa County wants at least three inches of freeboard and a cover on the way to the gate. So cap the load: heavy on top of light, everything below the rails, and the flyaway material bagged or weighted before you walk away. Where the 40 does earn its keep is bulk with no weight in it — a shed, carport or detached garage teardown, a patio cover flattened by straight-line wind, a whole-house or park-model cleanout — and the scrap metal and clean lumber are worth pulling out before the rest goes in.
Tell us the material and the rough quantity on the phone and we will size it properly. Getting it wrong costs us more than it costs you, so we have every reason to get it right.
How it works
From phone call to empty driveway
- 1
Call us
Tell us the project, your address and when you want it. Two minutes on the phone and you have a flat price.
- 2
We deliver
Our driver walks the drop, lays protection boards and sets the container exactly where you want it.
- 3
You load it
Take your time within your rental window. Keep it level with the top rail and we handle the rest.
- 4
We haul it
Call or text when you are done. We pull it, sort what can be recovered and dispose of the rest properly.
Choosing a Size — FAQs
Which dumpster size is most popular in Mesa?
The 20 yard, by a wide margin. It handles a kitchen gut, a multi-room remodel, or the garage, attic, Arizona room and backyard shed emptied in one go, and it sits comfortably on a normal Mesa driveway. The 15 yard is the next most common because it is the sweet spot for a single room, a park-model clearout or a shingle tear-off on an average house. Anything with tile, block, rock or caliche in it goes the other way, down to a 10 yard.
What size do I need for a roof tear-off?
For a Mesa home on asphalt or dimensional shingle, a 15 or 20 yard. Roofing is weight-driven, not volume-driven, so squares and layers decide it, not roof area — and it is common to find a second course still sitting on the deck, which doubles the tonnage. Concrete tile is the East Valley default from the 1990s subdivisions on, and it runs roughly 900 to 1,000 lbs a square against about 250 lbs for shingle, so tile comes off into a small heavy can, never a big one. Metal off a shop or a patio cover is the opposite: light, bulky and quick to catch a monsoon gust, so it gets loaded flat and capped. Pre-1980 roofing felt and mastic can contain asbestos, which stops the job until it is tested, and Maricopa County wants a Rule 370 notification ten business days before a demolition whether asbestos turns up or not. Through October to April, when everyone here does outside work, book ahead. Our tile roof sizing guide has the full maths.
Is the 40 yard just the biggest and best?
No, and treating it that way is an expensive mistake. The 40 yard is a volume container for bulky light debris — framing, cabinetry, patio covers, packaging and whole-house cleanouts. Put anything dense in it and you will exceed legal transport weight long before it is full. It is also the size the monsoon punishes hardest: a big open box of light material has to be loaded below the rails and covered, or it empties itself down the street. And it needs the most approach room and overhead clearance, which rules it out on the original single-car drives in Dreamland Villa and Velda Rose and on long dirt or decomposed-granite lanes out in Gold Canyon and San Tan Valley.
Can I change size after I book?
Yes, as long as the truck has not been dispatched. If you describe the job and we think you have ordered wrong, we will say so before delivery rather than after. Changing on the phone costs nothing; discovering it at the scale house costs a great deal.
How much space do I need?
Roughly the container footprint plus working room: about 60 feet of straight approach for the truck, around 10 and a half feet of width, and 20 feet or more of overhead clearance while the hoist operates. Most East Valley lots are wide and flat with a two or three-car drive, so a 30 goes where it never would on a tight lot; a 10 yard fits almost anywhere. Look up before you decide — a palm frond canopy, a mesquite limb, carport framing, a shade sail or the service drop into the house will stop the arm cold. The 1950s and 60s streets in Dreamland Villa, Velda Rose and Mesa Grande have narrow original single-car drives, and sometimes an alley behind that works better. Pavers in east Mesa and Las Sendas are the hardest surface we set on, so the boards come out for those, and from May through September we will often set before first light while the asphalt is still firm.
Services
What people put in them
Residential Dumpster Rental
Driveway placement for garage, attic, Arizona room, carport and shed cleanouts.
Learn more →Commercial Dumpster Rental
Scheduled and on-call containers for retail, restaurants, offices and property managers.
Learn more →Construction Dumpster Rental
Jobsite roll-offs and next-day swap-outs for builders, remodelers and GCs.
Learn more →Roofing Dumpster Rental
Weight-rated cans sized for concrete tile, clay tile and low-slope tear-offs.
Learn more →Roll-Off Dumpster Rental
10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 yard roll-offs across Mesa and the East Valley.
Learn more →Same-Day Dumpster Rental
Call before the cut-off and we can usually get a container to you this afternoon.
Learn more →Talk to a real person
Not sure which size you need?
Tell us what you are clearing out and we will tell you the right size and the flat price to put it in your driveway. No forms, no waiting on an email — just call and we will sort it out in a couple of minutes.
Serving Mesa, Maricopa County and the East Valley · Mon–Fri 5:30am–5pm, Sat 6am–1pm