Every week someone calls us after another company hit them with a weight overage on a concrete load. It's the most avoidable fee in this business, and avoiding it comes down to one thing: heavy debris needs its own bin.
The math nobody tells you
Broken concrete weighs roughly 1.5 tons per cubic yard. Damp dirt is similar, sometimes heavier. Now look at a standard 25-yard roll-off with a 3-ton disposal allowance: just two cubic yards of concrete — a strip of driveway — and you're at the limit with 23 yards of bin left over. Fill it a third deep and you're paying $60 to $115 for every extra ton at the scale.
That's not a scam, it's physics. Landfills and transfer stations bill by weight. The fix is a bin built for weight instead of volume.
The lowboy: built for exactly this
Our 10-yard lowboy is 16 feet long, 8 feet wide, and only 2 feet tall. That low profile is deliberate:
- No weight limit on clean concrete and dirt. Fill it to the rim with broken slab and it's one flat price. That policy is rare in LA, and it's the single biggest reason contractors use us for demo debris.
- The 2-foot walls stop you from overloading what a truck can legally haul, so there's no guesswork.
- Loading is easy. You lift chunks over a knee-high wall, not shoulder-high steel. With a skid steer, you can load straight over the side.
- It fits where trucks can't. Tight Valley driveways, hillside pads, alley access — the 16-foot footprint gets in.
What qualifies as heavy debris
| Goes in the lowboy | Goes in a 25/40-yard instead |
|---|---|
| Broken concrete and slab | Wood framing and lumber |
| Brick, block, pavers | Drywall and plaster |
| Asphalt | Furniture and household junk |
| Dirt, soil, fill, rock | Green waste and branches |
| Tile and stone | Mixed renovation debris |
| Roofing shingles (heavy!) | Cardboard and packaging |
Typical LA projects that need one
- Driveway removal and replacement. A standard two-car LA driveway is several tons of concrete. One to two lowboy loads.
- Pool deck and patio demo. Slab plus footings, often with tile.
- Hillside landscaping and regrading. Valley foothill jobs in Tujunga, Sunland, and La Crescenta move serious soil and rock.
- Retaining walls and block teardowns.
- Kitchen and bath demo with tile. Mortar bed tile floors are far heavier than they look.
- ADU slab and driveway cuts. Covered in detail in our ADU dumpster guide.
How to book it
Tell us it's concrete, dirt, or mixed heavy debris when you call, and roughly how much area you're demoing. We'll confirm the lowboy count, place bins where the loading is shortest, and schedule swaps if your demo runs in phases. Same-day delivery is often available across LA and the Valley.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I put concrete in a regular dumpster?
- Small amounts, maybe. But broken concrete weighs roughly 1.5 tons per cubic yard, so even a shallow layer in a 25-yard bin blows past its 3-ton allowance and triggers overage fees. Dedicated lowboy bins exist precisely because of this.
- What counts as a clean concrete load?
- Concrete, brick, block, asphalt, dirt, rock, or tile with no trash, wood, rebar tangles, or household junk mixed in. Clean loads can go to recyclers instead of landfills, which is why they get the no-weight-limit treatment.
- How much does concrete disposal cost in LA?
- With us, the 10-yard lowboy is one flat quoted price with no weight limit on clean concrete and dirt. Around the LA market, dedicated heavy-debris bins typically run in the $420 to $550 range for a week. Call 818-509-1352 for an exact number.
- What happens to the concrete after pickup?
- Clean loads go to aggregate recyclers, where concrete and asphalt get crushed into road base and fill material. Very little clean LA concrete actually ends up in a landfill, which also keeps disposal costs down.