Two bins can have the same 16-by-8 footprint on your driveway and be built for completely different jobs. The lowboy is 2 feet tall and rated for weight. The standard roll-off is 4 to 6 feet tall and rated for volume. Pick the wrong one and you either run out of room by lunch or get an overage bill at pickup. After 20 years of setting both across Los Angeles, here is how we tell customers to choose.
Side by side
| 10-yard lowboy | 25-yard roll-off | 40-yard roll-off | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 16 × 8 × 2 ft | 20 × 8 × 4 ft | 20 × 8 × 6 ft |
| Capacity | ~10 cubic yards | ~25 cubic yards | ~40 cubic yards |
| Built for | Dense, heavy material | Remodels, cleanouts, mixed debris | Construction, demo, bulk volume |
| Weight | No limit on clean concrete, dirt, brick, asphalt, rock | 3 tons included | 4 tons included |
| How it loads | Over the 2-ft side, wheelbarrow or skid steer | Walk-in rear door | Walk-in rear door |
| Where it fits | Tight driveways, under trees, hillside pads | Most standard driveways | Job sites, commercial lots |
| Typical LA range | $420 – $550 | $550 – $680 | $650 – $800 |
The only rule that matters: weight or volume?
Every dumpster decision comes down to one question. Is your debris heavy or is it bulky? Concrete, dirt, asphalt, brick, block, sand, gravel, roofing shingles and tile: heavy. A cubic yard of broken concrete weighs about 1.2 to 1.5 tons. Drywall, wood, cabinets, carpet, furniture, boxes, yard trimmings: bulky. A cubic yard of remodel debris weighs a few hundred pounds.
A standard roll-off is priced on the assumption that you are filling it with bulky material. That is why it includes 3 or 4 tons of disposal and why that allowance is generous for a remodel. Put concrete in it and the assumption breaks. You reach the allowance after about 2 cubic yards, and every ton after that is billed at $60 to $115. A half-full 25-yard of concrete can carry over $1,000 in overage on top of the rental.
The lowboy exists to make that problem disappear. It is short on purpose, so a full bin of the heaviest material still sits inside what a truck can legally lift. That is what lets us offer no weight limit on clean loads. What you fit is what we haul. Full numbers are in our guide to how much concrete fits in a lowboy.
Loading is different too
A standard roll-off has a swing door at the back. You walk debris in and stack toward the front. That is ideal for cabinets, doors, and furniture, and it is why the 25-yard is our most popular bin for kitchen and bath remodels.
A lowboy has no door and does not need one. The wall is 2 feet high, so a crew dumps wheelbarrows straight over the side, and a skid steer or mini-excavator can load it directly from the demo. On a concrete or grading job that saves hours. It is also why the lowboy is the standard container for roofing tear-offs in LA: shingles come off the roof, down the chute, and into the bin without anyone carrying them through a door.
Access: where each bin actually fits
Half of our lowboy deliveries in Los Angeles have nothing to do with weight. They are about getting a bin onto the property at all. Two feet tall clears tree canopy, garage-door headers, and retaining walls that stop a 6-foot bin cold. The 16-foot length also fits single-car driveways in Glendale, Burbank, and the older Valley neighborhoods where a 20-foot roll-off would hang into the sidewalk.
In the hills, it is the only bin that works on a lot of pads. Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, and the Hollywood Hills have driveways that are steep, short, and hemmed in by walls. A lowboy sits on the apron. A full-height bin often cannot make the turn in. We confirm access before every hillside delivery so you are not waiting on a truck that cannot get there.
A standard roll-off, by contrast, wants a flat driveway or a job site with room. Figure on about 60 feet of straight approach for the truck to set a 25 or 40.
Project-by-project: which bin to call for
| Job | Call for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete driveway, patio, or pool deck demo | Lowboy | Pure weight, no limit on clean concrete |
| Dirt, grading, sod, or excavation | Lowboy | Soil is a ton-plus per yard |
| Roof tear-off | Lowboy | Shingles and tile are heavy, chute loads over the side |
| Brick, block, or paver removal | Lowboy | Masonry is the heaviest thing you will haul |
| Kitchen or bathroom remodel | 25-yard | Bulky, light, walks in the rear door |
| Garage, attic, or estate cleanout | 25-yard | You run out of room long before weight |
| Whole-house cleanout or gut | 40-yard | Volume, and one 40 beats two 25s |
| New construction or full demolition | 40-yard, swapped | Continuous mixed debris on a schedule |
| ADU, garage conversion, or addition | 25 then lowboy | Framing and drywall in the 25, slab and dirt in the lowboy |
| Landscaping with mixed green waste and hardscape | Two bins | Keep concrete separate so the green load stays cheap |
When you genuinely need both
Most ADU builds, additions, and full remodels produce both kinds of debris, just not at the same time. Demo comes first and it is heavy: the old slab, the dirt from footings, the tile. Then framing and drywall, which is bulky and light. The efficient answer is a lowboy for the demo phase and a 25 or 40 for the build phase, not one big bin that gets overage on the first phase and sits half-empty on the second. Tell us the job and we will sequence it. More on that in our ADU dumpster guide.
The short version
- Heavy material, tight access, or a roof: 10-yard lowboy, no weight limit on clean loads.
- Bulky, light, walk-in loading, most home projects: 25-yard roll-off.
- Big volume on a schedule: 40-yard, with swaps.
- Not sure: call. Describing the job takes a minute and it is the difference between a flat price and an overage bill.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a lowboy dumpster?
- A lowboy is a roll-off container built for heavy material instead of volume. Ours is 16 feet long, 8 feet wide, and only 2 feet tall, about 10 cubic yards. The low walls let a crew load concrete, dirt, and roofing over the side, and the height caps how much weight can go in, which is why we can offer no weight limit on clean loads.
- Is a lowboy the same as a 10-yard dumpster?
- In Los Angeles the terms overlap but are not identical. Some companies rent a 10-yard bin that is a standard roll-off with 4-foot walls. A true lowboy is 2 feet tall and rated for heavy material. If you are hauling concrete, dirt, brick, or asphalt, ask specifically for a lowboy.
- Can I put concrete in a 25-yard or 40-yard dumpster?
- You can, and you will pay for it. A standard roll-off includes 3 to 4 tons of disposal. Broken concrete weighs about 1.2 to 1.5 tons per cubic yard, so a full-height bin hits its allowance after about 2 cubic yards, less than a tenth of the bin, and everything after that is billed at $60 to $115 per ton. Clean concrete belongs in a lowboy.
- Which is cheaper, a lowboy or a regular dumpster?
- Depends entirely on what is going in it. For mixed remodel debris the 25-yard is cheaper per cubic yard. For anything heavy the lowboy is cheaper by a wide margin, because there is no weight overage on a clean load. Matching the bin to the material is the whole game.
- Can I mix a little concrete into a mixed-debris bin?
- A few chunks will not matter. A slab will. Once heavy material becomes a meaningful share of the load, the weight climbs fast. If you have both, tell us when you call and we will usually set two bins, or tell you the order to load one.