Concrete Removal & Disposal Calculator
How many tons of debris a slab actually becomes, and how many containers that really is — because a concrete box fills by weight long before it fills by volume.
7.41 yd³ in place at 150 lb/ft³
Weight is the limit here, not volume: 15 tons against 10.4 yd³ of rubble. Order the box for the tonnage — a driver will refuse to lift an overloaded container and you pay for the trip anyway.
Reinforced. Mesh in particular comes out in mats rather than pieces, and it has to be cut clear before anything can be loaded — budget roughly half again on the breakout, not on the haul.
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How to work it out yourself
- 1
Volume in the ground first
Area times thickness in feet gives cubic feet, and 27 of those is a cubic yard. A 24 × 36 driveway at 4 inches is 288 cubic feet, or 10.7 yards. That figure is the one people quote from, and on its own it will get the container wrong every time.
- 2
Then turn it into weight, because that is what you are paying for
Plain concrete runs about 145 lb per cubic foot and reinforced about 150, so a cubic yard is roughly 1.96 or 2.03 tons. That same 10.7 yard driveway is about 21 tons. Tipping fees are per ton, haulage is per ton, and container limits are per ton — the yardage is only ever an intermediate step.
- 3
Add the swell before you order the box
Broken concrete does not go back into the space it came from. It bulks by 30 to 50 percent; 40 percent is the working figure. So 10.7 yards in the ground is about 15 yards of rubble on the truck, which matters on a thin slab where volume, not weight, ends up the binding limit.
- 4
Take the higher of the two limits
A container has both a size and a weight allowance, and concrete almost always hits the weight one first. Twenty-one tons against a 10-ton limit is three boxes, whatever the box holds by volume. Order for the tonnage: a driver who arrives at an overloaded container will not lift it, and you pay for the trip regardless.
Worked example: Tearing out a 24 × 36 driveway, 4 in, wire mesh in it
| Area | 24 ft × 36 ft = 864 sq ft |
| In place | 864 × 0.333 = 288 cu ft = 10.7 yd³ |
| Weight | 288 × 150 lb = 43,200 lb = 21.6 tons |
| Rubble volume | 10.7 × 1.4 = 14.9 yd³ |
| By weight | 21.6 ÷ 10 ton limit = 3 boxes |
| By volume | 14.9 ÷ 10 yd³ = 2 boxes |
| Order | 3 containers — weight is the limit |
One 20-yard box would hold the rubble comfortably and would be roughly twice the legal weight. That single mistake is the most common one on a tear-out, and it costs a wasted delivery and a lost half-day rather than a few dollars.
Mesh comes out in mats, and that is the labour, not the haul
Wire mesh does not break with the slab — it holds the pieces together in sheets that have to be cut clear before anything can be loaded, and it will happily take a skid steer bucket with it. Rebar is more predictable but slower to cut. Either way, reinforcement adds roughly half again to the breakout time and almost nothing to the tonnage, so it belongs in the labour line and not in the disposal one. Past about 6 inches, saw-cutting the slab into panels first is usually cheaper than fighting it with a breaker — and it is a line the client should see priced, because it is their slab that is thicker than normal, not your inefficiency.
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You have the quantities. What wins the job is a priced, branded estimate in your client’s hands before the other two bidders get back to them.
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Common questions
How much does a cubic yard of broken concrete weigh?
About 1.96 tons for plain concrete and 2.03 tons for reinforced — concrete is roughly 145 to 150 lb per cubic foot and there are 27 cubic feet in a yard. Broken up, it takes about 40 percent more space but weighs exactly the same.
What size dumpster do I need for concrete?
Almost always a 10-yard box, and the reason is weight rather than size. Concrete containers are usually capped near 10 tons, which is under half of what a 20-yard box would hold by volume — so you order more small boxes rather than one big one.
How many tons is a concrete driveway?
A 24 by 36 driveway at 4 inches is about 21 tons. As a quick check, every 100 square feet of 4 inch slab is roughly 2.4 tons, and every extra inch of thickness adds about 25 percent.
Can broken concrete be recycled instead of dumped?
Usually, and it is often cheaper. Clean concrete with no rebar, dirt, asphalt or trash mixed in is accepted by most recyclers at a lower per-ton rate than a landfill, and some take it free. The condition is that it stays clean, which is a reason to keep the demo container separate from the general one.
How long does it take to break out a concrete driveway?
With a skid steer and breaker, a crew of two or three will usually get 600 to 1,000 square feet of 4 inch slab out and loaded in a day. Wire mesh, thickness over 6 inches, or no machine access will each cut that sharply.
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