Renovation debris removal in Jacksonville

The short answer

Or by volume: $241 for a quarter truck, $338 for 3/8, $431 for a half, $513 for 5/8, $587 for 3/4, $661 for 7/8, $732 for a full truck. Minimum $75 per visit.

Weight versus volume

Household junk is a volume problem. Renovation debris is often a weight problem, and the two need different pricing or somebody gets a bad deal.

That is why concrete and masonry have their own line at $219 per quarter truck. A quarter truck of sofas and boxes and a quarter truck of broken slab are not the same job for the vehicle, and pretending otherwise leads to the classic renovation surprise - a quote given on volume and revised on the driveway when the crew sees what is actually in the pile.

The practical rule for a Jacksonville renovation: dense inert material gets priced as masonry; everything else gets priced as debris or by truck fraction. Tell us roughly what the mix is when you book and we will price it correctly rather than optimistically.

Materials that count as dense: concrete, block, brick, mortar, tile and tile backer, terrazzo, stone countertops, cast iron. Materials that do not: drywall, timber, insulation, carpet, cabinets, trim, packaging.

Jacksonville's three renovation eras

What comes out of a Jacksonville house depends almost entirely on when it was built, and the city has three distinct waves.

1900s to 1930s - Riverside, Avondale, Springfield, Murray Hill. Bungalows and four-squares with plaster and lath rather than drywall, heart pine floors, original single-pane wood windows and cast iron plumbing. This is the heaviest category by a distance. Plaster is dense, lath comes out in splintery tangles, and a cast iron bathtub at $185 is a genuine four-person lift down a narrow original staircase. Budget more truck than the room size suggests.

1950s to 1970s - Arlington, Lakewood, Southside, Ortega Hills, the Westside. Concrete block ranches, and this is where two distinctly Florida materials appear. Terrazzo floors, which are beautiful when polished and extremely heavy when broken out. And jalousie windows - the louvred glass slats that were everywhere in mid-century Florida and are now almost universally being replaced. Add popcorn ceilings, original steel kitchen cabinets, and carports that have been enclosed at some point.

1990s onward - Mandarin, Bartram Park, Oakleaf, Argyle, Nocatee. Stucco over frame or block, drywall, laminate and engineered flooring, builder-grade cabinets. Lighter, bulkier, and much more straightforward to price - this is where volume tiers fit best.

The hurricane-hardening jobs

A whole category of Jacksonville renovation exists because of the weather, and it produces predictable debris.

• Impact window replacement. Enormously common across Duval and the beaches. Out come old aluminum single-pane units and jalousie assemblies - awkward, glassy, and sharp. Bag or crate the glass rather than leaving it loose.
• Roof replacement. Usually handled by the roofing contractor's own container, but the leftovers, the underlayment offcuts and the old vents often are not.
• Screen enclosure and lanai rebuilds. Aluminum framing and torn screen panels after storm damage. Light, bulky, and awkward lengths.
• Fencing and decking. Timber does not last as long in this climate as it does in a dry one, and a fence line replaced after a windy season is a surprising amount of material.
• Soffit and fascia repairs. Wind-driven rain intrusion is the common cause.

One timing note: after a named storm affects Northeast Florida, every contractor, container supplier and removal crew in the region is booked at once. If your project is discretionary, do it outside the June to November window.

What we take, and what stays with your contractor

We take: drywall and plaster, timber and trim, cabinets and countertops, flooring including carpet and tile, doors and windows, bathroom fixtures, fencing and decking sections, screen enclosure framing, insulation, and concrete and masonry as a separate line.

We do not take:

• Household hazardous waste. Paint, solvents, adhesives, fuel and pool chemicals go to a Duval household hazardous waste drop-off. Check the city's current locations and hours. Note that dried-out empty paint cans are usually treated differently from liquid paint - check the current guidance.
• Asbestos or anything suspected to contain it. On pre-1980 Jacksonville houses this is a genuine consideration - old floor tile, some ceiling and pipe materials. That needs a licensed abatement contractor, tested and handled properly. We will stop and say so rather than load it.
• Structural demolition. We remove debris; we do not knock things down.

Also worth knowing: residential bulky collection generally does not accept building materials at all, and contractor-generated debris is normally the contractor's responsibility under their own arrangements. Check who is covering it in your contract before you assume.

Worked totals

Bathroom gut in a 1920s Riverside bungalow. Cast iron bathtub $185, detached toilet $64, bathroom vanity $69, ten bags of plaster and lath $132. $185 + $64 + $69 + $132 = $450. A half truck is $431 - book that.

Kitchen strip. Two laminate countertop sections (2 × $56 = $112), dishwasher $109, fifteen bags of debris $196. $112 + $109 + $196 = $417, which sits under the $431 half truck, so itemize.

Flooring job. Carpet removal in three rooms (3 × $71 = $213) plus one rolled carpet $68. $213 + $68 = $281. The quarter truck at $241 is cheaper.

Broken-out patio slab. Concrete and masonry at $219 per quarter truck. Two quarters is 2 × $219 = $438.

Staging: how to keep the number down

Three things that genuinely reduce what you pay:

• Separate the masonry. Keep concrete, tile and terrazzo in their own pile. Mixed loads get priced for the heaviest material in them.
• Bag the small stuff. Contractor bags are $41 each, ten bags $132, twenty $259. Loose plaster debris across a floor takes far longer to shift than the same material in bags, and bagged loads pack tighter.
• Get it outside if you safely can. There is no carry-out charge, but a driveway pile loads faster than a second-floor bathroom, and a faster job is easier to slot into a window.

One Jacksonville caveat on that last point: do not stage a debris pile outside days in advance during summer. Afternoon thunderstorms are near-daily from June through September, drywall and plaster absorb enormously, and a rained-on pile is heavier and messier to shift. Stage it the day before at the earliest, and keep it out of the drainage swale.

Scheduling around the trades

Debris removal sits between trades, and getting it in the right slot keeps a project moving.

The usual sequence: demolition, then removal, then the rough trades, then finishes. Booking removal for the morning after demo finishes means the electrician and the plumber are not working round a pile. On a multi-phase job, book two or three short visits rather than one large one at the end - the $75 minimum is per visit, but a jammed site costs more than that in lost days.

And if your project runs across hurricane season, build in slack. A named storm can take a week out of every trade's schedule in Northeast Florida at very short notice, and an open site with loose material in it is the last thing you want when a storm is 48 hours out.

Frequently asked questions