Deck, Shed & Fence Tear-Off Dumpster Guide

By John R., partner at Capital Region Dumpsters
Published August 15, 2026. We serve Albany, Saratoga, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties.

Outdoor teardowns are the opposite of roofing: the debris is bulky instead of dense, so volume is the constraint and your saw is the money-saver. A deck that fills a 20-yard as a tangled pile fits a 15 broken down and layered. Here's the honest sizing, plus the one heavy surprise these jobs hide.

Why Your Saw Changes the Container Size

Whole walls and long boards are mostly air.

Lumber demo has a huge spread between its tangled volume and its packed volume. A shed wall tossed in whole spans the container and blocks everything beneath it; the same wall flattened is a six-inch layer. Deck boards angled diagonally waste the corners; cut to fit and stacked flat, they layer like flooring. Plan an hour with a circular saw or a sledge as part of the job, and you'll often drop a full container size. The general technique lives in the loading guide; for lumber the two rules are cut to fit and stack flat.

The Size Ladder for Outdoor Teardowns

12 for small and simple, 15 for the typical, 20 for big or loaded.

• 12-yard: a small ground-level deck or porch, a garden shed, a modest run of fence. Broken down, all of it layers into the box with room to spare.
• 15-yard: the typical backyard deck with joists, railings, and stairs, or a full-size shed with walls, roof, and floor. This is the workhorse for these jobs.
• 20-yard: multi-level decks, oversized sheds, a long fence line, or any teardown where the structure's contents are going too. A shed that's been storage for a decade is two jobs in one box; the cleanout guide covers the contents half.

The Footing Surprise

The lumber is light. The concrete blobs aren't.

Fence and deck jobs read as light until the posts come out of the ground wearing their concrete footings. One footing is nothing; thirty of them are real tonnage riding along in a volume-priced load. Knock the concrete off the posts where it comes free, count what you can't, and say the number when you book so the weight allowance fits the real job. If a teardown is mostly concrete, an old patio going with the fence line, the math flips entirely and the heavy debris guide is your article.

The Practical Details

Nails stay in, pressure-treated is fine, keep it level.

Things people call to ask: nails and screws can stay in the wood, no need to pull them. Pressure-treated lumber and old fencing are fine in the container. And whatever the material, keep the final load level with the top rail; a mounded load of lumber can't legally be hauled, and shifting boards are exactly what tarps and rails are there to contain. Five included days is plenty for a weekend teardown with a buffer day to spare.

Written by John R., partner at Capital Region Dumpsters, a locally owned and operated roll-off dumpster company serving the Capital Region of New York. Last updated August 15, 2026.