Renovation debris removal in Indianapolis

The short answer

For whole projects the truck ladder applies: 1/4 $241, 3/8 $338, 1/2 $431, 5/8 $513, 3/4 $587, 7/8 $661, full $732. Minimum visit $75.

Weight versus volume, and why Indianapolis is a weight town

Most disposal is billed by weight at the facility. Most people estimate by volume, because volume is what you can see. On a household clear-out the gap is small. On a renovation it is enormous.

The reason here is the housing stock. The pre-war houses across Fountain Square, Bates-Hendricks, Holy Cross, the Near Eastside, Irvington, Herron-Morton and the near northside are built with plaster over wood lath, not drywall. Plaster is dense — a room's worth is a genuinely heavy load, and it fills a container by weight long before it fills it by volume.

That is the single most common surprise on an Indianapolis rehab. A container that looks half empty is at its tonnage limit, and the overage charge arrives afterwards.

What comes out of an old Indianapolis house

• Plaster and lath, by the ton. Dusty, sharp, and best bagged rather than piled loose.
• Cast iron. Radiators from houses converted to forced air, and drain stacks. A cast iron radiator is $123.
• Old cabinetry, usually solid but nailed rather than screwed, so it comes out in pieces.
• Bathroom fixtures. Cast iron bathtub $185, fiberglass bathtub $90, detached toilet $64, bathroom vanity $69.
• Flooring. Layers. It is common to find vinyl over linoleum over a pine subfloor, and each layer adds weight.
• Countertops. Laminate $56 per section, stone or granite $111 per section.
• Windows and storm sashes, often stacked in the garage from a previous replacement and never removed.

Before you swing a hammer: the two hazards

Asbestos. Pre-war and mid-century Indianapolis houses commonly have it in wrapped insulation on old boiler pipes and ductwork, in some floor tiles and adhesives, and occasionally in siding. Do not disturb it, do not bag it, and do not let a general crew handle it. That is an abatement contractor's job and it has its own legal disposal route.

Lead paint. Anything built before the late 1970s can have it, which covers most of the housing inside the old city. Disturbing painted surfaces creates dust, and there are rules that apply to contractors doing renovation work in those properties. That is a question for your contractor's certification, not for the disposal end.

Neither of these makes the debris removal harder. They just have to be handled before general demolition debris starts moving.

Bag it, do not pile it

The practical advice that saves time and money on every job: bag the small dense material as you go, in contractor bags, half full.

Half full is the key. A contractor bag filled to the top with plaster will split when it is lifted, and then the material is on the stairs. Half-filled bags are liftable, stackable and countable — and counted bags price flatly: 10 bags $132, 20 bags $259, 30 bags $385.

Keep the long timber and lath separate and bundled. It stacks in the truck instead of taking up loose space, which is the difference between a half load and a three-quarter load.

Concrete, brick and the masonry surcharge that is not a surcharge

Concrete and masonry price separately at $219 per quarter truck, and that is not an add-on — it is a different line item because the material is several times the density of household debris.

Where this comes up in Indianapolis: broken driveway aprons and garage slabs, which our clay subsoil and freeze-thaw winters produce plenty of; old front steps and porch piers; the pad left behind after a hot tub or a shed is removed; and foundation repair spoil from basement work.

Keep it separate from the general debris pile. Mixed loads are harder to route and the concrete will drag the whole load's weight up.

Container, pickup, or both

A roll-off container suits projects that run for days with a crew on site. Watch the tonnage allowance, and note that containers exclude the things a rehab always produces anyway: the old refrigerator, the range, the window AC units, any mattress left in the house, and the paint and solvents.

A scheduled pickup suits the end of a phase, a weekend project, or a job where the debris is inside and has to be carried out. There is no stair fee, which matters when the bathroom being gutted is on the second floor of a foursquare.

Both is the normal answer on a full rehab. Container for the construction stream, one pickup for the excluded items.

Two projects, added up

Bathroom gut in a Meridian-Kessler foursquare, second floor. Cast iron bathtub $185 + detached toilet $64 + bathroom vanity $69 + 10 bags of debris $132 = $450. Above the half-load rate of $431, so you take $431.

Kitchen refresh in a Beech Grove ranch. Laminate countertop section $56 + laminate countertop section $56 + construction debris $120 + rolled carpet $68 = $300. Under the 3/8 rung of $338, so item pricing wins at $300.

Driveway apron replaced in Speedway. Concrete and masonry debris, one quarter truck, $219.

For contractors

Two things worth knowing. Published pricing means you can put a real disposal line in a bid rather than a guess, and it does not get renegotiated on site when the crew arrives to find the material is heavier than described.

And scheduling: book the end-of-phase pickup when you book the trades, not on the morning the drywall crew needs a clear room. The metro's tightest two weeks is late July into August, when the whole rental market turns over at once — everything else in the year is straightforward.

Frequently asked questions