Roofing

Sizing a Dumpster for a Roof Tear-Off in New Britain

Roofing is where sizing goes wrong most often, and it is always the same mistake: sizing by how the pile looks instead of what it weighs.

The one number that matters: squares

Roofers measure in squares. One square is 100 square feet of roof surface. A typical New Britain single-family runs somewhere between 16 and 24 squares; the two-family and three-family houses run larger than people expect, and the substantial older properties in West Hartford, Farmington and Simsbury can pass 40.

If you do not know your square count, your roofer does, and it is the first thing to ask.

What a square of roofing weighs

Run the arithmetic. A 24 square architectural shingle roof at 350 lb per square is roughly 8,400 pounds — over four tons before underlayment. Comfortable in a 20 yard, with little headroom if decking comes off too.

One local note: older housing here is frequently sheathed with plank decking rather than plywood, and plank is heavier per square foot. If the roofer is re-sheathing, say so.

Shingle sizing table

Read that alongside the placement section below. On a tight city lot the honest answer is often a 15 yard with a planned swap even where the table says 20, because the 20 will not fit.

Slate is a different calculation

Worth its own section because this region genuinely has slate, and getting it wrong is expensive.

Slate runs 800 to 1,500 pounds per square — three to five times asphalt shingle. A 25 square slate roof can be fifteen tons or more, well past what any single container can legally carry.

Slate therefore goes in a 10 yard, part-filled, with multiple swaps. Never a 30 yard: you would fill it a third of the way and it still could not be hauled. If you are taking slate off an older property in West Hartford, Farmington, Wethersfield or Simsbury, tell us at the booking stage and we will plan the swap schedule.

Multi-family roofs are bigger than they look

Worth flagging because New Britain has far more two-family and three-family housing than the towns around it, and people size those roofs off the footprint.

A three-family is usually a tall, relatively narrow building, so the roof area is not three times a single-family — but it is often steeper, frequently has more complex flashing around dormers and chimneys, and almost always has more decking to replace because the building is older.

The practical answer is that a 20 yard is rarely enough for a full multi-family tear-off with decking, and a 30 with a planned swap is the safer plan. Get the square count from the roofer rather than estimating from the ground.

The second layer problem

Plenty of older houses here have a second layer of shingle laid over the original. It roughly doubles the tear-off weight, and people often do not know until the crew is up there.

Look at the rake edge from the ground, where a double layer often shows as a noticeably thicker band, and ask your roofer to confirm during the inspection. If it turns out on the day, call us — a swap mid-job is far cheaper than an overloaded container that cannot be hauled.

Ice dams and what they hide

The New England roofing problem, and it changes tear-off sizing more than anything else.

Ice dams form when heat escaping through the roof melts the underside of the snowpack, the water runs down and refreezes at the cold eave, and the resulting ridge backs water up under the shingles. Inside it shows as a ceiling stain. Outside it has usually been soaking the decking and the insulation for weeks.

Older multi-family housing is particularly prone, because insulation and ventilation were not design priorities when it was built. On any roof being replaced because of ice dam damage, budget for more decking than you think and wet insulation coming out too. Both are much heavier than their dry equivalents. Tell us it is water damage and we size for weight.

Placement on a tight city lot

Roofing containers need to sit close to the house, and on the older streets that is not always possible.

• No driveway at all. Common in the older neighbourhoods. The container goes on the street with a permit, or on a neighbour's arrangement, and that needs organising before the crew books.
• Shared multi-family driveway. Get the owner's agreement and let the other tenants know before the truck arrives, not after.
• Tree canopy. The truck needs roughly twenty-two feet of clear height to raise the bed. On the older tree-lined streets that is the binding constraint.
• Tight to the drip line on the elevation being torn off, where the drive allows.
• On boards, and on ground that will carry the weight — particularly in spring, when the frost is coming out.

One thing that is not about the container: a tear-off sheds an enormous quantity of nails. A magnet sweep of the driveway, pavement and street at the end of the job is twenty minutes well spent, and it is the single most common complaint homeowners have about roofing work.

Finally, the practical roofing window here runs roughly April to October — asphalt shingles need warmth to seal properly. That compresses a year of roofing into about seven months, and spring is doubly busy because it is when winter's ice dam damage gets discovered. Book early.