Roofing Dumpster Rental in Roanoke

A tear-off is a weight job wearing a volume job’s clothes, so we size it in squares and layers and ignore the cubic yards until the end. A square is one hundred square feet of roof. Count the squares, then count the layers, because a second layer of shingles roughly doubles the tonnage coming off without changing the footprint at all. Architectural shingles weigh appreciably more per square than the old three-tab, and a roof that has been through a couple of re-covers can hide a surprise under the top layer. Tell us the squares, the layer count and the shingle type when you call, and we will tell you the box. Get that conversation wrong and you end up with a container that is legal on volume and unliftable on weight, which costs everybody a morning and fixes nothing. The tear-off size guide has the working numbers.

Roanoke is a different roof market from the northern cities, and the code says so out loud. The local climatic design criteria give a ground snow load of only 30 psf, and against the question of whether ice barrier underlayment is required, the answer printed is no. That single word tells you this is not an ice-dam market. Roanoke averages 14.8 inches of snow a year according to NWS Blacksburg, which keeps the record for station ROA, against 42.82 inches of annual precipitation and a mean annual temperature of 58.1 degrees Fahrenheit. Nobody should tell you it does not snow here, because it does, and enough to shut a jobsite for a couple of days most winters. What it does not do is drive the roof failures that dominate further north. Here the drivers are age, hail and wind, remnants of tropical systems reaching the Blue Ridge, and long humid summers on south-facing slopes.

Placement on a roofing job is governed by one number that is not negotiable. Virginia is on the 2021 Statewide Fire Prevention Code at 13VAC5-51, effective 18 January 2024, which carries the 2021 International Fire Code. Under § 304.3.3, a container with an individual capacity of 1.5 cubic yards or more may not be stored in a building or placed within five feet of combustible walls, openings or combustible roof eave lines. Every roll-off we run, from the 10 to the 40, is far above 1.5 cubic yards, so five feet off the eave line applies to all of them, every time. On a tear-off that is exactly the wrong five feet from the crew’s point of view, because everyone would rather throw straight over the edge into the box. Plan the chute or the tarp run instead. See Virginia DHCD for the code documents themselves.

Then there is the drive. A great many Roanoke roofs sit above short, steep, curved driveways cut into a hillside, and roofing is the one job where the container has to be close to the house and the container is going to be heavy. Those two facts pull against each other on a grade. A roll-off delivery is a gravity operation: the box comes off the rails under its own weight, and the cable has to pull it back up once it is loaded. A short box on a slope behaves better than a long one in both directions, which is why we so often put a 15 on a job that would take a 20 on flat ground. We board every driveway placement, we photograph the approach on arrival, and we would rather swap a small box twice than leave a heavy one parked somewhere it should not be. Steep driveway delivery covers the rest.

One more Virginia detail that catches roofers. Va. Code § 36-99.7 keys the asbestos inspection requirement to buildings whose initial building permit predates 1 January 1985, and for roofing, floorcovering and siding repair the statute allows the inspection requirement to be satisfied by assuming the material contains friable asbestos and using a licensed contractor to handle it. That path exists precisely because older roofing assemblies sometimes carry it. Ordinary houses of four units or fewer are exempt from the section unless the work is for commercial or public development purposes, but commercial roofs on pre-1985 buildings are not. Either way, we do not take asbestos in our containers. In Virginia that work runs through a DPOR-licensed contractor with DOLI notification, and the waste goes to a facility permitted to take it under 9VAC20-81.

Tear-Offs We Load Every Week

Sizing By Squares, Not By Rooms

Count squares and layers first. A 10 yard suits small roofs, garages, porches and single-layer work of roughly fifteen squares or less, and it is the box that fits a narrow or steep Roanoke drive when nothing longer will swing. A 15 yard covers the common house tear-off, a single layer over a moderate roof or a smaller roof with two layers on it. A 20 yard handles a larger house or a two-layer strip, and it is where most full re-roofs in this valley land. Above that, size is rarely the answer on a shingle job, because weight becomes the limit long before volume does, and a bigger box just means a heavier one. If decking is coming off as well, say so at booking. Dimensions are on the container sizes page, and if you would rather read us the roof measurements, call the yard.

Five Feet Off The Eave, And Boards Under The Rails

Two rules govern where the box lands on a roofing job, and one of them is written down. Under International Fire Code § 304.3.3, carried into Virginia by the 2021 Statewide Fire Prevention Code at 13VAC5-51 effective 18 January 2024, any container of 1.5 cubic yards or more stays out of buildings and at least five feet clear of combustible walls, openings and combustible roof eave lines. Every box we run is well over that threshold, so the container never sits tight under the eave, however convenient that would be for the crew. The unwritten rule is the ground. Plywood goes under the wheels and the rails on every driveway placement, and on a graded drive we look at where a loaded box will end up rather than where an empty one starts. Shingles concentrate weight quickly. We photograph the approach on arrival, and where the slope is severe we will suggest a shorter box and a second swap rather than a single heavy one. If the only workable spot is a City of Roanoke street, that is a permit with ten calendar days’ notice, so tell us at booking rather than on the morning.