Man & Van versus Skip Hire: Which is best for me?

Where’s all this junk come from?! You may have found yourself asking this question the last time you searched for something in the loft, tried to get the kids bikes out the garage or tripped over something coming out of the shed. The next question you’ll probably ask yourself is what on earth am I going to do with it all?

A “typical” garage clearance

When it comes to getting rid of rubbish you have a few options, these can be grouped into free and paid options, the free ones include giving the items away or selling them (one mans trash is another mans treasure after all). The paid options (as in they cost you money) are likely to be either hiring a skip or paying someone to come and load your items on to a van or truck and take them away to a disposal centre, commonly known as a man & van service.

In this guide well explore the pros and cons of the two paid services and try to help you decide which rubbish clearance service is best for you.

Both these services are similar; however, the one key difference is that with a man & van service, they will do the loading for you whereas you will have to load the skip yourself. This can be a big advantage if you have some physical restrictions or if there are a lot of bulky items to be removed.

Also, a man & van service can be great where access to the waste is more difficult or if you don’t have a driveway and live on a busy street. With a skip, you have to buy a permit if you want to put it on the road, this can be time consuming and add a significant cost.

Which is cheaper, man & van or skip hire?

The main factors that affect the price any rubbish collection is the amount of waste and the type of waste. Most skip hire prices start at £120 so if you’ve only got a few items a man & van service can be more cost effective. However, for much bigger jobs a large skip can work out better as you can get more waste in one meaning there will be fewer trips to collect it.

With skip hire you have to decide what size skip you want before you book, generally it’s better to book one slightly larger than you think you’ll need as this works out cheaper than having to hire another skip if you can’t get all your rubbish in the first one!

For larger ongoing projects like home renovations hiring a skip can be a better option as it gives you somewhere to store the wase as it’s removed which helps keep the site tidy and safe.

Skip delivery

Which is more convenient?

Many man & van services are flexible and can sort out a collection at a time that works for you. Generally though unless the waste is in a clear and obvious place, like the driveway, you will need to be in to show them the rubbish is and help them gain access to it.

With skip hire, most need a few days’ notice to arrange a delivery or collection of a skip. However, more and more are now starting to offer next or even same day delivery, making them much more convenient. Another advantage of skip hire is that they can be dropped off or collected while you are out making them a better option for people with full time jobs. Often a skip will be delivered on a Friday, loaded up over the weekend then collected on the Monday.

How do I choose a skip hire or man & van company?

Whichever option you choose you will need to check out the company, unfortunately there are a few rouge traders in this industry and if your waste is traced to fly tipping you could be fined as well.

The process for checking either company is the same, we would always recommend asking friends or family if they know a company first, as there is nothing better than word of mouth. If they don’t know any companies, we would then suggest asking on community Facebook groups or looking on Google Places. Select ones that have lots of reviews and a decent social media presence as this shows that they are active and listen to customers. When you call them are they helpful and professional? Do they respond to good and bad reviews? Do they have a website? These are just some things to consider when choosing a company.

When you find a few that look good, ask for some quotes. For larger or more complicated jobs this may mean someone visiting your house, all good companies should quote for free. Most of the quotes should be similar, beware of any quotes that are much lower than the others as this could be an indication that the company is not legitimate.

Finally, you want to check that the company is licensed and insured. This means that they have their waste carriers license and public liability insurance, if they hesitate to show you these this is a serious red flag, and you should move swiftly on! The waste carriers license is needed to transport and dispose of any waste, the insurance protects you from any accidental damage that may occur while the waste is being collected from the site.

Man & Van collection

Which is more green?

Both options try to minimise the amount of waste that ends up in landfill and many skip hire companies have their own processing centres where the waste is recycled. With the man & van service however, some items that can be reused are given to charities or even sold on. This reusing of items is much more environmentally friendly than processing and recycling the waste, unfortunately it’s not practical or cost effective for skip hire companies to do this.

So come on then, which is better?

As you can see there’s no hard and fast answer to this question, which service you choose depends on your personal circumstances and the scope of your project. If you have a few items left over from a DIY project you may be better going down the man & van route, if you’re tackling a kitchen refurb or clearing out a large garage hiring skip might be the best choice for you.

Hopefully this guide has given you some clarity about the different services, it’s worth mentioning though we’d always encourage you to donate or sell on any unwanted items, it’s better for your pocket and, more importantly, the planet.

Thank you for reading, if you have any questions you can pop them in the comments or send us an email by clicking this link. If you’d like to learn more about skip hire, check out this guide.