Roofing

Sizing a Dumpster for a Roof Tear-Off

Roofing is where sizing goes wrong most often, and here it is nearly always the same thing: a second layer nobody knew about.

The one number that matters: squares

Roofers measure in squares. One square is 100 square feet of roof surface. A typical Oakland County single-family home runs somewhere between 18 and 32 squares, with the newer subdivisions in Rochester Hills and Troy tending larger and the older Pontiac and Birmingham stock tending smaller but steeper.

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

The spread is the point, and slate is the extreme. A slate roof can be four to six times the weight of composition shingle for the same area.

Composition sizing table

For slate, ignore this table entirely — see below. For metal, separate it as scrap rather than treating it as waste.

⚠️ The second layer problem

The single most common cause of an overloaded roofing container around here, and it is very common indeed in this housing stock.

For decades it was normal practice to lay a second layer of composition straight over the first rather than tearing off. Plenty of Pontiac-area houses have two layers, and a few have three or have composition laid over an original cedar shake.

How to find out before delivery day rather than after:

• Look at the rake edge from the ground. A double layer usually shows as a noticeably thicker band at the edge of the roof.
• Ask your roofer to confirm at inspection. They will know within a minute of getting up there.
• Check the eaves where the shingle overhangs — the layering is often visible.

If it turns up on the day, call us. A swap mid-job is far cheaper than an overloaded container that cannot legally be hauled — and an overloaded roofing container is one of the more common ways a job stalls.

Cedar shake and slate on older homes

Cedar shake appears on older and higher-end stock across Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham and the older Pontiac neighborhoods. It is comparable to architectural composition in weight but much bulkier when stripped, because it comes off in irregular pieces that trap air. Size for volume rather than weight, and expect it to fill faster than the tonnage suggests.

Slate is the one to be careful about. It is uncommon but genuinely present on pre-war homes here, particularly the more substantial ones. At 800 to 1,500 pounds a square, a 25 square slate roof is somewhere between ten and eighteen tons.

Slate therefore goes in a 10 yard, part-filled, with multiple swaps. Never a 30 — you would fill a fifth of it and still be unable to move it legally. Slate also breaks as it comes off, occupying more volume than the intact roof suggests while weighing exactly the same.

And as with any older roof: if the building predates 1980, some older roofing products and flashing compounds are asbestos candidates. Have it checked before the tear-off starts, not after it is in a container.

Ice, snow and what actually kills a roof here

Worth understanding, because it explains both why roofs fail here and what you will actually find when the old one comes off.

This climate puts roofs through repeated freeze-and-thaw cycling, sustained snow load and — the real culprit — ice damming, where meltwater refreezes at the cold eave and backs up under the shingle. The damage is rarely at the ridge; it is at the edges, in the valleys and around penetrations.

The practical consequences for your container:

• Decking damage is common at eaves and in valleys, and rotten decking adds real tonnage that was not in the original estimate. Budget for the possibility.
• Wet material is heavier material. A tear-off after a wet spell weighs measurably more than the same roof dry.
• Old ice-and-water membrane comes off in heavy sticky sheets and is awkward to load.
• Gutters and fascia often go too once the eave is opened up, which adds volume and, if they are metal, something worth separating.

Winter and spring scheduling

Roofing here is seasonal in a way it is not in warmer markets, and the container schedule has to follow.

The season is compressed. Most tear-offs happen between late spring and autumn, which means the demand for roofing containers is concentrated. Book earlier than you think you need to during the peak.

Spring thaw brings seasonal weight restrictions on Michigan roads. It rarely stops a job, but on rural and unpaved approaches around Holly, Oxford and the northern townships it occasionally shifts a date. Build a little slack into a March or April program.

Winter placement is about the driveway, not the roof. A loaded roll-off on a sloped icy drive is a genuine problem, and a lot of Clarkston and the northern townships have grade. If the work is happening in winter, tell us about the slope and the surface at booking.

Placement, canopy and the nail problem

Roofing containers need to sit close to the house, and around here there is one recurring constraint.

Overhead branches. Our truck needs roughly twenty-two feet of clear height to raise its bed. Mature tree canopy over a driveway is common across Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield, Birmingham and the older Pontiac streets. On a job with multiple swaps that has to work every time, not once — so confirm it at booking.

Elsewhere in the area:

• Rochester Hills, Troy, Auburn Hills — generous driveways, straightforward placement.
• Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, the Lake Orion village — small lots and narrow streets; a 15 yard with a swap is often the workable shape.
• Lakefront property — long shared drives, steep approaches and soft ground near the water.
• Rural Holly and Oxford — plenty of room, but watch grade, surface and overhead lines at the entrance.

Everywhere: boards go under the rails as standard, and a tear-off sheds an enormous quantity of nails. A magnet sweep of the drive and the street at the end is twenty minutes well spent, and it is the single most common complaint homeowners have about roofing work.