Roofing

Sizing a Dumpster for a Roof Tear-Off in Loganville

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 Loganville subdivision two-storey runs somewhere between 25 and 35 squares depending on footprint and pitch; the older single-storey ranches around Monroe and Lilburn are often 18 to 24.

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 30 square architectural shingle roof at 350 lb per square is roughly 10,500 pounds — over five tons before underlayment. That is past the allowance on a 20 yard, which is exactly why the big subdivision houses here often need a 30 or a planned swap.

Shingle sizing table

The second layer problem

Plenty of older houses around Monroe, Lilburn and Stone Mountain 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 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.

Storm season and the hail cycle

North Georgia gets serious spring and early summer storms, and hail is what drives roofing demand here rather than any gradual replacement cycle.

The pattern is predictable and it repeats. A significant hail event moves through a corridor of the metro, thousands of roofs are damaged at once, adjusters get overwhelmed, out-of-area crews appear within days, and every hauler in the region is at capacity simultaneously.

Two pieces of practical advice. If your neighbourhood has been hit, get your claim in early — the queue is real and it is first come. And if you are a roofing contractor, set up a standing arrangement with a local hauler before the season rather than joining the phone queue after the storm. We hold capacity for contractors who work with us regularly, and during a post-storm crunch we are honest about what we can and cannot deliver.

A related caution: storm-chasing crews from out of state sometimes leave debris behind when they move on. If you are hiring after a hail event, confirm in writing who is removing the tear-off and how.

Metal roofs are a different problem

Metal roofing is common on the rural property out toward Good Hope, Jersey and Social Circle — barns, equipment sheds, farmhouses — and it flips the usual logic.

Metal is light. A 30 square metal roof might weigh under two tons. But the panels are long, awkward and full of air, so a container of loose sheeting fills up astonishingly fast while weighing almost nothing. Size by volume, not weight.

Flatten or nest the panels as you load. And if the volume is substantial, metal roofing is scrap with real value — pulling it out as a separate stream can offset a meaningful part of the job.

The city will not take shingles

Straightforward but worth saying, because people assume the bulk item allowance covers it.

The City of Loganville collects two household bulk items a week, but construction debris is excluded — and a tear-off is construction debris by any definition. Outside city limits it is worse: unincorporated Walton has no curbside collection at all, and Gwinnett's approved-hauler bulk allowance does not cover building material either.

So a re-roof needs a container in every part of this service area. If a roofer quotes you a job with "debris removal included", a container is almost certainly how they are doing it, and it is worth confirming rather than assuming.

Placement and site cleanup

• Tight to the drip line on the elevation being torn off.
• Doors facing the approach so ground crew can walk material in.
• Clear of overhead lines and trees. The truck bed needs roughly twenty-two feet of vertical clearance to tip, and the mature hardwoods over older lots are the usual constraint.
• On boards, and on ground that will carry the weight.
• Off the lawn after rain. Red clay softens and a loaded container will sink into it.

One thing that is not about the container: a tear-off sheds an enormous quantity of nails. A magnet sweep of the driveway, lawn 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.