What size skip do I need for a bathroom or kitchen refit?

Published 7 August 2026  |  Scarborough Skip Hire

The most common question we get is some version of "it's just a bathroom, a small skip will do, right?" Sometimes. Usually not. Here's how it plays out in real houses around Scarborough, not the tidy version on a size chart.

A bathroom strip-out

A typical Scarborough terrace bathroom produces: a bath (steel or acrylic), a basin and pedestal, a toilet, a shower tray or screen, all the wall tiles, the floor tiles, a bit of plasterboard, the old boxing-in, and a surprising amount of broken plaster where the tiles came off.

Volume-wise that's a 4 yard midi skip. Weight-wise, the tiles and plaster are the problem. A tiled bathroom, floor to ceiling, easily produces 300 to 400 kg of ceramic and plaster before you've added the bath. A 4 yard skip is fine for that. Where people come unstuck is adding "just a bit" of rubble from a hall or the old concrete floor from an outhouse. Then you're into weight limits.

Our answer: 4 yard for a bathroom on its own. 6 yard if you're also taking down a stud wall, doing the landing, or the tiles go all the way up in a big Victorian bathroom.

A kitchen rip-out

Kitchens are all volume. Base units, wall units, worktops, plinths, the old sink, a pile of doors, the floor covering, sometimes the ceiling if it's been dropped. None of it is very heavy but it's awkward and it doesn't stack.

A small kitchen (say a galley in a flat off Falsgrave) will fill a 6 yard skip if you break the carcasses down flat. If you don't break them down, or it's a family kitchen with an island, you're in an 8 yard builders skip. Add tiles and rubble from moving a wall and it's definitely 8.

Our answer: 6 yard for a small kitchen if you flat-pack the units. 8 yard for anything average or larger. The 8 yard is our most common domestic skip for exactly this reason.

Both rooms at once

If the bathroom and kitchen are going together, one 8 yard skip filled carefully usually does it, with the heavy tile and plaster loaded first and the kitchen carcasses on top. If the builder is also opening walls, ask for a 10 or 12 yard, but be aware that larger skips are for light waste. You can't fill a 12 yard skip with rubble; it won't lift.

Three things that catch people out

1. Plasterboard has to be bagged separately. It's not banned, but it can't be mixed loose with everything else. Ask us and we'll explain what to do.
2. Level load. Everything must sit below the rim of the skip. Kitchen doors stacked on top like a pyramid mean the driver can't take it.
3. Where it's going. If the skip has to sit on the road rather than a drive, a council permit is needed and that adds a few days and around £90 to the job.

If you'd rather not guess, describe the job on the quote form and we'll tell you the size we'd send. The full size and price guide is on the homepage too.