Dumpster Rental in the Denver Metro: Sizes, Prices, Permits

A dumpster rental in the Denver metro costs $325 to $850 for a 7-day rental with 1 to 4 tons of weight included, depending on size. A 20-yard container at $425 to $600 clears most whole-house cleanouts before a listing, and a 30-yard at $525 to $750 handles a basement finish tear-out or an estate with a garage full of tools. The rest of the bill is the part people miss: the street permit if the driveway is too short, the HOA rule on how long it stays, and the items Colorado does not allow in a landfill. This guide covers sizes, prices, permits in Denver, Aurora and Lakewood, HOA rules, the banned list, and the cleanout plan for a home going on the market or coming out of probate.

How much does a dumpster rental cost in the Denver metro?

Prices below are the flat-rate range for a 7-day rental in Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Arvada, Littleton, Centennial, Highlands Ranch and Parker in 2026. Longmont, Fort Collins, Greeley and Colorado Springs land within $50 of these. Weight overage runs $55 to $95 per ton, and a trip fee of $75 to $150 applies when the truck arrives and the container is blocked.

Roofing shingles, concrete, dirt and brick are priced by the ton on a smaller "heavy debris" container, because a 20-yard box of concrete weighs 10 tons and no truck lifts it. Hail season roof replacements in Colorado use a dedicated 10 or 15-yard shingle box at $350 to $550.

The math is the same in every market. A dumpster rental Pleasanton, CA price sheet and a Sydney Skip Bin Hire quote both break down to container size, included weight, rental days and the banned list. Compare Denver quotes on those four lines, not the headline number.

What size do I need?

• Clearing one bedroom or a bathroom demo: 10 yard.
• Garage, shed and yard waste: 15 yard.
• Whole house before listing, 3 bedrooms, no furniture: 20 yard.
• Whole house with furniture, an estate, or 30 years of a finished basement: 30 yard.
• Full gut remodel or a hoarding cleanout: 40 yard, or two 30s scheduled a week apart.

Order one size up when the choice is close. A second haul costs $300 to $450 more than the difference between a 20 and a 30. Load flat and level; drivers refuse a container with debris above the rim, and the trip fee applies.

Do I need a permit for a dumpster on the street?

A dumpster in your own driveway needs no city permit anywhere on the Front Range. A dumpster on the street, the sidewalk or the alley is in the public right-of-way and needs one.

• Denver: a right-of-way occupancy permit through the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI), applied for online. Fees run $50 to $150 for a residential placement of one to two weeks, plus the traffic-control requirements the permit lists. Most rental companies pull the permit for a $75 to $150 fee.
• Aurora: a right-of-way permit through Public Works. Same range.
• Lakewood: a right-of-way permit through Public Works; no container on a street with a bike lane without a traffic plan.
• Littleton, Englewood, Arvada, Westminster, Thornton: right-of-way or obstruction permits at $25 to $100.
• Unincorporated Arapahoe, Jefferson, Adams and Douglas counties: a county right-of-way permit; the county also has rules on how long a container can sit on a rural road shoulder.

Denver fines an unpermitted container in the street and has it removed at your cost. Ask the rental company on the phone whether the permit is included, and get the permit number before the drop.

Can my HOA stop a dumpster in the driveway?

An HOA cannot stop you from moving out or renovating, but the covenants in most metro-district and HOA communities in Highlands Ranch, Stapleton-era Central Park, Castle Pines, Parker, Broomfield and Erie set rules on containers. The common ones:

• Duration cap: 7 to 14 days, extended with written approval.
• Placement: driveway only, off the street, not on the lawn.
• Notice: written notice to the management company before delivery, 3 to 7 days.
• Screening and cover: a tarp over the load overnight, no debris blown into the street.

Fines run $25 to $100 a day in the stricter districts. Email the management company before you book. Colorado's Common Interest Ownership Act limits HOA fines and requires notice and a cure period, so a first violation is a letter, not a lien, but the letter still turns up on the status letter when you sell.

What you cannot put in a dumpster in Colorado

Colorado landfills refuse a set list, and the rental company charges $50 to $500 per item to sort them out at the transfer station. The list:

• Electronics: TVs, monitors, computers and printers have been banned from Colorado landfills since 2013 under the Electronic Recycling Jobs Act. Take them to a certified e-waste recycler; most Front Range counties run drop-off events and Best Buy accepts most items.
• Paint: latex and oil paint go to a PaintCare drop-off site for free; Colorado's paint stewardship program funds hundreds of retail drop-offs.
• Tires: $3 to $10 each at a tire retailer or the county's household waste facility.
• Refrigerators, freezers, AC units: the refrigerant has to be recovered by a certified technician first. Appliance recyclers in the metro pick them up for $25 to $75; Xcel Energy has run a fridge recycling rebate in past years, check the current offer.
• Batteries, propane tanks, fluorescent tubes, pool chemicals, pesticides, motor oil: household hazardous waste. Denver, Arapahoe, Jefferson, Adams, Douglas and Boulder counties each run a household hazardous waste facility or event.
• Asbestos and anything from a pre-1980 demo you have not tested: see below.
• Mattresses and box springs: accepted at most landfills but surcharged $20 to $50 each; some rental companies refuse them.

Asbestos and lead paint in older Front Range homes

Homes built before 1980 in Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Arvada, Englewood and Littleton contain asbestos in popcorn ceilings, drywall joint compound, vinyl floor tile and mastic, duct wrap and pipe insulation. Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment regulates asbestos, and the residential trigger levels are 32 square feet, 50 linear feet, or the volume of a 55-gallon drum. Disturb more than that and the work requires a certified asbestos inspection, a state-certified abatement contractor and a permit. Asbestos debris never goes in a rental dumpster; it goes in sealed, labeled bags to a landfill that accepts it.

A residential asbestos inspection runs $400 to $800 in the Denver metro. Popcorn ceiling abatement runs $3 to $7 per square foot. Lead paint in pre-1978 homes is a federal rule: contractors doing renovation for pay follow EPA lead-paint-certified practices, and the debris goes to the landfill in sealed bags. Test before the demo; the lab report is the document you keep for the buyer.

Protecting the driveway

A loaded 30-yard container weighs 5 to 8 tons on two steel rails. On a summer day in Colorado, an asphalt driveway softens and takes the rail marks; on a freeze-thaw week in March, a concrete driveway with a crack spalls under the roll-off truck. Ask for plywood under the rails, or lay four sheets of 3/4 inch plywood yourself for $200. Rental companies do not pay for driveway damage; the contract says so.

How long can I keep it?

The standard rental is 7 days; some companies give 10 or 14. Extra days run $10 to $25 each. A whole-house cleanout before listing takes a weekend with four people; an estate takes two weekends because of the sorting. Book the container for the second weekend, not the first, and spend the first one sorting into keep, sell, donate and dump. The estate sales vs donation when downsizing in Colorado post shows what sells and what the donation centers in the metro take.

Clearing a home before it goes on the market

An empty, clean house photographs and shows better and closes faster. The cleanout is the cheapest pre-listing spend on the list, ahead of paint and carpet.

1. Week 1, sort: keep, sell, donate, dump. Sell furniture on local marketplaces or through an estate sale company at 30% to 40% commission.
2. Week 2, dump: 20-yard container in the driveway, HOA notified, permit pulled if it goes to the street.
3. Week 2, donate: Habitat ReStore locations across the metro take cabinets, doors, appliances and furniture and pick up large items.
4. Week 3, clean and fix: deep clean $300 to $600, paint, carpet, the punch list from the preparing and adding value before selling guide.

Budget $600 to $1,500 for the container, permit and disposal on a typical 3-bedroom Front Range home, and $1,500 to $4,000 for an estate with a full basement and garage.

Cleaning out a parent's house after probate in Colorado

Colorado probate for an estate with real property runs 6 to 12 months for an informal probate, and the personal representative is allowed to clear and sell the house once appointed by the court. The cleanout is the same job with two extras: an inventory before anything leaves, because heirs and the court want one, and a slower sort, because paperwork, photos, deeds and titles hide in every drawer of a 40-year home.

• Inventory first: photograph every room before the sort.
• Hire the sort if the house is out of town: senior move managers and estate cleanout firms in the metro charge $50 to $85 an hour per person, or $2,000 to $6,000 for a full house.
• Two containers, two weeks apart: a 30 for the bulk and a 20 for what the estate sale did not move.
• Hazardous items: old paint, pesticides and propane collect in a 1970s garage; plan a household hazardous waste run.

The senior real estate help in Colorado post covers probate and trust sales in detail, and the downsizing in the Denver metro guide covers the move for a parent going from a 3,000 square foot home to a patio home. The selling an estate home in Colorado post shows the listing timeline after the cleanout.

Dumpster or junk removal?

Junk removal crews in the Denver metro charge $150 to $250 for a quarter truckload and $600 to $900 for a full 15-yard truck, loaded by them, gone the same day. A 20-yard dumpster at $425 to $600 holds more and costs less, and you do the lifting over a week. Rule: under a pickup load of items, or nobody to lift, book junk removal; more than that, rent the container. Homes with stairs, a basement and no help go junk removal even at the higher price.

Where to go next

• Preparing and adding value before selling
• Downsizing in the Denver metro
• Decluttering before downsizing in Colorado, room by room
• Senior real estate help in Colorado: probate and trust sales
• How to sell a house in Colorado
• Kenna Real Estate Group agents

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC runs the pre-listing cleanout for Front Range sellers and estates: the sort, the container, the donation pickups and the punch list, on a written timeline that ends with a listing date. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. When the house is empty, see what it competes with when you search every home for sale in Colorado.