A skip is a box you hire for a week or two and fill yourself; a man and van is a crew that turns up, loads what you point at and leaves with it.
Skip hire or a man and van: which is better?
For one pile of rubbish that is ready to go, a man and van is usually the simpler answer: you pay for the space it takes on the truck, we do the lifting and nothing stands on the drive afterwards. A skip wins when you are filling it slowly over weeks. Complete Waste Management prices every load in writing first.
What a skip costs you
The hire price is only the start of it. A skip that stands on the road needs a permit from the council, which is a fee and a wait, and in some streets lights and cones on it at night. You do the loading, every lift of it. You guess the size before you start, and the two ways to guess wrong both cost money: too small and it is a second skip, too big and you have paid for air. It fills with rain and with a neighbour's rubbish while you are at work. The wrong things go in, and a skip with plasterboard, a fridge, a mattress, paint or a gas bottle in it is a skip the firm will not take away until they are out.
A skip bag is the same bargain in a smaller package: you fill it, and the lorry that lifts it has to park close to it.
What a man and van costs you
You pay for the space your rubbish takes on the truck, matched to a photo before anything is booked, so there is no guessing a size. We do the lifting, from wherever it is, through the house if that is the only way, with the floors sheeted. The drive is clear when we leave, not in a fortnight. Furniture, garden waste, builders' rubble, a fridge and a mattress go in the same visit, sorted on the truck. Nothing stands on the road, so there is no permit to apply for, and nothing is paid until the job is done.
Before
AfterWhen a skip is the right answer
A skip earns its place when the rubbish does not exist yet. A kitchen being ripped out over a fortnight, a builder generating rubble day after day, a garden being dug out at weekends: that is a slow fill, and a box that sits there and takes it as it comes is the right tool. It also makes sense where a truck cannot park close enough to load and a skip lorry can drop one and go. If you have the space, the permit and the time, and the loading is being done anyway by people on site, a skip is fine.
When a man and van is the right answer
Everything else. One pile that is ready now, whether that is a garage emptied onto the drive, the contents of a flat with no drive at all, a garden cut back in a weekend, or a strip-out that finished yesterday. Mixed loads, because a skip wants one kind of waste and a van takes the lot. Heavy things, because nobody is asking you to lift a washing machine into a box at head height. Anywhere a skip would block a neighbour's drive or need a permit. And any job where you want it gone this week rather than watching it for a fortnight. The way it works is this. You a photo on WhatsApp to 07523 280964 with the way out in the picture, the gate, the passage or the stairs, because that matters as much as the size of the pile. The price comes back in writing, matched to one of the load sizes on our rubbish removal page, loading included. On the day we lift it all, load it, sweep the ground behind us and go, and you pay afterwards by bank transfer or cash. Rubble and soil are heavy and are priced as a hardcore load, and we say so before the day, not after. Whatever can be recycled is recycled, and the rest goes through a permitted transfer station, with Complete Waste Management, licensed waste carrier CBDU663075, on the paperwork.
The permit
A skip on a public road needs a permit from the council, and the skip firm usually applies for it and adds the fee to the hire. The GOV.UK page on skip permits explains who applies, the time it runs for and the lights and marking a skip must carry. A skip on your own drive needs no permit, which is the one case where the question does not arise.
