By QuoteIron TeamUpdated 4 min read
Key takeaways
- Price every junk row with one formula: labor hours × your rate, plus disposal × 1.30, rounded up to the next $5.
- At $95 an hour, the book's starting prices are $120 for a minimum truck load, $400 for a half truck and $625 for a full truck.
- Check the disposal column against your own dump tickets before you trust any row. It is the number most junk operators underprice.
Related: Junk removal price book · How to build a flat-rate price book · How to price jobs as a new solo tradesman
Why junk is priced by the load, not the hour
A single mattress takes about fifteen minutes and a few dollars of disposal. A three-car garage takes a full truck, a dump run and most of a day. Quoting both by the hour underprices the garage and overprices the mattress. A junk price book breaks the work into the unit that drives cost: the load, the item or the cleanout, each with its own labor hours and its own disposal cost.
The QuoteIron junk book has 46 rows: five truck-load rows, twenty single-item rows, seven debris rows, nine cleanout rows and five labor-and-surcharge rows. Every row is a starting point you can override.
The formula, in plain words
Every row in the book is priced the same way.
- Labor: the typical labor hours for the job, times your hourly rate.
- Disposal and supplies: what the dump, the fees and the supplies cost, times 1.30 (a 30 percent markup).
- Round up: add the two together and round up to the next $5.
Worked example: a minimum truck load is 1 labor hour with $17 of disposal. At $95 an hour, labor is $95 and disposal is $17 × 1.30 = $22.10. The total is $117.10, which rounds up to $120.
The 30 percent markup and the $95 rate are the book's sample settings. Change them to your own numbers and every row reprices.
Starting prices for 12 common junk jobs
These are the book's starting prices, computed with the formula above, at three labor rates. The disposal and supplies column is the book's mid-grade figure before markup.
| Job | Labor hours | Disposal and supplies | At $75/hr | At $95/hr | At $125/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truck load, minimum (about 2–3 cu yd) | 1 | $17 | $100 | $120 | $150 |
| Truck load, quarter (about 3–4.5 cu yd) | 1.5 | $25 | $145 | $175 | $220 |
| Truck load, half (about 4.5–11 cu yd) | 3.35 | $60 | $330 | $400 | $500 |
| Full truck load (about 13–17 cu yd) | 5 | $115 | $525 | $625 | $775 |
| Mattress, queen or king (per piece) | 0.75 | $3 | $65 | $80 | $100 |
| Sofa or loveseat (per piece) | 1 | $6 | $85 | $105 | $135 |
| Refrigerator or apartment freezer, freon recovery included | 0.75 | $33 | $100 | $115 | $140 |
| Water heater, tank type (per unit) | 1 | $15 | $95 | $115 | $145 |
| Hot tub or spa, drained (per unit) | 4 | $43 | $360 | $440 | $560 |
| Garage cleanout, 1-car (about 1/2 truck) | 3 | $60 | $305 | $365 | $455 |
| Garage cleanout, 3-car or packed (about full truck) | 5.5 | $115 | $565 | $675 | $840 |
| Estate cleanout, small (2-bedroom house) | 6 | $115 | $600 | $720 | $900 |
Read across a row to see how much the rate alone moves the price. Read down the load rows and the jump from a half truck to a full truck is about $225 at $95 an hour, because the book adds 1.65 labor hours and $55 of disposal.
Disposal is the number to check first
Disposal is the cost most junk operators underprice, because it changes by facility, by county and by material. Pull your last ten dump tickets and compare the average per load with the book's disposal column. Change that column once and every row that depends on it reprices.
Appliances with refrigerant, such as refrigerators and freezers, carry a recovery cost in their row. Tires, electronics and mattresses often have separate disposal rules where you work, so confirm the local fee before you quote those items at the book's figure.
Surcharges that come up on almost every job
Three lines in the labor-and-extras group matter on most jobs. A stairs or long-carry surcharge adds 0.4 labor hours per flight or per 50 feet of carry. A same-day or rush surcharge adds a flat 0.5 labor hours. A donation drop-off is priced as a one-hour run, so a stop at the donation center is paid for rather than given away.
A regional note: test the numbers before you trust them
Junk prices depend on where you work. Dump fees, labor rates, competitors' prices and how much stuff the average home holds all change from one metro to the next, and from a rural county to a suburb. The book's $75, $95 and $125 columns are a range to test against your own market, not a survey of local prices.
The safe method: enter your own labor rate, check the disposal column against your dump tickets, then quote your next five jobs and note which ones you win and lose. Adjust once a month, not on every quote.
Three mistakes that cost junk operators money
Pricing a full truck like a half truck. Volume is the driver. A load that fills the truck early can need a second dump run that an hourly guess missed.
Forgetting the disposal line. The labor is what you feel on the job, but the dump charge is what leaves your account.
Giving estate and hoarding cleanouts one flat number. The book prices estate cleanouts by house size, and hoarding-level work per hour with a crew of two, because the scope changes once you are inside. Walk the site first, or quote a range with a site-visit condition.
The sample book is free and needs no signup. The junk removal price book shows the templates, and the free book builder reprices all of them when you change your three numbers. For the method behind any trade, read how to build a flat-rate price book.