What size skip bin do I need for deck or fence removal?
The direct answer
A 4m³ skip bin takes a standard timber deck or a residential fence line. Go to 6m³ if you are removing both, or if concrete footings are coming out with the posts.
Timber decking and fencing is long, awkward and full of air. A deck that measures 20 square metres does not produce 20 cubic metres of waste — but loaded whole it will not fit in a 3m³ either, because 2.4-metre palings and 4-metre bearers do not lie flat in a small bin.
Cut it to length before it goes in. A fence line cut into 1-metre sections takes roughly half the bin space of the same fence loaded whole. This single step decides whether you need a 4m³ or a 6m³.
What goes in
- Decking boards, joists, bearers and posts
- Fence palings, rails, posts and gates
- Balustrade, handrail and lattice
- Treated pine, hardwood and composite decking
- Colorbond and metal fence sheeting
- Nails, brackets and fixings still in the timber
The footings question — this changes the category, not just the size
Fence and deck posts are usually set in concrete. When they come out, a lump of concrete comes with each one.
- A few footings in an otherwise timber load — book general waste. A dozen post footings will not re-categorise a bin of timber.
- Every footing out, or a long fence line — that is a mixed load and belongs in mixed heavy waste, which ran a median $106 above general waste for the same 4m³ across 33 postcodes on 30 August 2026, and was never once cheaper in the 32 postcodes where both priced.
Leaving the footings in the ground, where the new fence allows it, keeps the job in the cheaper category. That is a genuine saving and it is worth knowing before you start digging.
Treated timber is not green waste
Decking and fencing timber is treated, painted or laminated. None of it is green waste, even though it came out of the garden. It is general waste — or heavy waste if it comes with concrete.
Booking a green waste bin for a fence removal is one of the more common mis-bookings on this kind of job, and it is a contamination problem rather than a saving: across 32 postcodes, green waste and general waste priced within a median of $0 of each other anyway.
What size, and what it costs
| Job | Size | n | Typical price | Median | Full range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small deck, or one short fence run | 3m³ | 234 | $329–$429 | $346 | $233–$916 |
| Standard deck, or a residential fence line | 4m³ | 275 | $423–$553 | $446 | $329–$799 |
| Deck and fence together, or footings out | 6m³ | 247 | $588–$700 | $647 | $446–$1,117 |
| Large deck plus full boundary fence | 8m³ | 245 | $758–$997 | $835 | $717–$1,487 |
Live prices from our booking engine, general waste, 7-day hire, including delivery, collection, tipping and GST. Source: demand-ladders.json — 305 Australian postcodes captured 30 August 2026 for a 7 September 2026 delivery, live supplier-network quotes only. n is how many of those 305 postcodes were priced at that size.
This is not the same measurement as our skip bin price index. That page reports our published price list — a mean of the lowest advertised catalogue price for each size across 826 metropolitan postcodes — where the national 4m³ reads $534 (source dataset catalogue-stats.json, generated 27 August 2026; index read 31 August 2026). Those are list averages, not quotes. The figures above are medians of live supplier-network quotes across 305 postcodes, metro and regional, captured 30 August 2026, where the 4m³ median is $446 over n = 275. Mean against median, published list price against live quote, 826 metro postcodes against 305 mixed: the gap is method and population, not a price change, and neither figure supersedes the other. The index says as much itself: "A live quote for your own postcode is often lower." If you quote one, say which one.
Enter your postcode for the live figure where you are.
4m³ to 6m³ costs a median $165 (n = 247 postcodes priced at both sizes). Two 3m³ bins cost a median $139 more than one 6m³ and are dearer in 76% of the 221 postcodes priced at both — so if the cut-up is going slowly and you are unsure, the 6m³ is the better bet than a second small bin.
What is NOT allowed
Asbestos. Older fence lines — particularly boundary fences from the 1960s to 1980s — were commonly built from asbestos cement sheet ("fibro" fencing). It looks like a flat grey sheet and it is still standing all over Australia. It must be assessed and removed by a licensed asbestos remover and is never accepted in a skip bin.
Never accepted in any bin, no exceptions:
- Asbestos, fibro and fibreglass
- Chemicals, liquids, oils, fuels, paints and solvents — including leftover decking oil, stain and timber preservative
- Gas bottles and aerosols
- Batteries
- Clinical or medical waste
If prohibited items are found after collection, contamination and disposal fees are charged and the load may be rejected.
Practical notes
- Cut to length as you go, not at the end. Timber stacked in the yard whole and then cut is handled twice.
- Take the longer hire. 3, 5 and 7 days cost the same in 60% of the 60 postcodes tested on 30 August 2026. Demolition of a deck is slower than people expect, particularly the footings.
- We arrange the bin; you load it. We do not do manual removal, demolition, loading or carrying. The deck comes apart by your hand or your builder's.
- Placement. Put the bin on the side of the house the deck is on. Carrying 4-metre bearers around a house is the part of this job nobody plans for.
Where the waste-category figures on this page come from
Source: waste-categories-live-probe-20260830.json — nine categories priced at 4m³ across 33 Australian postcodes on 30 August 2026 for a 7 September delivery.
That file records prices only; it carries no per-quote source flag. Cross-matched against waste-type-prices.json (1,485 quotes captured the same day, every one flagged LIVE_NETWORK), 149 of its 264 values are independently confirmed as live supplier prices, agreeing to the dollar with zero disagreements. The other 115 — 16 postcodes, including all 8 Western Australian, the 1 South Australian and 7 of the 8 Queensland postcodes — cannot be certified either way, and are not presented here as live supplier prices. Every direction reported above survives a cut to the confirmed-live values only; the magnitudes on mixed rubble and light building waste do not, and should be read as approximate. The full split and the sensitivity table are on what waste category do I need.