Water Heaters, Toilets, Tubs and Sinks: How Each Loads

Plumbing fixtures are an odd category. A toilet is heavy porcelain. A water heater is a steel tank that might still be full of water. A tub might be fiberglass, steel, or cast iron, and the difference is a couple of hundred pounds. All of it goes in a dump trailer, but not all of it goes in the same way.

Water heaters

Once drained, a tank heater is a steel shell around a glass-lined tank with some foam insulation. It's scrap metal. Set it beside the trailer rather than in it, and it comes out of the disposal weight. Gas heaters need the gas line capped by a plumber before removal; electric ones just need the breaker off and the wires disconnected.

Tankless units are small and mostly copper and brass inside — also scrap.

Toilets and sinks

Vitreous china is heavy, brittle and sharp when it breaks. A toilet goes in whole — tank and bowl separated if you like — and sits on the trailer floor. Don't break it up; the shards are worse than the weight. Pedestal and drop-in sinks are the same material and load the same way. Stainless kitchen sinks are scrap.

Tubs

• Fiberglass or acrylic: light, bulky. It can be cut into pieces with a reciprocating saw to fit through a door and load flat. Wear a mask; the dust is unpleasant.
• Enameled steel: lighter than it looks, and scrap metal. Goes beside the trailer, not in it.
• Cast iron: very heavy — a two-person dolly move at minimum, and often broken up in place with a sledgehammer, with the pieces carried out. Also scrap, and worth real money at the yard.

Everything else from the remodel

• Tile and mortar bed from a shower — heavy material, on the floor, within the 5-yard heavy limit
• Cement board — heavy, treat like tile
• Vanity cabinets — break down, general debris
• Copper pipe and brass valves — scrap, and the copper adds up
• PVC pipe — general debris
• Shower doors — glass, upright along the side wall

Weight planning

A single bathroom gut with the tile included is usually one load and sits near or over the included ton depending on how much mortar bed comes out. Separating the metal — heater, steel or cast tub, copper — takes a meaningful amount off the scale ticket. Additional weight is $59 per ton and we give you the PCSW receipt.

The order of a bathroom tear-out

A bathroom comes apart in a sensible order that also happens to be the safe loading order.

1. 1Water and power off, and the water heater drained the night before if it's coming out.
2. 2Shower door out first, whole, and stood along the trailer wall before anything else is loaded near it.
3. 3Toilet, sink and vanity out and to the trailer floor while the room is still clear enough to carry them.
4. 4Tub next — cut, dollied or broken up depending on what it's made of — and the metal ones to the scrap pile.
5. 5Tile and mortar bed last. It's the heaviest, it's the messiest, and it needs the trailer floor space the fixtures just took up, so spread it across the remaining floor within the 5-yard heavy limit.

Done in this order, one bathroom is one load, the glass is never buried, and the heavy material is where it belongs. If the mortar bed is thick or there are two bathrooms, tell us when you book and we'll plan on a second load.

Frequently asked questions

Can a water heater go in the trailer?

Drained, yes. But it's better set aside as scrap metal, which we keep separate from the general load.

Is a toilet a heavy item?

Heavy for its size, but one or two toilets won't move the scale much. A pile of tile is what tips a bathroom load over the ton.

What about the old caulk, glue and cleaning chemicals?

Dried caulk and adhesive are fine as debris. Any liquid chemicals go to household hazardous waste, not in the trailer.