An old deck comes apart into four kinds of debris, and the cleanest deck remodels sort it as it comes off instead of after it's in a pile. The four are:
- Wood boards and framing
- Composite boards, if the deck has them
- A bucket or two of screws, nails, bolts and brackets
- The concrete footings it stands on
Each one is handled a little differently once it leaves the yard. Have the container in the driveway before the first board comes up, so the old deck goes straight from the frame into a roll-off from our residential dumpster rental line.
What an Old Deck Turns Into Once It Comes Apart
Look at the boards, the railings and the frame separately before anything comes off. Most residential decks are built from pressure-treated lumber or cedar, and many newer ones have composite boards screwed or clipped over a wood frame. Decks that have been repaired over the years often mix all three.
- Wood is the bulk of the load: deck boards, railings, stair treads, joists, beams, posts and the ledger board at the house.
- Hardware is small but sharp, and most of it stays in the boards.
- Footings are the heaviest part of the job by far, whether they're poured piers or precast blocks.
Sort the Debris as It Comes Off
Sorting starts with the boards.
- Keep composite in its own stack, apart from the wood.
- Keep any wood you know is pressure-treated together.
- Regular lumber is perfectly fine in our containers.
- Railroad ties and other heavily treated woods are a different story, so check with us first on those. Our page on treated wood and other restricted items explains why.
Concrete stays out of the wood. It's heavy for its size, so a few footings mixed into a load of boards add a lot of weight without taking up much room. We usually suggest keeping concrete separate from the wood, the same advice we give for a shed teardown. Our post on disposing of concrete covers what goes with it, and why weight fills a dumpster first explains why a heavy load runs out of room before it looks full.
Loose hardware goes in a bucket as it falls. Boards with nails and screws still in them get stacked points down until they're carried out.
What Austin and Texas Rules Say About Deck Debris
Old deck lumber counts as construction and demolition debris, and that matters for where it can go.
- Bulk pickup. The City of Austin's on-demand bulk collection takes nail-free lumber, but it lists sheet glass and other construction and remodeling debris among the items it doesn't accept. A pile of deck boards with the screws still in them isn't a bulk pickup set-out. Our post on what Austin's bulk collection will and won't take covers the rest of that list.
- Burning. Burning treated deck lumber isn't an option either. TCEQ, the state's environmental agency, lists treated lumber, such as construction or demolition waste, among the things you should never burn.
- Recycling ordinance. Austin's Construction and Demolition Recycling Ordinance sets recycling targets and a recycling report for two kinds of projects: building permits for more than 5,000 square feet of new, added or remodeled floor area, and commercial and multifamily demolition projects of any size. The city's ordinance page doesn't mention decks. On a project that falls into either category, the general contractor is responsible for meeting the ordinance and submitting the recycling report, so if the deck is part of a permitted project, ask the general contractor on the permit.
Neither the city nor the state pages give a separate rule for composite decking. When you book, tell us what the deck is made of, the boards and the frame, including whether any of it is pressure-treated or composite, and we'll confirm how to handle it before the truck heads out.
Choose the Container Size and Load It in Order
You don't need to pick a size before you call. Our dumpster sizes page shows what each container holds, but the right one depends on the deck's footprint, how high it sits, what it's made of and whether the footings are going in the same load. Say what the material is, not just how much of it there is.
Load it in this order:
- Lay the long pieces flat along the floor of the container first.
- Put the cut joists and beams on top.
- Fill gaps with railing pieces and stair parts.
- Keep the load level with the top edge.
Tell us about the footings when you book: how many there are and whether they're coming out at all. We'll plan the container around what's going in.
The container goes where the boards come off. On most homes that's the driveway, as close to the deck side of the house as the truck can reach, with the door facing the work. Every drop gets boards under the container's contact points. Tell us if your drive is pavers, stamped concrete or newly poured and we will plan the spot around it. Our post on where to put the container covers overhead clearance and which way the door should face.
On lake lots in Lago Vista, we set roll-offs for old decking and dock lumber, and the drop spot gets planned around where the truck can safely reach.
Take the Deck Apart from the Top Down
A deck comes down in reverse order of how it was built:
- Railings and stairs come off first.
- The deck boards come next, working from the house out toward the container.
- The joists and beams follow.
- The ledger comes off the house wall last.
- The posts and footings finish the job.
Once the ledger is off, look at the siding and framing behind it, since that's where water damage tends to hide on an old deck.
Whoever is doing the work should:
- Wear gloves and eye protection the whole time.
- Never stand on framing that's being cut.
- Keep people out from under anything still attached overhead.
Before digging out footings, call 811 so underground utility lines get marked.
Getting a Container in Place for a Deck Remodel
Tell us the job and the address, and we will confirm the size, the drop spot and the delivery time before the truck leaves. To book it, schedule a delivery online or call (512) 688-7000, and tell us what is going in.
