How to price commercial junk removal

Residential junk removal is priced by the truckload, and customers can compare. Commercial work is different. A property manager wants a turnover cleared by Friday, an office wants a floor emptied, a landlord wants the same pickup every month. Price commercial jobs from the hours and the tons, not from a residential load chart.

Start with the crew and the truck

Start with the wage. The closest group the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes is refuse and recyclable material collectors. In its May 2025 wage survey, that group's national mean wage was $25.39 an hour and the median was $23.89 (BLS OEWS 53-7081). For hand labor on cleanouts, BLS's laborers and material movers group had a mean of $20.32.

Add your labor burden on top: payroll taxes, workers' comp and any paid time off. If burden in your state comes to 25% of wages, a $20 an hour tech costs you $25 an hour. That loaded number is what goes into the job cost.

Add the truck hour: payment, fuel, insurance and upkeep. Then dump or transfer station fees by the ton, which vary by town and by material.

Residential load prices, as a floor

These are homeowner prices. Commercial cleanouts often run many loads with sorting, stairs and elevators, so price them from your hours.

A worked example: an office floor cleanout

Every input is an assumption for the example.

• Job: desks, chairs, files and carpet tiles from one office floor, freight elevator, four loads.
• Crew: three people, seven hours, at $25 an hour loaded.
• Truck: $32 an hour. Transfer station: $68 a ton, about 1.6 tons a load.
• Overhead 25% of the price and profit 15%.

1. Crew: 3 people x 7 hours x $25 = $525
2. Truck: 7 hours x $32 = $224
3. Dump fees: 4 loads x 1.6 tons x $68 = $435.20
4. Drive to the transfer station: 4 trips x 14 miles x $0.76 = $42.56
5. Direct cost: $525 + $224 + $435.20 + $42.56 = $1,226.76
6. Overhead plus profit: 25% + 15% = 40% of the price
7. Price: $1,226.76 / (1 - 0.40) = $1,226.76 / 0.60 = $2,045

Check it: 40% of $2,045 is about $818, and $2,045 minus $818 is about $1,227, the direct cost of $1,226.76. The profit and overhead are inside the price, not added on top of a cost you guessed.

That is about $511.25 a load, inside Fixr's residential full load range of $450 to $650, even with three people, elevator time and heavier loads. Where dump fees run higher, or the floor has no freight elevator, the hours and tons push it above the chart, which is why commercial jobs are priced from the hours, not the load chart.

Recurring work as a contract

Apartment turnovers, retail backrooms and construction cleanups repeat. Price a monthly contract from the average loads and hours per month, with a per load charge for anything above. On Front Office, Koira's maintenance plans bill a recurring amount on the card on file and book the visits as they come due.

Find the property managers

Commercial junk work comes from property managers, facilities staff and contractors. On Front Office, commercial outreach writes to property managers near you with a short three-email sequence. Koira's estimates send options, for example cleanout only, cleanout plus sweep, and cleanout plus donation drop-off, signed and paid on one page.

Common commercial junk pricing mistakes

• Pricing from the residential chart. Big cleanouts carry more sorting and access time.
• Dump fees guessed. Mattresses, tires, electronics and paint often cost more to dispose of.
• No access questions. Loading docks versus stairs is a big change in hours.

Questions contractors ask