Commercial concrete · Based in Eau Claire
Dumpster Pads, Poured and Replaced
The blacktop under a dumpster does not fail because of the dumpster. It fails because of the truck that comes to empty it. We pour pads at 4,500 PSI, sized to the container and to the approach the truck actually takes.
What a Dumpster Pad Is
A dumpster pad is the slab a waste container sits on, and the approach in front of it that the collection truck parks on. It is normally concrete even when the rest of the lot is asphalt, and it is normally poured thicker than a sidewalk, because of what happens to it every week.
Most enclosures have three parts: the slab, the approach, and the enclosure itself, which is the fence or wall and the bollards that stop a truck backing into it. The slab and the approach are the parts that fail, and they fail for different reasons than the rest of your pavement does.
The three parts
- The pad the container stands on
- The approach the truck parks on to lift it
- The enclosure and its bollards
Pads are commonly poured 6 to 8 inches where a truck runs on them, against 4 inches for a walk. The right number for your pad depends on the container size and the truck, and it gets measured rather than assumed.
What Breaks a Dumpster Pad
A full container is heavy, and it sits on four small feet, and that alone will press into asphalt over a summer. But it is not what breaks the pad. Watch a collection and you will see the real load: the truck noses up, lifts several tons over its own front axle, holds it, tips it, and drops it back down.
All of that happens in the same few feet every single week. The front edge of the pad takes a shock load on a cycle, and the truck's front wheels are parked on the approach while it happens. That is why the damage is almost never in the middle of the pad. It is at the lip and just in front of it.
Which is also why a pad poured to the footprint of the container is the wrong size. If the concrete stops where the dumpster stops, the truck's front axle is doing all that work on the blacktop, and the blacktop is what gives way. Then the pad edge is unsupported and it goes next.
The last one is drainage. An enclosure collects water and washdown, and a pad that drains backwards puts it under its own edge all year. In Eau Claire that water freezes under the slab.
What we look at
- Where the truck's front wheels actually sit
- Whether the lip has cracked or dropped
- How far the pad extends past the container
- Which way the pad drains
- Whether the enclosure posts are still plumb
Mix: commercial pours go down at 4,500 PSI exterior, with the rebar tied. Traffic at three days.
What Usually Comes With It
The pad is normally the worst spot rather than the only one.
This page is the pad. For driveways, sidewalks, curb and gutter and the rest of the flatwork, see concrete.
Questions We Get
How big does the pad need to be?
The pad is fine but the asphalt in front of it is destroyed. Why?
Can we just patch the asphalt instead of pouring concrete?
How soon can the container go back?
Do you do the enclosure and the bollards as well?
Send a Photo of the Enclosure
One from where the truck backs in, showing the front edge of the pad and the ground just in front of it. That is where the answer usually is.
(715) 450-9897