Who the county calls commercial

The tile is off the walls, the drywall is stacked in the driveway, and what the county charges for it depends on whose truck brings it in.

704junk hauls construction and renovation debris that is already out and loose — drywall and plaster off a stripped room, tile and thinset, cabinet carcasses, trim, doors, subfloor, deck boards, the old vanity in the yard, the heap of scrap lumber behind the garage. We are a hauling company, not a demolition contractor: we do not take structures down, we do not cut into anything load-bearing, we do not pull permits, and we do not touch asbestos or fuel tanks. If the work is finished and the mess is what is left, that is the whole job.

Did you do the demo yourself, or did a crew do it? That is not small talk. Mecklenburg County prices the same pile two different ways depending on the answer, and the rule that decides it is quoted further down this page — before you load anything.

Drywall, tile, trim and lumber
One room or a whole gut
Published rate card
Charlotte & Mecklenburg County

Who Mecklenburg County counts as commercial, in its own words

Most people arriving here want a number. The county publishes two of them for the same material, and which one gets charged is settled at the fee booth before anybody looks properly in the bed of the truck. The test is not what the debris is. It is who delivered it, in what, and how they paid.

You may have typed construction debris removal charlotte to get here, or renovation debris removal charlotte nc. Those are usually two different people — a homeowner who did their own bathroom over a long weekend, and a contractor whose lettered van pays a rate the homeowner never sees — and the paragraph below is the single fact that separates them.

Mecklenburg County's non-residential fee schedule, FY July 2026 – June 2027, on who is charged the commercial rate. Under the heading Attention all customers… the schedule states: “Any contractor or commercial entity, or any material delivered in a commercial vehicle, payment with a commercial credit card or vehicle providing services for hire will be charged according to the commercial schedule. This includes any vehicle with ladder racks, any external advertising or multiple visits within a 72 hour period.” On that same schedule the Group 2 line — more than one bulky item, a vehicle loaded past a quarter of its capacity, any work van, a pickup without built-up sides, or a single-axle trailer 8 ft or smaller, all under 3 cubic yards — is priced “Construction & Demolition Debris: $45.00/unit.” Once a load is large or heavy enough to be weighed, the Group 3 line reads “$65.00/ ton or $36.00 load minimum.” The sheet also says what a unit is: “1 unit = 1 load of material* Ex: Loaded vehicle + loaded trailer = 2 units.” Source: Mecklenburg County non-residential, commercial, business and out-of-county fees, July 2026 – June 2027, document code FY-27-002 — Non-Residential-Fees.pdf (mecknc.widen.net), fetched September 3, 2026, HTTP 200, 3,495,579 bytes. The commercial-vehicle rule is carried on a second, independent county instrument as well: the county's Wipe Out Waste site states “If your transaction is made using a business credit card and/or from a business or commercial vehicle the transaction will be charged at the business/non-residential rate.” These are Mecklenburg County gate prices paid at a county facility, and they are a different authority from any City of Charlotte curbside rule — the county does not collect from your curb, and the city does not run the scale. This schedule rolls over each July, so the figures above are the July 2026 – June 2027 sheet and nothing later. Checked September 2026.

For contrast, and it is the only reason the resident sheet appears on this page at all: the same Group 2 line on the county's residential schedule reads “Construction & Demolition Debris: $25/ unit,” so an identical pile of drywall is $25 or $45 depending only on which schedule the booth applies to the vehicle that brought it.

Read the definition again and notice how wide it is. It does not only catch the contractor. It catches a homeowner who paid with the card belonging to their own small company, a friend who offered to help and happens to run ladder racks, a van with a magnetic sign still stuck on the door, and anyone who comes back a second time inside 72 hours because the first load did not fit it all. None of that is about the drywall. It is about the vehicle and the payment, and the booth reads it in that order.

The trailer picks the gate, and the day picks the landfill

Once a pile outgrows a pickup bed the question stops being price and starts being address. The county routes by trailer length and publishes the ladder, which is better than finding out at the entrance with a loaded trailer behind you.

Mecklenburg County's trailer limitations, quoted from the county's own Wipe Out Waste site. Under the heading Trailer Limitations: “All trailers over 8 ft. long need to weigh in and out or be measured to calculate the disposal fee. Hickory Grove and North Mecklenburg accept trailers that are 12 ft. long or smaller for Bulky and C&D Waste. Oversized vehicles greater than 12 ft. will be redirected. Compost Central accepts trailers up to 16 ft. long for Bulk and C&D Waste. The Foxhole Landfill will accept trailers over 16 ft. long. Note: the landfill is different than the general drop-off area. The landfill portion is closed on Saturdays. The Foxhole Landfill directs all trailers 12 ft. and longer to the landfill's working face to unload after crossing the scales.” On hours, the same page states that county residents may use “any of the four full-service drop-off centers Monday - Saturday from 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. Restrictions apply.” Source: Mecklenburg County Solid Waste — Where Can I Recycle? (wipeoutwaste.mecknc.gov), fetched September 3, 2026, HTTP 200, 75,734 bytes. Two different Saturday facts live on that page and they are not the same fact. The one quoted above is the durable one and it is the only one this page relies on: the general drop-off area runs Monday to Saturday, and it is the landfill portion that is closed on Saturdays. Individual centers also post temporary operational notices about works in progress at a particular site, and those are deliberately not reproduced here — a notice that expires has no business sitting next to a checked date. Open the linked page for whatever is current at the site you are actually driving to. County facility rules, not a city ordinance. Checked September 2026.

The ladder in plain terms: under 8 ft you stay on flat fees, and over 8 ft you are weighed in and out. Hickory Grove and North Mecklenburg stop at 12 ft and redirect anything longer. Compost Central goes to 16 ft. Past 16 ft it is Foxhole — and at Foxhole anything 12 ft and longer is sent across the scales to the working face rather than dumped at the front.

The Saturday line is worth reading twice, because it is easy to hear as “the county is closed on Saturday,” and that is not what it says. The four full-service drop-off centers run Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The landfill portion at Foxhole is a separate operation on the same site, and that part does not run on Saturdays. So a load big enough that it has to reach the landfill face is a weekday errand; a load small enough for the drop-off area is not. Those are two facts and blending them is how a full trailer ends up parked outside the wrong gate.

Our own figure comes off the published rate card on the home page once we know roughly what is on the ground, and the gate fee, the weigh-in and the drive are ours rather than yours. A photo of the pile is usually enough to price it.

What the county counts as C&D, and what separating it is worth

Two piles that look identical to you are not identical to the scale. The county publishes both the definition of the category and the rates for material that arrives already sorted, and on a job with any volume behind it the gap between those is the difference between one expensive trip and two cheaper ones.

The same non-residential schedule, on what counts as C&D and what a sorted load costs. The sheet defines the category: “The waste material generated in the construction, renovation or removal of structures. C&D debris may include concrete, brick, block, wood, gypsum, asphalt pavement and shingles, metal, miscellaneous plastics, carpet, carpet padding, windows, doors, fixtures, and wood, as well as land-clearing debris.” A note underneath adds that “Carpet and carpet padding are considered construction and demolition materials.” Sorted loads carry their own business rates: “Concrete at Foxhole Only $9.50/ ton,” “Clean Drywall at Foxhole Only $35/ ton,” and “Clean Wood Only $40/ ton,” against the $65.00/ ton weighed rate for a mixed load. On drywall specifically the sheet notes: “Clean drywall (not painted) is accepted at full service sites for recycling; reduced fee rates are available at the Foxhole Landfill.” Two further lines catch renovation loads in particular: “All appliances in commercial, institutional, non-residential vehicles will be charged $10 each,” and, on hazardous material, “Non-residential, commercial and business entities are NOT ELIGIBLE to use the Household Hazardous Waste program due to State and Federal regulations.” Source: the same document as the fee quotation above — Mecklenburg County non-residential fees, July 2026 – June 2027, FY-27-002, Non-Residential-Fees.pdf (mecknc.widen.net), fetched September 3, 2026, HTTP 200. Every rate quoted here is off the non-residential sheet, so it is what a business pays; a resident reads the residential schedule for their own equivalent lines. These are county facility rates and they roll over each July. Checked September 2026.

The practical reading, for anyone loading their own trailer: clean concrete on its own, clean unpainted drywall on its own and clean wood on its own each have a cheaper home than the same material stirred into one heap, because stirring is what makes the whole trailer C&D. Three of those rates are marked Foxhole only, so a sort is also a decision about which site you drive to, and that puts you back on the trailer ladder above.

The hazardous line deserves its own sentence, because renovations turn up exactly the material it covers — old paint, paint thinner, adhesives, half a can of something with the label gone. The county's household hazardous-waste program is for households, and the schedule says plainly that business and commercial entities are not eligible to use it. That material does not go on our truck either, at any price; the short list is further down.

Where a demolition contractor stops and a hauler starts

This is where renovation calls most often reach the wrong company, so it is worth being blunt about it.

704junk loads debris that is already out and loose. Drywall and plaster off a room somebody has stripped, tile and thinset off a floor that has already been lifted, cabinet carcasses out of a kitchen, trim, doors, subfloor, deck boards, the old tub sitting in the side yard, the heap of scrap lumber behind the garage. The crew arrives with a truck, loads what is there, sweeps up after itself and takes it away.

We are not a demolition contractor and we do not pretend to be. Taking a structure down, cutting into anything load-bearing, disconnecting utilities and pulling permits are different trades under different licenses, and they happen before our truck is any use at all. Two categories we decline outright, at any price and for regulatory reasons, are asbestos-containing material and fuel tanks: if an older house is being gutted, get the survey done and the abatement handled by a licensed abatement contractor, and what they leave behind is the part we are for.

One City of Charlotte rule is worth exactly one sentence here, and it is a city rule rather than a county one: the City's bulky-item collection eligibility sheet lists “Any materials resulting from work performed by a commercial contractor” under its Items Not Eligible for Collection heading, which means a curbside set-out was never the route for a pile a crew left behind (bulky-item collection eligibility, charlottenc.gov, read September 3, 2026).

Not sure whether what you have is a hauling job or still somebody else's job? Describe it or send a picture and we will tell you straight, including when the answer is “a contractor first.” Text a photo or call (704) 459-5052.

What else goes on the same truck

Renovations come and go and this is not a renovation company. The same crew and the same truck do the ordinary work all year round: furniture, appliances, mattresses, garage and attic clutter, estate and rental cleanouts, office furniture, sheds and hot tubs, yard debris, and plain household loads with no story behind them at all. Construction and renovation debris is one line on that list, not a separate business.

The full item list and the published rate card are on the home page. If the question is where the material actually ends up once it leaves, that is the Mecklenburg County disposal explainer; if a whole property has to be emptied rather than one room, start at cleanout services.

Our refusal list is short and it exists for regulatory reasons: wet paint, oils, fuels, chemicals, asbestos, medical or biohazard waste, and ammunition cannot go on the truck at any price, and we do not remove fuel tanks. Renovation piles collect exactly those things — a half-used can of primer, a jug of adhesive, a can of solvent off a shelf — so mention it when you reach out. We work around them and take the rest.

Questions that come up

The commercial-rate definition, two prices for one pile, the trailer ladder, and the line between a contractor and a hauler.

Why would the county charge a commercial rate for my own bathroom?

Because the schedule is written about the delivery rather than the debris. Mecklenburg County's non-residential fee schedule says any material delivered in a commercial vehicle, paid for with a commercial credit card, or brought by a vehicle providing services for hire is charged on the commercial schedule — and it names ladder racks, external advertising and multiple visits within a 72 hour period. A borrowed work van with a sign on the door reads as commercial at the booth even when the drywall came out of your own house. The sheet is linked and dated above.

What does a Mecklenburg County center charge for a load of it?

On the July 2026 – June 2027 sheets, the Group 2 flat fee is $45.00 per unit on the non-residential schedule and $25 per unit on the residential one, for the same category of load. Once a load has to be weighed, the non-residential rate is $65.00 per ton with a $36.00 load minimum. A unit is one load, and the sheet's own example is that a loaded vehicle plus a loaded trailer counts as two of them. Both schedules are linked and dated above, and both roll over each July.

How long a trailer will the county take?

Anything over 8 ft has to weigh in and out. Hickory Grove and North Mecklenburg accept trailers 12 ft or smaller and redirect oversized vehicles greater than 12 ft; Compost Central accepts up to 16 ft; the Foxhole Landfill accepts over 16 ft, and directs all trailers 12 ft and longer to the working face after the scales. The county page those come from is linked and dated above.

Is the county open on Saturdays?

The four full-service drop-off centers are, Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The landfill portion at Foxhole is a separate operation and that part is closed on Saturdays — so a load big enough to have to reach the landfill face is a weekday errand, while an ordinary drop-off is not. Individual sites also post their own temporary notices from time to time, which is exactly why the linked county page is worth opening before a long drive rather than trusting a page like this one for it.

Will you knock the wall down first?

No. We haul what is already out. Demolition, anything structural, disconnecting utilities and pulling permits are a licensed contractor's work, and asbestos abatement and fuel-tank removal are jobs we decline outright. Plenty of contractors do the demo and leave the debris where it lands, because hauling is quoted separately — that is precisely the pile we come for.

Do you only take debris from building work?

No. The truck is full-service: furniture, appliances, mattresses, garage and attic clutter, estate and rental cleanouts, sheds, hot tubs, office furniture and ordinary household loads. Debris from a renovation is one line on the list. The item list and the rate card are on the home page.

Send a photo of the pile.

Text a picture of what is out, or just describe it. We come back with a number off the published rate card — and if part of it still needs a contractor, we will say that instead.

Text a photo for a quote Call (704) 459-5052 Online quote form