Skip Hire Blog

Our founder and Managing Director, Mark Attwood, has been unveiled as one of the Crain’s “40 Under 40” Class of 2008 - an annual list of 40 people who have achieved success in business before turning 40.

Mark said: “It’s a great honour for everyone involved with TopSkips to be recognized in this way. The award is as much for my partners Katy Attwood and Kenny Goodman, and our fantastic team, including Louise Malpas and Steve Wild, as it is for me – especially as most of them will be at the dinner to collect it as we’ll be on holiday!”

“We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved in skip hire over the past five years, and really excited about what we’re going to achieve in skip hire, total waste management, container hire, toilet hire, plant hire and many other projects not yet released to the public in the future!”

For further details on this honour, go to: http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=40

You may already know that Topskips are the only skip hire company in the UK to sponsor a junior basketball team. Well, not content with sponsoring St Paul’s Slammers of Withington, (the Greater Manchester Schools Junior Basketball Champions 2007), Topskips have now moved up an age-group to sponsor… ‘The Warriors’ – also of Withington. Whilst the ‘Slammers’ continue to flourish in the Saturday Morning Primary School League, the Warriors are a team of Year 7 (first year secondary school kids), some of whom were part of the Slammers team who won a string of gold and sliver medals over the past four years.

The Warriors play on Friday night at the John Amaechi Basketball Centre, Whalley Range, in the Year 7&8 League – and although the team comprises of only Year 7’s, they have already punched above their weight by finishing second in the Division 2 Winter League and gaining immediate promotion to Division One. The only downside with that is that, until the Summer, they will find themselves up against teams largely made up of Year 8’s, some of whom are a foot taller than the Warriors! So this is proving the players’ most challenging season since they began playing together as young juniors.

RECENT RESULTS

WARRIORS 36 – PARRS WOOD HEAT 30

In a tough encounter with the Heat who are seasoned competitors in Div One, the Warriors took an early lead and battled hard to keep their noses in front the whole way. Excellent win against more experienced opponents.

TORNADOES 56 – WARRIORS 28

The height of the Tornadoes who might have more been aptly named the ‘Skyscrapers’ always meant they would have the advantage against the Div 1 rookies but the Warriors showed customary grit and did well to put so many baskets past the Tornadoes’ tall defence.

‘SLAMMERS’ (Not St Pauls!) 58 – WARRIORS 36

No, not our Slammers! This Y7/8 outfit seems to have borrowed our young team’s name – and some of their basketball prowess by the look of it. Despite that, the Warriors might have got a lot closer but for some wastefulness in front of the basket. However, once again, it was good to see the Division 1 new boys competing with much larger opponents.

‘I can’t overstate the generosity of Topskips in sponsoring the kits of both our teams. It has made such a difference to the players being well turned-out and wearing kits they like playing in. In Summer 2007, the Slammers played in a series of three tournaments, firstly, the South Manchester Schools Schools Basketball Tournament, then the Manchester Championship and finally the Greater Manchester Tournament (mentioned above)’. They won all three. It was fantastic to take the team to these tournaments, turned out in such a good kit and that wouldn’t have been possible with the help and support of Topskips. Without doubt this contributed to our great success.’ JAMES QUINN, CURRENT COACH OF ‘THE WARRIORS & COACH OF ‘ST PAULS SLAMMERS’ 2003-7.

Are you a shopfitter needing skip hire and other hire services in multiple areas across the UK?

Here's a message from Alex - she wants to save you time and money:

This is what you get with Topskips Hire Services:

- Dedicated account manager
- Single point invoicing – saving you time and money
- Proven track record in fast, efficient, and friendly site services for over 5 years
- ISO:9001 Quality Assurance
- Real testimonials from real people like you. Click here to listen to some that have been recorded for you.

We provide skip hire, muckaways, container hire, portable toilet hire, portable accommodation hire, fencing hire, asbestos removal, plant hire.

Call Alex NOW on 0161 475 2180 (my direct line).

Sam Wall, explains in more detail the prize draw for September

Here's Samantha Wall, Business Development Manager at TopSkips.com, picking the winner of the August prize draw for our Account Customers:

To be in with a chance of winning September's prize draw and going to Prague for the weekend, all you've got to do is sign up to our trade users newsletter (below) and order at least 10 skips during September.

Have you spotted the Topskips Bus in Manchester yet?

she's a beauty:

we can't wait to get complaints about "Dump Your Load"!

Here it is on video:

Take a look at the only kids basketball team to be sponsored by an online skip hire company!

The Slammers, from St Pauls CofE School, are based in Withington, Manchester, and are managed by well-known and superb actor (and father of one of the team) James Quinn. You can see the Topskips logo on their vests if you squint at the video :-) It was our pleasure to supply the boys with a brand new kit when we became aware of the dire need to look good against the opposition.

By a stroke of very strange coincidence, James also appears in the BBC Audiobook and BBC Radio 7 adaptation of a comedy show that Topskips Managing Director, Mark Attwood, produced and directed on a national tour and at the Edinburgh Fringe 06 and 07 (this August): Toby Hadoke's "Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf", also sponsored by Topskips.com!

Many moons ago I was a student journalist and got poached (headhunted?) by a Feature Editor on The Daily Telegraph from my Manchester student magazine to help them create a Student Extra freebie to give out in Universities for free (to combat the problem of an aging readership).

I spent a couple of very happy weeks in London. The first thing I was told by a journalist there was "never let the truth get in the way of a good story", something I always remember whenever I read anything in the media. This, however, is slightly different because it's all true! And very nice PR for a business that I am very proud of (that's right, TopSkips.com). If you would like to read the article online (where, thankfully, there was obviously no space for my picture), just go here.

Skip Hire experts, TopSkips.com, have been accredited the coveted International Quality Standard (ISO9001:2000) for its provision of high quality skip hire services to domestic and commercial customers across the UK and Ireland.

ISO 9001:2000 is an international standard that outlines requirements for an organization’s Quality Management System ("QMS"). It indicates that a supplier has established a systematic approach to quality management. View image

Mark Attwood, TopSkips founder and Managing Director is thrilled with the achievement. "This international standard substantiates our position as the foremost skip hire service in the UK. It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of all our staff; all of whom see quality and customer satisfaction as an integral part of out day-today operations.

“We’ve known for a couple of years that over 88% of our customers, which include tens of thousands of domestic skip hirers as well as hundreds of national and international contractors needing multiple skips in multiple areas, have described our service as “Excellent” or above in response to a questionnaire, but achieving ISO 9001 is a very nice pat on the back as well as giving prospective customers even more confidence that they are dealing with a top quality company”

TopSkips.com was established by husband and wife team Mark and Katy Attwood in Manchester in 2003 as the world’s first fully online skip hire service. In 2005-6 the company grew by 659%. It also publishes a national trade magazine for the skip hire industry called “The Skip” which has seen them appear on numerous BBC TV and Radio stations as skip hire industry experts.

The ISO 9001 accreditation comes on the back of a raft of industry-first innovations, such as:

- TopSkipsTV – online streaming video demonstrations of skips in action to help people get the right skip sizes more easily

- Skip Hire Blog – the world’s first blog dedicated to skip hire and waste management (you're reading this article on the blog)

- LivePerson chat help – the first skip hire service to offer live chat help to people online

- The only skip hire website to be verified for online security daily by Hackersafe and Safebuy

The company will also soon be the very first skip hire service where people can book and pay for their skip hire online using Google’s new Checkout service – and if they do, they’ll get an additional £10 off the cost.

Media enquiries contact:

TopSkips Media & Public Relations
Tel: 0161 480 6455 Fax: 0161 480 6456

Email: pr@topskips.com

A Video message to all TopSkips Business Clients from Samantha Wall, Business Development Manager:

Don't forget that the easiest way to keep up to date with developments at TopSkips is to sign up to our email newletter at the bottom of the page here.

Please feel free to email us with any ideas for improving our service, or call Samantha on 0161 480 6455.

If you've got a minute, please take part in our client satisfaction survey here.

By "skips for hire" we assume you mean the hire of large metal containers for the pupose of disposing of a lot of waste, as opposed to the borrowing of a salty corn-based snack food popular in 1970s Britain? If so, then you are in the right place! Go to our skip hire homepage for everything you need to know about skips for hire!

Good question! In the UK, the average cost of skip hire is £175 including VAT (and the average skip size is 8 cubic yards - we call it a large builders' skip).

The price does vary from area to area hugely. To get a quote for where you live call us on freephone 08000 82 10 82 or access our online price calculator by registering with our online skip hire service here or email us with a
.

It doesn't get any easier to hire a skip than at Topskips.com.

- You can speak to a skip hire expert on freephone 08000 82 10 82 (or use our LiveChat service if you prefer to "messenger").

- You can view skip hire videos if you're not sure about what skip size you need (always better to see a real person standing next to them).

- You can order and pay online anytime on our safe and secure skip hire server.

Could skip hire get any easier?

You can rent a skip here for anywhere in the UK for any skip size at any time. We prefer the term "skip hire", but skip rental is just as acceptable as it's the same thing really!

Call us free for a quote on 08000 19 24 10, or order online anytime of day or night on our secure and safe server.

We have tonnes of references and lots of safety features, as well as being skip hire industry experts - check our skip hire homepage or skip hire videos for more details.

It depends on the size of skip, the type of waste and whether the skip is going on a public highway (it'll need a skip permit in that case).

The simple answer can be found by call us on freephone 08000 82 10 82, or accessing our online price calculator to get an accurate price out of office hours by registering with us here (you can then also book and pay for your skip online on our safe and secure server).

Click here for more info on Skip Hire Croydon

Skip hire costs depend on plenty of factors, not least of which is where you live. The price can not only vary from postcode to postcode (sometimes even on the same street!), but also the size of the skip required, the type of waste you intend to put into the skip, whether the skip is going to be on a public highway...the list goes on.

If you are in a hurry and need a quote for a skip now, call us on freephone 08000 82 10 82 or register with us to access our online skip hire price calculator.

Alternatively, if you are interested to know more about why skips cost what they do and why you should care about where your waste is going, take a look at our skip costs and skip hire prices pages.

We go into even more detail in our free email guide "The Seven Secrets to Successful Skip Hire".

Then I've some bad news for you - you ain't gonna find it. If you have paint pots you need to get rid of, you should dispose of them at your local authority tip / recycling facility.

Paint pots are simply something that responsible skip hire companies cannot accept because they infect the rest of the waste and make it impossible to recycle or landfill.

If you need further advice, email us here or call a skip hire expert on 08000 19 24 10.

Topskips, my wife Katy and my beautiful daughter Daisy all got a mention in The Guradian today in an article about how having a baby can be detrimental to your career. Read it online here:

There's no picture with the online article, but they did publish one that they sent a photographer round to take yesterday that you can see here:

Good question: how much should I pay to hire a skip? It's exactly the same question I asked when I set up Topskips.com in 2003. The answer is not that simple and depend on many factors. I have put a lot of the questions and answers in a free 7 part email guide called "The 7 Secrets to Successful Skip Hire" (there is an option to read them all in one go) or you can simply register with us - this gives you access to our online skip hire price calculator.

Also, take a look at our skip hire video guides on Topskips TV.

Do you want to know everything about ordering skips? It's dead easy at Topskips. You can talk or live chat with a skip hire expert on freephone 08000 19 24 10 Mon-Fri 0830-1730, or order online on our safe and secure server 24/7. You can even watch our skips in video action on Topskips TV before you order your skip hire.

We got asked this yesterday: what's the best way to fill a skip?

Well, I think it's down to personal perference and what you are actually filling the skip with.

If it's lightweight stuff, just chuck it in. If it's soil, you're going to need either a plank, a skip ramp, or a skip with a drop door (because the weight of soil will prohibit you from doing anything else). The maximum sized skip you can use for soil is an 8 yard builders skip because the weight of a skip filled with soil any bigger than this is impossible, and illegal, to carry on a skip wagon.

If you need a skip with a drop door - just ask one of our skip hire experts on 08000 19 24 10 - we can usually arrange these given a bit of notice.

This is a common question about wait and load in london because of the high charges encountered with skip hire in London (as compared to the rest of the UK) due to council skip permits/licenses, the congestion charge and the lack of space.

Topskips can provide wait and load skip hire in London and anywhere in the UK - just call us for a quote on 08000 19 24 10.

- Risk-free skip hire
- No Quibble Guarantee
- Order with Complete Peace of Mind

Well known in our industry for providing fast, reliable skip hire service, we know we only give our customers the best quality service possible. However, if in the unlikely event that your skip arrives more than 24 hours late or in the extremely unlikely event that there may be some damage caused by delivery of the skip, we will fully refund the cost of your skip hire accordingly.

In the case of damage being caused we will need photographic evidence to process your refund.

Please allow 28 working days for refunds to appear back on your balance.

Email here , for money back claims, queries and more information.

In placing your order with Topskips, you can rest assured that you are fully protected by this guarantee, giving you total peace of mind.

Topskips is a name you can trust.

This question was asked of me today, and here's the answer: it depends where you live. For a quote you should call 08000 19 24 10, or reigister and login using the tabs at the top of the page to access our online price calculator.

The perfect present? Of course! Who do you know that doesn't have a load of waste to get rid of?!

Our Free Skip Hire vouchers can be delivered by post or by email - all you've got to do is tell us what sized skip is required and at which address - we'll then send out a voucher containing a unique code that the recipient quotes when they contact us to redeem the voucher. It's that simple!

The cost of our "Free Skip Hire" Vouchers depend on the postcode area in which the skip will be delivered and the size of the skip required. To get a good idea of sizes etc, go to Topskips TV here The prices vary from £39 to £300.

Call us for a quote on 08000 82 10 82 today or send us an email enquiry here.

The Topskips Gift Voucher is valid for any sized skip in any area of the UK. It's a great idea if you're looking for a unique and unusual gift idea, or ideas for unusual christmas gifts, or just looking for gift vouchers that are different and original. You might be looking for unusual gifts for men, vouchers, christmas gift ideas for men, gift ideas for christmas, best christmas gift ideas, gift vouchers, corporate gift ideas for christmasgreat christmas gift ideas for your man, unusual xmas gifts, christmas gifts unusual, unusual gifts uk, cool unusual christmas gifts, gardening gifts uk, corporate business gifts uk, unusual garden gifts - whatever; the Topskips "Free Skip Hire" Voucher is exactly that!

Skip hire market innovators Topskips.com have launched another world first – Topskips TV.

For the first time ever, users can see and hear (rather than read) everything they need to know about skip hire across the UK in glorious video technicolour.

The videos show Managing Director of Topskips.com, Mark Attwood, demonstrate the sizes and uses of all the most popular skips as well as answering the most frequently asked questions about Topskips national skip hire service.

Topskips TV follows on from the world’s first Skip Hire Blog, and the world’s first fully online skip hire ordering system, all available at www.topskips.com.

These innovations are just part of why Topskips Ltd grew by a staggering 679% in 2005/6, and why growth is set to explode in 2007. Topskips servces hundreds of happy trade clients that need multiple skips organising in multiple areas with single-point invoicing, online order tracking and dedicated account managers offering world class service and cost savings due to bulk buying power.

For companies looking to get proof of recycling rates to show to their shareholders as the environmental issue gets even hotter next year, Topskips will also be launching an innovative recycling tracking system in the new year.

Topskips has been established since 2003 and is rapidly becoming a market leader in the provision of national skip hire and waste management services for the constuction industry and the public at large. The company also publishes the only trade magazine dedicated to the skip hire industry in the UK and Ireland – “The Skip” (www.theskip.net).

For further details, call 08000 19 24 10.

This was an interesting question posed to me the other day, and the answer simply is "dumpsters" - although these do not take the format we're used to in the UK and Ireland. In fact, our skips really originate from Germany, whereas the word "skip" derives from the word "skep" which pertains to a basket used by beekeepers. See here for more details from an article we published in The Skip magazine in Feb 06.

I don't know too much about dumpsters in the US, although I was on the look out for them on a recent trip to Chicago. I guess this link is the closest America has to topskips.com - when we enter that market, that's who we'll be competing against! (Once we've conquered Europe of course :-))

Skip Hire finally gets some good PR: I was interviewed on no less than 24 BBC radio stations in August (including Jeremy Vine on Radio 2) about a survey from gumtree.com that found that 52% of Britons admitted to dumping stuff into other people's skips. This is something that has actually happened to me (even skip hire bosses aren't immune) and something I feel very strongly is tantamount to theft - someone else has paid for the cubic yardage and to have that waste responsibly disposed of.

My solution is education: that's why I plugged "The Seven Secrets to Successful Skip Hire" available at TopSkips.com. It was also great PR for "The Skip" magazine - we had an amazing amount of feedback from people. Strange thing is, there were only supposed to be about 10 interviews but there must be some system at the BBC that says "this is a good story" or whatever, because every time I finished one interview there was a call from another station trying to fit me in to their Breakfast programme. I think I ended up being on air somewhere in the country between 6.50am and 3pm. Absolutely exhausting, but good fun and nice to know the BBC will think of Topskips as the voice of national skip hire matters.

“The 7 Secrets to Successful Skip Hire”

How to avoid the nightmare of a bad skip hire experience,
help the environment and save money

At some point in our lives, with some of us even more so, we all need to hire a skip. Whether it’s for a spring clear-out, ripping out a kitchen or bathroom, that new extension or garden waste - skips are often a great way of getting rid in one easy go.

Well, that’s the theory!

“The 7 Secrets to Successful Skip Hire” is a free guide from Topskips – the UK’s number one online national skip hire service.

In it, we answer the same questions we used to ask ourselves when we tried to hire skips around the country:

How can I tell which skip companies in the Yellow Pages are the good ones?
You can’t, but we’ll tell you what you need to look out for.

Why do skips cost so much money?
The killer question – we’ve got the answer.

Why isn’t my skip dropped off and picked up when I ask for it?
Lots of reasons; and it’s not the skip company doing it deliberately to annoy you.

Why do I get quoted so many different prices for the same service from different companies?
You don’t get the same service from different companies!

Why won’t my local skip company take a credit card or even tell me prices over the phone?
It’s mainly a historical thing – we’ll explain it all.

Why won’t they take the skip away if the rubbish is just over the fill line?
It’s the law.

What actually happens to my rubbish when they take it away?
A question you really should be asking. We’ll tell you why.

TopSkips.com serves tens of thousands of happy customers with a smooth and carefree skip hire experience, and are committed to taking the guesswork out of skip hire. Even if you never use their service, this guide will ensure that you know everything you need to know about successful skip hire.

Just fill out your name and email address in the form at here – we’ll then send you a verification email (we don’t want to send anything without your explicit permission). Just respond to that, and then sit back and relax while we send the secrets to you over the next seven days.