How to Get Rid of a Shed in Leeds: Costs 2026

By Sandeep KV, Founder of Kruze

Before anything else: if your shed or its roof was built before 2000, check it for asbestos. Old shed and garage roofs were commonly corrugated asbestos cement sheeting, and plenty of it is still sat on gardens across Leeds. Intact and undisturbed, it is low risk. Broken with a hammer, cut with an angle grinder or dropped off a roof, it releases fibres that cause incurable disease decades later. Do not break it up. Do not put it in a skip. Get it tested first.

With that said, here are your options, cheapest first:

1. Free, and you might get paid. Sell it or give it away, if it is sound. Good sheds go on Facebook Marketplace with the buyer dismantling.
2. Free. Dismantle it and take it to a Leeds tip across several car loads. Timber, felt and metal go to different containers.
3. Free, with a wait. Leeds City Council’s unwanted items collection lists garden waste and wood among the things it takes, but garden sheds are on its excluded list, so ask before you count on it. One free collection per financial year, up to five items.
4. £108 to £168. Kruze dismantles it and takes it away. 4x6ft £108, 4x8ft £144, 6x12ft £168.
5. £246 upwards. Skip hire, if you are dismantling it yourself as part of a bigger job.
6. Specialist, quoted separately. Asbestos removal, if the roof is cement sheeting. We do not touch it ourselves, we broker it to a licensed asbestos specialist.

The asbestos question, properly answered

What you are looking for. Grey corrugated cement sheets on the roof, often with a wide profile and a slightly dimpled underside. Also cement flue pipes, gutters, downpipes, and the flat sheets sometimes used behind a workbench or as a firebreak against a house. Asbestos in a shed is almost always asbestos cement, meaning fibres bound into cement, rather than the loose insulating board that is far more dangerous.

How to tell. You cannot, reliably, by looking. Nobody can. Asbestos cement and modern fibre cement look near identical from six feet away, and age is a clue rather than proof. The ban came in two stages, which is why the dates confuse people. Blue and brown asbestos, crocidolite and amosite, were banned in the UK in 1985. White asbestos, chrysotile, is the type used in cement sheeting, and it was not banned until the Asbestos (Prohibitions) (Amendment) Regulations 1999 came into force on 24 November 1999. So a shed built after 2000 is very likely clear, and anything from the 1960s through to the 1990s deserves suspicion. Work with asbestos today sits under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. The only real answer is a sample tested by a UKAS-accredited laboratory.

What you must never do to it:

• Break it, smash it, or drop it off the roof.
• Cut or drill it with power tools. An angle grinder is the worst thing you can do to it.
• Sand it, wire brush it, or jet wash it.
• Burn it. Fire does not destroy asbestos, it just distributes it.
• Put it in a skip. Ours prohibit asbestos and so does every other operator’s. Asbestos waste is hazardous waste once the material is 0.1% asbestos or more, and hazardous waste needs its own route and its own paperwork.
• Put it in a bin, or take it to a tip that has not agreed to accept it in advance.

What happens instead. Two things surprise people here.

The first is that a shed roof is not licensed work. Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, taking down asbestos cement sheeting is non-licensed work, provided it is removed carefully and not broken up. It only becomes notifiable non-licensed work if the material is already substantially damaged, or if the way you are removing it will break it up. HSE licences are for sprayed coatings, lagging and most insulating board. They were never about garage and shed roofs.

The second is that the Regulations are aimed at work activities, so they land on employers and contractors rather than on a householder pulling apart their own shed. That is not permission. HSE’s own line is that you should not repair or remove asbestos yourself if you have not been trained for non-licensed asbestos work, and UKHSA does not recommend DIY removal without advice.

So “legal” and “sensible” are different words here, and the gap between them is where people get hurt. If you do handle it, that means keeping it wet, unscrewing rather than snapping fixings, never letting a sheet break, and wrapping it properly.

Then you have to get rid of it, and in Leeds there is exactly one door. Kirkstall waste transfer station takes household asbestos by appointment only. You email asbestos@leeds.gov.uk with at least 48 hours notice, you must be a Leeds resident, no trade waste, and every piece has to be double wrapped in strong polythene of at least 1000 gauge and sealed with strong broad tape or it is refused at the gate. It is not free. At the time of writing the council charges from £72.31 for up to 200kg. Your nearest tip is not an option, and neither is turning up unannounced.

My honest advice: pay a specialist asbestos contractor. The law not forcing you to is precisely the trap. It is one of the few jobs where the DIY saving is tens of pounds and the downside is measured in decades.

To be clear about what Kruze does. We do not remove or carry asbestos ourselves. Our registration CBDU597687 covers us as a carrier, broker and dealer, and on asbestos we act purely as the broker. That means we arrange a licensed asbestos specialist to do the removal and disposal properly, and you get the hazardous waste consignment note from that job as your proof it was handled legally. If we turn up for a shed and find the roof is cement sheeting, we stop, tell you, and sort the specialist out. Then we come back for the timber once the roof has gone. What nobody should do is put it in a skip or a general van load. Anyone who offers to just chuck it in the van is telling you where it is going to end up.

Could somebody else want it?

Here is the part where I talk you out of paying us.

A sound shed is worth real money to somebody. New sheds are not cheap, and there is a steady market in second-hand ones for people who will happily spend a Saturday taking one apart to save themselves a good chunk of that. If yours has a solid floor, sound corner posts and a roof that does not sag, list it on Facebook Marketplace as collection only, buyer dismantles.

Be honest in the listing. Photograph the base, the worst corner, and the roof from the inside where the daylight shows. A buyer who drives over and finds the floor rotten will leave, and you will have wasted a week.

When it is genuinely scrap: you can push a screwdriver into the bearers, the corner posts have gone at ground level, or the roof sags. Sheds fail from the ground up, so check the bottom 30cm first.

Felt, treated timber and why it is not simple firewood

Somebody always decides the answer to an old shed is a bonfire. It is not, for two reasons.

Roofing felt is bitumen. It burns filthy. Government guidance is plain that you cannot get rid of household waste if doing so causes pollution or harms people’s health, and that includes burning it. On top of that, the council has to investigate smoke and fumes that could be a statutory nuisance, and it can serve an abatement notice if the neighbours ring in. Ignoring one of those is where the fines start. Felt is general waste, it is not recyclable, and it needs peeling off the roof boards before the timber can be recycled at all.

Shed timber is treated timber. Almost all of it is pressure or dip treated with preservative, and older sheds may have creosote on them, which has been off limits to consumers since the Creosote (Prohibition on Use and Marketing) Regulations 2003 came into force on 30 June 2003. Burning it puts the preservative into the smoke and your garden. Not in a fire pit, and never in a log burner.

Leeds recycling centres do take wood, so shed timber has a home. Put it wherever the site directs you rather than in whichever container looks obvious, because sites sort wood their own way. Everything else splits too: felt and wrapped glass as general waste, nails and hinges as scrap metal, base as hardcore.

Dismantling it yourself

Two people, two to four hours on a 6x8ft, in this order:

1. Empty it completely. This takes twice as long as expected, and the paint tins and solidified cement are separate disposal problems anyway.
2. Strip the felt off the roof boards while they are still on the shed. Doing it on the ground is worse.
3. Roof panels off. Two people, one each end. This is where the shed becomes unstable, so do it before the walls.
4. Unscrew the walls, do not smash them. Panels come apart at the corner posts. A shed that is broken up rather than unscrewed makes twice the volume and cannot be reused.
5. Floor and bearers. The rottenest part and the heaviest, because wet timber holds a lot of water.
6. Denail everything. Timber with nails sticking out is a hazard for whoever handles it next, including you.

Wear gloves and boots. The two injuries we see on shed jobs are nails through soles and splinters from rotten timber.

Clearing the base

The base is the bit everyone forgets, and it is priced separately because it is far heavier than the shed. Timber bearers lift straight out, sodden and heavy. Paving slabs are the surprise: a stack of twenty against the fence runs to several hundred kilos, which is why they are priced by weight rather than waved through. A poured pad is a breaker job rather than a dismantling job, and goes as hardcore.

Decide up front whether you want the base gone or left. Half the disputes about shed quotes start with one side assuming the slabs are included.

What Kruze charges

Shed removal prices include dismantling, loading, disposal and a waste transfer note under licence CBDU597687:

Garden waste at the same time starts from £24.99. If a lot of general junk is coming out of the shed too, a quarter van load from £50 usually beats itemising everything. Bases and slabs are quoted on weight, starting at £45 for 50kg and £136 for 200kg. More on the shed removal and dismantling service page.

Compare that against a skip. Our 4 yard skip is £246 and an 8 yard is £323, and a skip dismantles nothing, carries nothing, and cannot legally take asbestos. For a shed on its own, a two-person collection is cheaper and finishes the same day. For a full garden rebuild, a skip earns its keep.

FAQs

How much does shed removal cost in Leeds?

Kruze charges £108 for a 4x6ft shed, £144 for a 4x8ft and £168 for a 6x12ft, all including dismantling, loading and licensed disposal. Garden waste collected at the same time starts from £24.99. Concrete bases and paving slabs are heavy and get quoted separately by weight.

How do I know if my shed roof contains asbestos?

You cannot tell by looking, and neither can anyone else. Grey corrugated cement sheets on a pre-2000 shed are the classic suspect. The only reliable answer is a sample tested by a UKAS-accredited laboratory. Until you know, leave it alone, do not break it, and do not power-tool it.

Can I put asbestos in a skip?

No. Asbestos waste is hazardous waste and is prohibited in every skip, including ours. It also does not go in a bin or into a normal tip visit. In Leeds it means double wrapping in 1000 gauge polythene and a pre-booked, paid appointment at Kirkstall waste transfer station, or a specialist contractor doing the whole job.

Does Kruze remove asbestos?

No, we do not carry it ourselves. We are registered as a carrier, broker and dealer (CBDU597687, upper tier), and on asbestos we act as the broker, meaning we arrange a specialist to remove and dispose of it properly. If we find suspected asbestos cement on a shed roof, we stop and tell you, sort the specialist out, then come back for the timber and the base once the roof has gone.

Can I burn an old shed?

No. Roofing felt is bitumen and burns filthy, and shed timber is treated with preservative, sometimes creosote on older sheds, which goes into the smoke and your soil. A bonfire like that can also bring a statutory nuisance complaint from the council. Felt is general waste and treated timber goes to the tip.

Should I sell my old shed instead?

If the base is solid, the corner posts are sound and the roof does not sag, yes. List it free or cheap on Facebook Marketplace as collection only, buyer dismantles, and photograph the worst corner honestly. Only genuinely rotten sheds, the ones where a screwdriver sinks into the bearers, are worth paying to remove.

Shed coming down? Call or WhatsApp Kruze on 07436 120271 with photos of the shed, roof and base for a fixed quote across Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Harrogate and Barnsley.