Lakefront Property Cleanouts in Lakeland, Florida

Twelve percent of Lakeland is water. The City counts 38 named lakes inside the city, running from Lake Blanton at about two and a half acres to Lake Parker at 2,272 acres by the City's own figure. The town is named for them. People buy here because of them.

All of which means that a cleanout on a lakefront lot in Lakeland is not an ordinary cleanout. Where the container sits, how it is loaded, and what runs off it are questions with a downstream answer. We have been setting boxes on these lots out of our yard on Combee Road since 2014, and lakefront work has its own set of rules of thumb.

Here is how we approach it.

The lakes are connected, and that changes the job

This is the part most people do not know. Lakeland's lakes are not 38 separate ponds. Many of them are interconnected through the City's stormwater drainage system. The City's own framing is the clearest way to put it: what happens upstream can have significant impacts downstream.

Follow the water. Rain that falls on a driveway on the north side of town runs into a storm drain, through the lake system, out through Saddle Creek and eventually into the Peace River. Lakeland sits at 203 feet, near the top of a watershed rather than the bottom of one. Nothing washes in from somewhere else. Everything washes out.

So a container leaking drywall slurry or demolition dust into a storm drain in Lakeland is not a private matter between you and your driveway. It goes into a named lake, and quite possibly a different one from the one in your back yard. The City runs a Lakes and Stormwater Division within Public Works that monitors water quality on major lake systems and manages levels on a set of lakes within ranges set by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Both agencies publish on this: the City of Lakeland and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

We do not publish a setback, and here is why

Every so often a customer asks us how far from the water a dumpster has to be. We are not going to make up a number, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does.

We could not find a published City of Lakeland ordinance setting a specific shoreline setback or buffer for placing a container near a lake. That does not mean nothing applies to your lot. It means the honest answer is that the rule, if there is one for your situation, is not something we can quote you. Deed restrictions, HOA covenants, an existing stormwater easement, or a state Environmental Resource Permit tied to work on the property can all reach the same question from different directions.

What we do instead is simple and conservative. We place away from the water, on a hard surface, on the street side of the lot wherever a hard surface exists. If the only workable spot on your property is close to the shoreline, call the City's Lakes and Stormwater group in Public Works and ask before delivery day. It is one phone call and it settles the question properly.

Where a loaded box can and cannot sit

Weight is the whole issue. A loaded 20 yard container plus the truck that places it is a serious point load, and a lakefront lot is the worst place in Polk County to guess about bearing.

The driveway is the answer, almost always

Lakeland's ground is deep, well-drained sand on the high side of the peninsula. It compacts poorly. Concrete spreads the load and sand does not. On a lakefront lot we want the container on the driveway or a paved apron, with plywood under the rails and under the wheel paths, and we want the truck squared on pavement rather than half over a soft shoulder.

The lakeside yard is where lots go wrong

The ground between a house and a Lakeland lake is usually the softest ground on the property. It sits lower, it holds water longer, and in the rainy season it may not fully dry out between afternoon storms for weeks. Grass over saturated sand has almost no bearing capacity. A loaded box will settle into it, and the truck has to cross the same ground three times to place and retrieve the container.

What you get back is ruts, a compacted strip that will not regrow, and disturbed soil sitting on a slope that runs to the water. That last part is the one that matters. Bare, loosened sand next to a lake is sediment waiting for the next thunderstorm.

What we will decline

We will not set a loaded container on saturated ground on a slope down to the water, and we will not run the truck across a lakeside lawn after a wet week to do it. That is not caution for its own sake. It is the difference between a job and a recovery.

Keeping debris and runoff out of the lake

Once the box is placed, a handful of habits do most of the work.

• Tarp the container every night, and any time you leave the site. From June through September Lakeland gets most of its rain in afternoon thunderstorms. A covered box does not overflow, does not shed floating debris, and does not put water weight on your load.
• Load below the rim, level and flat. Debris above the rim blows off and rolls off, and on a lakefront lot the direction it travels is downhill.
• Keep the fines out of the open. Drywall dust, sawdust, ash and dirt are what actually reach the water. Bag them or wet them down. Do not sweep the driveway toward the lake or into a storm drain.
• Never wash out tools or buckets on the drive. Mortar, joint compound, paint and stain rinse water goes into a container for proper disposal, not down the slope.
• Sweep, do not hose. At the end of each day, sweep loose material up and put it in the box.
• Watch the storm drain. If there is an inlet on your frontage, do not stage anything over it and do not let debris pile beside it.

Those are also good habits on a lot with no water in sight. They just matter more here.

One more reason to keep the load covered on a lake lot: light material floats. Foam board, packing peanuts, plastic sheeting, insulation scraps and shingle wrappers will find water faster than anything heavy does, and once they are on the surface of a lake somebody has to go get them.

Access on narrow lakefront lanes

The older lakefront streets in Lakeland were laid out long before anyone was planning for a roll-off truck. Around Lake Morton, Lake Hollingsworth and Lake Hunter you get narrow pavement, no shoulder, mature oaks hanging low over the road, and driveways barely wider than a car. Around Lake Bonny, Lake Gibson and parts of Lake Parker you get long private drives, some of them unpaved, running from the road down toward the water.

A few things we need to know before we load the truck:

On the tightest lakefront blocks we will often recommend a smaller container and a second pull rather than a 30 that cannot be placed cleanly. That is not upselling in reverse, it is just what works. Sizing is on our dumpster sizes page.

If the container has to go in the street

Sometimes the lot simply will not take it. In Lakeland, the street is right-of-way, and the City is unusually specific about containers.

The City states that any work within the City right-of-way, of any nature, requires a Right-of-Way Use Permit through the Public Works Engineering Division before work begins. The permit provisions name dumpsters and solid waste roll-off containers explicitly. The City reserves the authority to require removal from an on-street parking space on 24 hours notice, at the permittee's expense. Published fee tiers are no fee, $250 and $500, and notifying Sunshine 811 at least 48 hours ahead is a written condition of the permit.

On a narrow lakefront lane, a container in the street is also a sight-line and a traffic issue, so expect the City to have a view. Our guide to dumpster permits in Lakeland walks the whole path.

What comes out of a lakefront cleanout

Lakefront properties produce a specific mix. Dock and boathouse material, old seawall caps, boat lifts, marine batteries, fuel cans, fishing gear, pool and spa equipment, rotted deck boards, screen enclosure frames and years of yard furniture that never quite got thrown away.

Some of that cannot go in the box. Marine and lead-acid batteries, fuel, motor oil, antifreeze and pool chemicals are household hazardous waste and go to the Polk County facility on Environmental Loop South in Winter Haven at (863) 284-4319, free to non-commercial residents. Tires are handled separately. Pressurized tanks, bulk liquids and asbestos are not accepted at the landfill at all.

Treated lumber from a dock or deck is ordinary construction debris for disposal purposes, and it cannot be burned anywhere in Florida. Neither can roofing material or anything else off a demolition. Inside the Lakeland city limits, burning yard debris is prohibited outright, which is one more reason lakefront clearing here means a container. And after a storm, the mix changes again, which we cover in our article on storm debris cleanup in Lakeland.

Seawall and dock work adds one more layer. If the project itself involves the shoreline, dredging or a structure over the water, there is a state permitting path through the Southwest Florida Water Management District that has nothing to do with the container but everything to do with your schedule. Sort that out first. We can deliver a box the same week, but nobody wants a container sitting full on a driveway waiting on an approval.

What to tell us when you call

Give us the lake, the street, the driveway surface, how far the house sits from the water, and whether the drive is paved all the way in. Tell us what is coming out and whether any of it is dock or seawall material. If you are outside the city limits in unincorporated Polk, say so, because the permit answer changes.

Call Blue Swan Dumpster Rental at (863) 267-9087. We will place it where it belongs, put boards under it, and tell you plainly if the spot you have in mind is not one we are willing to use.