Guides & advice
13 pieces written for this county and nowhere else — the City ordinance sections that decide what municipal collection will leave at the curb, how to work out which of the county’s thirty subdivisions your address actually sits in, why there are three fire codes inside seven miles, and the sizing arithmetic that clay and shingle weight impose on a loaded truck.
All guides
Every one of them was written for this county. They quote the City of Saginaw’s Chapter 50 by section and date-stamp it, set out MISS DIG’s own Michigan vocabulary rather than the national version of it, explain the asbestos notification that still applies when there is no asbestos, and say plainly where the sourcing ran out.
City Code § 50.06 names eleven categories the City’s refuse collection will not pick up — and subsections (C) and (I) between them reach nearly everything a renovation produces. Here it is by subsection, with its amendment history, and a plain statement of where it stops.
Read the guideTwo addresses reading “Saginaw, MI 48601” sit in two different units of government. The county has 30 subdivisions, 3 cities, 27 townships and 5 villages inside townships — and we cannot establish which one our own street is in either.
Read the guideMichigan’s statewide fire code is NFPA 1, 2006 edition — not the IFC — and one clause switches it off wherever a local code exists. The City of Saginaw runs the 2024 International Fire Code, Saginaw Charter Township the 2018 edition, and for one township next door we could not find an answer at all. Here is the map, and here is why there is no separation distance on this page.
Read the guideCity Code § 50.05 puts the ceiling of municipal refuse service into three numbers and then bans the containers people actually use for debris. Here are the numbers, the prohibited-container list, and the charge-back mechanism — without the amount we did not read.
Read the guideMichigan’s dig-safe law is 2013 PA 174, and it does not use the words a national template expects. Notice is at least 72 hours and not more than 14 calendar days. The protected band is a caution zone, 48 inches. Here are the correct figures with the sections they come from — and an honest account of where a container fits in.
Read the guideA demolition in Michigan is notifiable even when the building contains no asbestos at all — and the four-unit residential exemption falls away where the work is publicly or commercially driven. Ten working days’ notice, $100 per original notification under MCL 324.5519(3), and the name of the inspector who covers Saginaw County.
Read the guideMichigan’s landfill prohibitions are not a uniform list, and summarizing them produces false statements. Here is EGLE’s list entry by entry — plus the ten-tire threshold, the license Michigan does not issue, and why the City’s rules are a separate question.
Read the guideFor a container on your own driveway we found no City of Saginaw permit provision. For a container in a City street we could not establish whether one is required or who issues it. Here are the sections we read, what each actually governs, and the number to call.
Read the guideThe sizing question has a prior question attached: what City Code § 50.06 says the City will not collect. Here are the five sizes, the weight limit that overrides volume, job-by-job guidance, and what we will not put a number on.
Read the guideRoofing is the one common job that runs out of lawful weight long before it runs out of space, which is why a tear-off never goes in a 30 yard or a 40 yard container. What actually moves the number, and the local hook: City Code § 50.06(C) names shingles among the materials the City of Saginaw will not collect.
Read the guideA loaded container reaches a driveway as lines and points, not as a spread-out weight. Here is what the lake-plain ground around Saginaw actually is, what firm and soft look like without any soil data, where the plywood goes — and why there is no bearing capacity, frost depth, water-table figure or flood zone anywhere on this page.
Read the guideThere is no price on this site, and this page explains why — then sets out what actually moves the number: the statutory per-ton surcharge, the weight limit that overrides volume, the City ordinance that makes containment a cost question, and the notification fees.
Read the guideAn estate cleanout is two jobs wearing one name, and the City of Saginaw’s refuse ordinance deals with them in two different sections. § 50.06 refuses the building half outright; § 50.05 caps the household half at 35 gallons, 50 pounds and 20 bags a week, and bans cardboard boxes. A working order for the job, and the awkward items one at a time.
Read the guideTalk to a real person
The guides take the reasoning as far as public records took us. For the part that depends on your own address — the material, the access, and which government is actually over you — call (989) 272-9034 and we will work through it with you.
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