Renting Vs. Buying an Excavator

Landscapers, construction workers and even private homeowners sometimes need more heft to help clear away dirt and soil to create a building foundation, swimming pool or other project. While excavators are extremely versatile and useful machines to have, you may not be sure whether you want to buy one right away or if it’s more cost-effective to rent an excavator for your work instead.

Here are some tips to help you determine whether renting or buying an excavator will be the best choice for your needs.

1. Think About Your Budget

First, it’s helpful to think about how much you plan to invest in the project or projects you’re doing. Bear in mind that the costs with rental and purchase are very different. When you rent an excavator, you pay a big fee, but you don’t have to worry about storing, maintaining or repairing the machine. Your responsibility is completed when you return the excavator to the rental site.

Buying an excavator may be more cost-effective over time if you use it often. However, you’ll have to have more money available each month to maintain, repair, store and fuel up your machine.

2. Consider Your Work

If you need a lot of different types of machinery to complete your work, then purchasing an excavator only to have to purchase or rent more machines may not be the best solution. Renting all the equipment you need and returning it may be best. Or maybe you own some of the machinery, but rent an excavator as you need it. 

If the versatility of an excavator would perform a lot of tasks for you, buying one may be the better choice, since you’ll be able to get the most use out of it.

3. Ponder Usage Frequency

When deciding between renting and buying, another crucial consideration is whether you’re going to be using the machine just once or many times over the course of several weeks or months. Clearly, if you need an excavator exactly once for a single day, renting is your best bet. But some slightly longer-term projects may also mean that rental is better than buying, since you won’t need the excavator after you’re done.

However, if you do a lot of projects on a regular basis where an excavator would be handy to have, it may be better to buy it outright so that you always have it when you need it. Renting equipment usually means you have to wait for what you want to become available, and if you’ve got many projects packed into a short amount of time, you don’t have long to wait for a machine.

When you’re ready to shop for construction and power equipment, visit our dealership in Lockport, NY, to view our inventory of new and used excavators and other machinery. We can also help you with financing options and we even provide rental equipment if you need something short-term. Upstate Equipment serves the greater Buffalo metro as well as Amherst, NY.