As a company that provides landscaping services, you have a lot to juggle, from removing debris and smoothing dirt to planting flowers and maintaining walls. These varying responsibilities require different types of construction equipment. For example, if your next project involves clear and level ground before planting, you may need to rent a mini excavator. Or if you need to move materials, such as grass, plants, and mulch, you will probably need a skid steer.
Renting this equipment from BigRentz can help take some tasks off your plate. Not only do we have equipment all over the nation, but we also service our customers’ rentals from start to finish. After you place your order, we follow up with the supplier and ensure delivery and pickup for your requested dates.
Landscaping Industry in Residential and Commercial Settings
Landscaping is vital for both commercial and residential properties. Quality landscaping can improve a property’s value and make it more aesthetically appealing. Using landscaped properties improves our personal wellbeing and quality of life. Landscaping also helps our buildings work in harmony with the natural environment, providing a way of preserving our natural resources despite modern developments. This preservation goes beyond the trees and other plants that form part of any landscaped property. These natural features help conserve the soil, air, and water, allowing us to stay connected to the Earth and its gifts.
An IBISWorld report about landscaping services in the United States, released in October 2017, noted that steady growth in the residential sector has fueled demand for landscaping services over the last five years. It expects continued growth at least until 2022 corresponding to confidence in the residential real estate market. This confidence and greater levels of disposable income have encouraged homeowners to spend money improving their property’s value in a variety of ways, including investing in landscaping.
Landscaping companies can use a variety of techniques to meet the demand for their services and maintain their business through the changing seasons. These measures include:
- Hiring additional staff, either permanent or for short-term contracts
- Using workflow management solutions to increase efficiency
- Renting landscaping equipment
Renting Landscaping Equipment
Landscape contractors enjoy several benefits when they rent, rather than buy, their landscape equipment. Landscape businesses might use rental equipment to supplement their existing fleet or for all their landscaping needs. These are just some of the benefits renters enjoy.
- Save money: Renting doesn’t incur the substantial up-front costs of purchasing new landscaping equipment. Landscape professionals that rent also save money on maintenance and repairs.
- Save time: Rental companies are responsible for their own equipment maintenance and repairs, so a landscape business that uses them saves a substantial amount of time. The time saved can be better spent servicing clients, rather than machinery.
- Enjoy access to cutting-edge equipment: Landscaping equipment is constantly evolving. The latest equipment works more efficiently with less effort for better results. Keeping pace with new technology when you buy new requires a substantial financial investment. While old equipment can be sold, businesses usually take a loss due to depreciation. However, the best rental companies always have the latest equipment for their customers to give themselves a competitive edge.
- Make business more flexible: Businesses who rent their landscape equipment can get the specialized equipment they need for each job. During periods of high demand, they can rent extra equipment to get the job done. Similarly, during slow periods they can scale back their rentals to conserve money.
With so many benefits, it’s easy to see why so many landscaping business owners prefer to rent their equipment.
Commonly Used Equipment in This Sector
Landscaping businesses rely on a variety of different equipment to work efficiently and get the best results. Their equipment helps them create new landscapes and improve existing ones. Some equipment is used seasonally, like tools for planting new plants during the spring and equipment for cleaning gardens in the late summer and fall. These are some of the pieces of equipment most commonly used by landscape gardening companies:
- Excavators: These versatile construction vehicles feature a driving base, with a cab for the operator, and a boom arm with a digging attachment. The operator controls the arm and the excavator’s movements around the job site. Landscapers use excavators to clear and level ground, often before building retaining walls or water features, grading soil for better draining, and digging holes for planting trees or installing fence posts.
- Skid steers: These large construction vehicles pick up and move materials, including mulch, grass, plants, seeds, hay bales, and snow, from one part of a job site to another. They have large buckets on the front connected by two hydraulic arms to their bases. Skid-steer operators sit in enclosed cabs behind their arms. They control their skid steer’s movements around a job site and the movement of the arms. Skid steers with detachable buckets are the most versatile. The buckets on these machines can be switched out for other attachments, like brooms, forklifts, and ground clearing attachments.
- Brush cutters and grass trimmers: Brush cutters and grass trimmers are two different types of stick trimmers. While they can both tame a landscape, they are used a little differently. Grass trimmers can make small, delicate lawns that are too long for mowing neat and tidy. Brush cutters are meant for industrial purposes, so they suit larger spaces and hardier vegetation.
- Chainsaws: These handheld tools help landscapers trim tree branches. They feature metal teeth attached to a rotating chain that travels around a guide bar and cuts through wood. Chainsaws are either powered by gas, batteries, or electricity.
- Edgers: Gas-powered and electric edgers help landscapers create neat edges by removing grass runners encroaching on concrete paths, pavers, and other hard surfaces. Modern features like depth control and guide wheels make new edgers more user-friendly.
- Concrete cutters: These tools quickly and easily cut through concrete. Landscapers might use them to break up existing concrete on a site needing remodeling, so it can be easily transported for removal. They might also use a concrete cutter to cut up concrete for garden paths, retaining walls, and landscape borders. Powerful wheeled cutters are typically preferred, as they are faster and more accurate, but handheld concrete saws may be used if wheeled cutters aren’t practical on particular job sites.
- Augers and drills: Augers and drills can create holes in the ground for planting new plants and trees and installing posts for fencing and decking.
- Pressure washers: These handheld tools expel a concentrated stream of water, allowing them to effectively clean hard surfaces like paved, tiled, or concreted paths and patios. Using a pressure washer is an important part of the site cleanup process for most landscapers.
As the need for landscaping services grows, more landscaping businesses are turning to rental equipment to increase their company flexibility and cut costs. If you’re interested in renting landscaping equipment, trust BigRentz.
