Hiring the machine yourself, or getting a contractor in

Plenty of landholders weigh up hiring a machine for a weekend against getting a contractor in. Sometimes dry hire is the right call. Often the sums are not what people expect once everything is counted.

What gets left out of the comparison

Float or trailering both ways, fuel, your own time, the day you lose learning the machine, and the risk of damage to the machine, your fences, your tanks and your drainage. On steep or rocky ground, add the risk to you.

Output per day is the real number

An experienced operator in the right machine will cover ground several times faster than someone who has not run one before, and will leave a better finish. Two days of hire at half the output is not cheaper than one day of an operator who does it every week.

Matching the machine to the job

Hire yards rent what they have, not necessarily what your job needs. A mini excavator will not slash a paddock, and a small slasher will bounce over woody regrowth all day without cutting it. Using the wrong tool is the most common reason a DIY job gets abandoned half done.

Insurance and liability

A contractor carries public liability and their own machinery cover. On dry hire, damage and any consequence of the work usually sits with you, and that is worth reading properly before you sign.

When dry hire does make sense

Small, flat, simple jobs where you have run gear before, no time pressure, and nothing expensive nearby to damage. Tidying a house yard, moving a bit of soil, cleaning up after a build.

When it does not

Anything with slope, rock, dense woody growth, a compliance deadline, native vegetation questions, or a finish standard someone else is going to inspect. That is when you want a machine, an operator and the paperwork all arriving together.

Got a job in mind? Send your address and we'll come out, have a look, and put a written quote together. No obligation.