Productivity and profits require the right tool for the job. But that doesn’t mean you have to bear the costs of owning it—not with the growing selection of equipment available for rent today.

By Greg Northcutt

In managing projects to install large underground fuel storage tanks, Jeff Gale has used both company-owned and rented shoring equipment. He much prefers the rental route.

At one time, he worked for a company that purchased a shoring system for a project involving a series of tank installations. The idea, he says, was to use its own trucks to move the shoring system equipment from one site to the next rather than paying the rental business to deliver it each time.

“We tried hauling all that equipment around ourselves,” he recalls. “You need a place to store it at your yard and you need equipment at the yard and on the job site to load and unload all the heavy components. It became a nightmare for us.”

Today, Gale is construction manager for Sheffield Tank Co. of Forest View, IL, which installs fuel tanks at gas stations and fueling centers in and around Chicago, IL. Now, when he needs shoring equipment, he rents slide rail systems from Sunbelt Rentals.

The slide rail system is a vertical sheeting and trench support design that offers a cost-effective alternative to an engineered sheet piling system for short-term projects that require a large clear span excavation. The pre-engineered slide rail system is installed by using an excavator to push steel panels, inserted between vertical rails, down into the ground to form a square or rectangular structure for shoring up the walls of the pit. Once these panels are in position, the excavator then digs out the area within the walls. Additional panels are installed as needed to reach the desired depth of the pit.

Photo: Wacker

Bulb design and ease of use are among the features one should check when renting a light tower.

On one slide rail project, Gale used a Sunbelt Rentals system to protect the walls of a pit measuring 32 feet long, 27 feet wide, and 15 feet deep, without any cross beams. The excavating was required for installing two 12,000-gallon storage tanks.

“Renting is the best way to go for this kind of shoring system,” Gale says. “I make one call to the rental company and give them the dimensions of the hole we’re excavating. Then, they provide the stamped engineering drawings for the project and deliver the side rail system to our job site. The only time we handle the equipment is when we off-load and install it. Once the job is completed, they take the system back and we don’t see it again until the next job.”

Sometimes, when Gale’s own tractor and skid-steer loader aren’t enough to handle the workload, he also rents other machines, like an excavator, backhoe, or skid-steer loader. “It’s not economical for us to make payments and pay maintenance and insurance on equipment we use only occasionally,” he says.

Gale is one of a growing number of grading and excavating contractors who have discovered the advantages of renting not only earthmoving machines but other equipment they need for a specific job but who can’t justify the costs of owning and maintaining year-round.

Rent or Buy
Rental companies offer a broad range of tools and equipment to supplement your primary earthmoving machines—from electrical power units, plate compactors, and pumps to signage, barriers, and security fences.

Renting equipment only as you need it offers a number of advantages, notes Chris Gustafson, Cat Rental Store division manager with Caterpillar Inc. (see sidebar). “The rental industry has been on a growth trend since 1997,” he says. “By utilizing a rental fleet, assets that would be underutilized if you owned them can be put to work in a more cost-effective manner.”

The decision to buy or rent equipment should be based in part on how much you expect to use it, Gustafson notes. “The two biggest drivers are hours of usage and the needed days available,” he says. “After that a significant number of factors come into the equation such as project location and duration, product support needs and capability, and capital availability.”

The demand for rental equipment continues to expand. “The volume of new equipment purchases is shifting from individual companies to rental businesses,” say Michael Kneeland, executive vice president of operations for United Rentals. In the early 1990s, he reports, between about 10% and 12.5% of all new construction equipment production went into the rental market. Last year, this market accounted for about 30% to 35% of new equipment purchases. “By 2010, we expect that figure to be about 50%,” he says. “That’s a significant increase.”

Kneeland suggests several factors to consider when selecting a rental company to meet your equipment needs:

Location. The closer the rental company to your project, the better, especially when it comes to service and repair.

Staff expertise. A knowledgeable staff can point you to the specific type of equipment for your job. What about the service department? What type of training and experience do the technicians have? How fast and how well can they respond if the equipment breaks down on your job site?

Equipment inventory. Not only is newer equipment likely to be more reliable, it probably offers more advanced performance, operation, and convenience features than older models. “We’re continually evaluating and testing the latest products in deciding which ones to offer our customers,” says Kneeland.

Of course, well-maintained equipment tends to be more reliable and productive on the job than equipment in need of service and repair.

Depth of the company. If your jobs take you to different geographic areas, working with regional and national rental companies may pay off with better, timelier service. For example, United Rentals operates branches throughout North America. “All branches are integrated with one computerized system,” Kneeland says. “Any branch can pull up your rental history, which indicates the type of equipment you typically rent and normal length of rentals. That can save you time and help ensure a consistent level of service from one branch to another.”

Here are some of the various types of grading and excavating–related equipment available for rent and some tips on selecting products to match your work needs.

Photo: Rain for Rent

Photo: Rain for Rent

Photo: Rain for Rent

For easier O&M, use the same types of equipment throughout a project.

Shields and Shoring
Brain McDonald is trench shoring market manager for Sunbelt Rentals, based in Charleston, NC. The company offers a wide range of trench and shoring products to protect workers from cave-in, including lightweight aluminum shields, vertical hydraulic shores, and slide rail systems. He’s seen both sales and rental activity of these products pick up over the past five years.

“More and more contractors are appreciating the need for trench shoring to improve job-site safety,” McDonald says. “Unless you do the same type and size of excavation job over and over again, it’s often more economical to rent shoring equipment as you need it rather than own it. For example, if you’re putting in 100 feet or so a day of water service on a regular basis, it may pay you to invest $10,000 to buy a trench box. However, if you do a variety of different types of trenching jobs, the cost of owning shoring equipment to handle each situation would probably be prohibitive. By renting, you can select only the equipment you need for a specific job, such as hydraulic shoring to protect workers when you come to a crossing utility.”

Usually, shoring system rentals include technical assistance. In the case of slide rail systems, for instance, Sunbelt Rentals designs the system for each application.

Each system is pre-engineered, McDonald says. “Even contractors with their own in-house engineers still rely on us to engineer and design the system, because of our experience in working with the product and our relationship with the manufacturer and their in-house engineer.”

His company also provides an onsite representative to help with installation. That’s particularly important for contractors who have little or no experience with this type of equipment, he notes. “We want to educate contractors who are new to slide rail systems on how to use this complex system.”

When renting shoring equipment, McDonald suggests dealing with people who are knowledgeable about the various products as well as OSHA rules and regulations concerning shoring systems. Delivery and other services are also key factors to consider, he adds. “We offer an 800 number to call if you have questions,” McDonald says. “We return about 97% of customer calls within 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

More information is available online at www.sunbeltrentals.com.

GPS Systems
Surveyors Instrument Co. Inc. offers an example of the types of rental equipment and services available for GPS-based survey and blade control technology. Based in Houston, TX, the company sells, services, and rents a wide range of electronic measuring equipment, representing various manufacturers, throughout the United States. This equipment includes GPS receivers and antennas, laser transmitters, and total station systems for controlling the cutting depth and height of grading and excavating equipment.

Rental activity of these systems has diminished over time as declining prices encourage more and more contractors to buy them, reports Lance Liccketto, president of the company. “Fifteen years ago some of our customers were happy to pay to rent a piece of equipment that they kept for two to three years,” he says. “Now, that option isn’t as attractive. They’d rather own the equipment.”

Nevertheless, depending on individual needs and desires, it can still make sense to rent global positioning systems, he notes. However, whether buying or renting, using this equipment effectively requires a certain level of knowledge.

“Over the last two to three years, GPS has become much more user-friendly,” Liccketto says. “By pushing buttons, this equipment will provide answers. But you need to understand how it works so that you can check it periodically to make sure you’re getting the right answers. Typically, it takes anywhere from half a day to several days to learn how to use it. We offer this training at our Houston office. However, if you’re new to this technology and work outside of this area, it probably doesn’t make sense to rent it from us.”

Assuming you know how to use these systems, he offers several reasons for renting them:

• To eliminate maintenance expenses. Some of these sophisticated and sensitive systems require regular calibration to function properly. Generally, for example, a level laser or total station systems must be calibrated every six to eight months in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications, he reports. That can cost about $150 each time. “If you’re not willing to do that, you may be better off renting the equipment only when you need it,” he says.
• To evaluate a product before buying it. By renting you can evaluate one or more different brands of GPS to see how they fit your operations, before you invest in an expensive purchase.
• To meet a one-time or short-term need. Maybe you only need a GPS at the start and/or end of a project. By renting, you pay for the equipment only while you’re using it. Even if you own a GPS, it may be more economical to rent a unit to handle the extra job or two that comes along or to fill in while your equipment is being serviced.

More information is available online at www.surveygear.com.

Pre-wetting and Dewatering Equipment
With 54 locations across the country, Rain for Rent designs, installs, and operates a variety of liquid-handling projects—from pumps and pipe for infrastructure improvement projects to filtration systems and spill containment to sprinkler systems for grading and excavation work for wetting soils in arid regions prior to earthmoving activities, dust control, and dewatering sites with high groundwater levels.

Photo: Wacker

Tower lights allow contractors to extend their workday into the night.

“Rain for Rent is unique in terms of the range of services provided,” says Mike Grundvig, an engineer with the company. “We don’t just rent equipment; we provide whatever level of service the customer wants. One customer may have a generator set but needs a submersible pump. Another may have a pump but needs pipe and sprinklers. Still another may want full service, from design and installation to removal of a complete system.”

In evaluating pre-wetting and dewatering equipment and services from different rental vendors to find the one that best meets your needs, he suggests asking some questions:

• Did the vendor listen to your needs?
• What is the level of quality and consistency of the equipment and service?
• Will the equipment be delivered and removed in a timely manner?
• What is the quality of the equipment?

As far as the quality of the equipment, appearance isn’t a guarantee,” Grundvig says. “Most contractors assume that if equipment looks beat up, it probably hasn’t been maintained well. At the same time, a piece of equipment may look good, but it may not work properly. Either way, malfunctioning equipment can disrupt your schedule.”

He suggests using weight of the equipment as a rough measure of quality. “Consider the value of equipment in terms of price per pound,” he says. “It’s a very crude measure, but if you have two similarly priced pieces of equipment, the one that weighs more is more solidly built and provides a longer service life.”

Grundvig also recommends utilizing the same types of equipment throughout a project to make operation and maintenance easier. “You don’t want to combine a system of steel, plastic, and aluminum pipe,” he says. “It’s the same with submersible pumps for dewatering. It’s good to use those pumps that have the same type of panels, controls, engines, and other components, especially if you’re servicing the equipment yourself.”

• How efficient is the equipment? Contractors frequently overlook this point, Grundvig notes. For example, the fuel efficiency of a pump can significantly affect operating expenses, especially if it runs for more than a day or two. “If one pump uses at least 5% less fuel than another, you can probably afford to pay a higher rental rate for the more efficient pump because of the savings in fuel,” he says.
• Finally, does the price fit your budget?

More information is available online at www.rainforrent.com.

Tower Lights
With increased workloads and tighter deadlines, more and more grading and excavating contractors are renting tower lights to extend their workday into the night.

In northern areas the busy season for rentals of lighting equipment runs from late August through November as the days get shorter and contractors seek to button up projects before winter sets in, reports Marc Leupi, utility product manager for Wacker Corp. The company manufactures pump, power, and light products along with other construction equipment.

Photo: Ground Heaters Inc.

Rent a ground heater in winter to keep crews on the job when it gets cold.

A standard configuration for a light tower used to illuminate grading and excavation sites, he notes, features a 10- to 12-horsepower diesel engine, operating at 1,800 rpm and connected to a 6-kW generator. That leaves less than 2 kW for running drills or other tools using the unit’s 120-V AC outlet. However, the purpose of the generator is to power the lights and not other equipment. With a 20- to 30-gallon fuel tank, this unit can operate as long as about 70 hours without refueling. A mast, equipped with four 1,000-W halogen lights, extends as high as 30 feet.

Maintenance requirements are relatively simple: changing engine oil, filters, and belts, as required, along with replacing bulbs and, in the case of metal halide lights, ballast, as needed.

To ensure the unit meets your needs when renting light towers, Leupi suggests checking several features:

• Light bulb design. A conical bulb, similar in concept to a spotlight, concentrates strong lighting in one area. However, outside of that area, light intensity drops off quickly. An elliptical bulb, like those on Wacker light towers, provides a more uniform, although less intense, light over a larger area. “The more even light with an elliptical bulb is easier to work in because it eliminates the contrast when moving between areas of different light intensities,” Leupi says. “In our photometric tests, we’ve found that elliptical bulbs provide about 50% more light but at a lower intensity than a conical bulb.”
• Lighting requirements. Most manufacturers provide formulas for calculating the number of light towers you need based on the desired light intensity and size of the area you want to illuminate, he says. Some sites, like federal road projects, require a specific level of light intensity.
• Ease of use. An electrical winch makes raising and lowering the mast much easier and faster than a hand crank. You just press a button. That can be especially important if you plan to be putting the lights up and taking them down frequently. Leupi recommends a dual electric winch system. That way, if a cable breaks, a second independent cable helps prevent the tower from collapsing.
• Inspection points. The rental company should make sure the equipment is working properly when you rent it, he says. Still, it’s a good idea to check tires for correct inflation, operation of tail and brake lights, and how well the unit fits on your tow hitch. “Be sure to check the cables for fraying,” Leupi says. “That’s a big red flag that the unit isn’t safe to use.”
• Stability. A light tower should always be placed on a level site, with the outriggers fully extended, following the manufacturer’s instructions before operating the mast, he notes. This provides a bigger, more stable footprint. “Our light towers are rated to withstand fairly high winds,” Leupi says. “However, it’s important to lower any mast should it start to sway.
• Positioning the lights. Placing the lights to properly light the job site is mostly a matter of common sense, Leupi notes. “You can move the lights up and down and sideways to get the coverage you want, while eliminating shadows,” he says.

More information is available online at www.wackergroup.com.

Surface Heaters
By driving frost out of the soil, hydronic ground surface heaters offer a way for grading and excavating contractors in cold climates to keep crews and equipment working through the winter and to take on new jobs or complete existing projects on time.

Powered by a diesel generator, a hydronic surface heater circulates a hot glycol/water heat transfer fluid through a flexible hose placed on the ground. Heat radiates through the wall of the hose to thaw frozen moisture in the soil much more efficiently than using a traditional propane air heater inside an enclosure, says Mike Carter, sales manager for Ground Heaters Inc.

The company manufactures four different models of surface heaters. Ranging in coverage from 2,200 square feet to 18,000 square feet, depending on model, a single unit can remove frost from soil at the rate of 1 foot of depth a day to as deep as 10 feet below the soil surface, he reports. Surface heaters are also used to heat the ground prior to pouring concrete in cold weather to maintain the ideal curing temperature.

Carter offers these pointers for selecting a model when renting a surface heater:

• Ease of use. Depending on manufacturer, hydronic heaters are available with either of two basic hose systems: a series of closed end hoses that connect to a manifold or closed loop. “A closed loop system eliminates the need to hook up a number of hoses and can be set up much faster and easier,” Carter says. An electric hose reel makes rewinding the hose easier and faster than a manual reel, he adds.
• Flow rate. The more heat transfer fluid flowing through the hoses in a given amount of time, the faster the ground thaws, he points out.
• Btu ratings. Some manufacturers measure heat output of their units in terms of gross Btus. Others report net Btu production. “Much of the gross Btu output goes out the stack of the heater,” Carter says. “Net Btus are what actually go into the ground to thaw the frost.”
• Type of heating system. A surface heater model that uses a boiler to warm the heat transfer fluid is much less fuel-efficient than a wet system model, which heats the fluid by circulating it around fire tubes, he says.
• Pressurized versus non-pressurized hoses. Models with non-pressurized hoses require no specialized training to bleed the heat transfer fluid back into the reservoir at the end of the job. A non-pressurized system also makes it much easier to check for leaks prior to using the heater. “You can turn the heater on and check for any leaks at the rental store,” Carter says. “With a pressurized system you have to set it up on the job site and then check to see if it leaks under pressure.”

More information is available online at www.groundheaters.com.

Greg Northcutt writes frequently on construction and business issues.

GEC - July/August 2006

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