When would it be best to rent a power tool instead of purchasing one?
We get asked this question many times because there is always different factors that would make someone decide if they should rent or own a power tool. You need to first understand the situation at hand. There are some great advantages and disadvantages between owning or renting power tools. We did some deep research to really get a better understanding of situations, financial and personal. We did an article about tools every home owner should have, but this article was written for people who do work such as contractors as well.
When You Should Purchase A Power Tool
If you find yourself in these similar situations, then it may be best for you to decide if you should just go on ahead and purchase your power tools.
- You need to evaluate how many times per year you would possibly use the tool, and after you gather some great facts about how much it would be per day to rent that power tool, if it comes close to the purchase price within a year, you should purchase it.
- If a great deal appears for the power tool used, with low hours of use, and it appears, and mechanically seems in great condition, this could be a very big advantage for you. Remember, once you purchase a power tool brand new, and you open it and use it, its now considered used.
- How large is the tool? If its smaller in size compared to larger equipment, it could make sense to purchase it. We figured we needed a tractor, or small bob cat style to use on our farm, and instead of paying almost $200 every time we needed it for a few days, we decided to try and find a used one.
- As mentioned above, you could also look for out of business contractors, or someone who is cutting their workforce, construction companies, sub contractors, and sometimes you can purchase or rent from them. We have rented trailers to haul our vehicles we buy at auctions many times over a few times a year. As we grew, we decided to have one made, and stripped an old camper down, welded steel plating, and made a durable trailer.
You just need to evaluate the current situation, and try to see what your best options will be frankly. I wanted to give another example, I rented a chain saw once, for $21 for 3 hours. I couldn’t take breaks, I had to return it with fuel, and afterwards, because I had all these small tasks to do just to return the tool with out a large surcharge, I ended up paying half of what I could have gotten a used chainsaw for at a pawn shop. There are a few tools I would like to mention that you should purchase.
Drills are always going to come in handy, and purchase a decent amount of drill bits to go along with it.
Measuring Tape will help you make the right length of cuts, or help you determine the size of the material you will need to repair or build.
Hammer’s will always be a great thing to have around as well as standard wood style nails for any quick repairs that may be needed around the house.
Multi meter is a tool that measures the voltage, wattage, ohms or any field of measure when it comes to electricity or electrical products.
Duct Tape to repair home ducts in an emergency until a contractor or professional can help.
When You Should I Rent A Tool
- If you are a contractor, and need certain tools sometimes to get certain jobs done, and cash is very tight, I would recommend you renting a power tool.
- Labor is very expensive, so if you are taking on jobs that could reduce labor costs simply by renting a tool, then you should compare what the labor cost would be, and how much the renting amount would be. Most of the time, the tool rental is cheaper than hiring someone for a week or two to work.
- You also need to remember that as a contractor especially, your bank, and other financial partners will see owning certain tools and equipment as long term debt, compared to renting them, by doing this, it could raise interest rates or even prevent you from financial help.
- Theft Prevention is a big one here, and this simply puts 0 risk at you, because you will rent it, use it and return it. You don’t have to worry about a worker, or individual stealing anything, costing you more money down the road because you have to keep purchasing tools and equipment. Your insurance company will love this, and give you cheaper rates if they know there is less risk involved.
- Rentals can also sometimes be tax deductible and in the long run, end up being a great financial decision on your company’s behalf. Everyone loves tax deductibles.
- You will also save money on storing all of your tools and equipment. You rent the tool or machine, use it and then return it.
- Cheaper costs because of the decreased cost of maintenance on the tool or equipment. You rent it and use it. The rental company is responsible for keeping it tuned, and in fine shape for their customers.
What are some tools that I should always rent?
Most homeowners only renovate every 5 to 10 years. Some of those who like to do some or all of the work themselves. This saves them money compared to having to hire a general contractor, or sub contractor. This gives them equity. We did this last year, and I will list a few tools that I personally would never purchase, and would rent instead because of until we took on our project, this was the first time I had even used some of these tools.
Hardwood Flooring Tools
We replaced all of our carpet in our homes with hardwood floors, so we decided to rent the sander, the stapler, and the nail/staple gun, and the air compressor from our local tool rental company. When I priced the decent tools that would insure the job would get done right I was going to have to spend north of $200 just to have the tools I needed to get the job done. I rented all of them for $77.
Drain Auger
If you have a “snake” that does the basic removing of blockages in your toilet is fine. But for the major jobs, you will have to purchase a $200 machine that is powered by an electric motor, and a long extended thick wire arm, that goes into the drains FAR almost to your sewer or septic tank, to grind up and unblock any debris in its path. A plumber will charge you $99 just to show up, and $80 per hour. I went and rented on for $65 for 3 hours.
Tile Saw and Diamond Blades
This was my first time working on our kitchen, and for all the tile, we needed a special saw and blade to cut the marble tiles we had decided to install. We used a couple other types for our bathrooms as well. As expensive as the saw was, $200 and $50 per blade, we was able to rent one for a week for $100.00 and it came with the blades. This saved us tons of money on our project. However, I would purchase these tools if I was doing this on more projects than just a kitchen and bathroom.
Garden Tiller
We do a garden every year, and the cheaper tillers you can buy just done cut deep enough as we would need. Before he sold his farm, my brother used to bring his tractor over and do this for me. However, you can rent tillers that cost as much as $6500 for just $100 for the day, and have a very well tilled garden for the summer.
Post or Ice Hole Auger Tool
Digging post holes or chewing through thick ice is very labor intensive. However, it would not make sense to spend $500 for the machine that has the auger tool attached to it, just to dig holes for a day or two, when you can rent one for $50 per day or less.
There are a few other tools I could mention such as a bobcat or mini tractors if you decide to dig a pool, or make a dirt bike track for your kids, that would justify a rental compared to a purchase.
Conclusion
Depending on your situation could really be the best to determine which route you should take. At the end of the day, we all want to save as much money as possible, if it makes sense we will spend the money. You should also remember that these tool rental companies, they are around to serve you, and if your knowledge of tools in general are limited, you should really take renting into consideration. It can be a very deep expensive black hole for you owning certain power tools out there. Plus the people who rent these tools can help answer many questions you may have in the mean time.