04-29-2018, 01:01 PM
hire a company that does land clearing or shoud rent me a Bobcat
Depends what you're trying to accomplish. I've learned a couple of things:
Home Depot rents equipment to anyone with a credit card and enough truck to tow the equipment. Medium/small machines can be towed with the Depot truck; a 2-ton ("medium") excavator runs about $1K/week. No hammer, but they are really easy to deal with and the equipment is newer.
Puna Rental has some equipment but you can't rent the hammer without liability insurance (difficult to find as short-term standalone policy). Rates are higher. They deliver. Often "something happens" and they're charging you for repair/replacement, I think it's part of their business model. (The concrete guy looked at their machine and wondered aloud "where they found this antique"... but clearly the breakdowns are my fault.)
Excavator guy quoted me $150/hour + $300 delivery, and his big machine (with claw, hammer, and bucket) can do more in a day than I can do in a week with the little machine. (Not counting the cost of somewhere with a hot tub to recover from the aches and pains. The little machine is more work than it looks.)
Even where the land is pretty flat, a bit of rip-n-roll will create drainage, which can be nice to have in the driveway and around the house.
You will probably not be able to dig a hole for a septic tank with the little machine.
I think the answer is "both". Hire a big machine to rough it in, then get a little machine for a week of carving trails etc. Talk story with the machine operator, you might get some good ideas or maybe save yourself some trouble -- you never know what's under that pahoehoe.
Depends what you're trying to accomplish. I've learned a couple of things:
Home Depot rents equipment to anyone with a credit card and enough truck to tow the equipment. Medium/small machines can be towed with the Depot truck; a 2-ton ("medium") excavator runs about $1K/week. No hammer, but they are really easy to deal with and the equipment is newer.
Puna Rental has some equipment but you can't rent the hammer without liability insurance (difficult to find as short-term standalone policy). Rates are higher. They deliver. Often "something happens" and they're charging you for repair/replacement, I think it's part of their business model. (The concrete guy looked at their machine and wondered aloud "where they found this antique"... but clearly the breakdowns are my fault.)
Excavator guy quoted me $150/hour + $300 delivery, and his big machine (with claw, hammer, and bucket) can do more in a day than I can do in a week with the little machine. (Not counting the cost of somewhere with a hot tub to recover from the aches and pains. The little machine is more work than it looks.)
Even where the land is pretty flat, a bit of rip-n-roll will create drainage, which can be nice to have in the driveway and around the house.
You will probably not be able to dig a hole for a septic tank with the little machine.
I think the answer is "both". Hire a big machine to rough it in, then get a little machine for a week of carving trails etc. Talk story with the machine operator, you might get some good ideas or maybe save yourself some trouble -- you never know what's under that pahoehoe.