Excavator hire is priced by operating weight, and rental fleets fall into three bands: 1 to 5 ton minis, 6 to 10 ton midis, and 20 ton and heavier standard machines. A 3-ton mini usually advertises around $250 to $400 a day, while a 20-ton class machine runs closer to $600 to $1,200 before it is moved. The band you need is decided by the trench and the material, not by the budget.
Three bands, three different jobs
A 1 to 3 ton mini digs to roughly 6 to 8 feet, fits through a garden gate on rubber tracks and lifts a few hundred pounds at reach. A 6 to 10 ton midi digs 12 to 15 feet and handles footings and utility runs. Twenty tons and up is production work: basements, mass excavation and loading trucks all day.
Where the rate breaks are
Rental meters count an eight-hour day, a forty-hour week and a one-hundred-and-sixty-hour month. Because a week typically prices near three days and a month near two and a half weeks, a three-day job and a five-day job often cost about the same. Ask for both numbers before you commit, and price the week whenever the schedule could slip past Wednesday.
Transport is the line people forget
A mini goes on a tag trailer for perhaps $75 to $200 each way. A 20-ton class machine needs a lowbed and a commercial hauler, commonly $400 to $900 per leg and more where a permit or an escort is involved. On a short hire the freight can exceed the rent, which is one reason bigger machines are usually taken by the week.
The trench decides the safety kit
Once a trench reaches five feet, federal rules require a protective system unless the excavation is in stable rock, and a competent person must inspect it. That means a trench box, shoring or a benched slope, which the same yards hire by the day. Price the box with the machine rather than discovering on the morning that the dig cannot legally proceed.
Questions people ask about excavators rentals
What size excavator do I need for a French drain?
A 1.5 to 3 ton mini with a 12 to 18 inch bucket suits most residential drainage. It reaches deep enough for a typical run, spreads its weight on rubber tracks and fits between a house and a fence, which a midi will not.
Does the rental include an operator?
Almost never. Yards hire the machine bare and expect a competent operator. Where a yard does arrange labour it is a separate contract at an hourly rate, and the machine and operator together can double the daily figure.
Do I have to call before I dig?
Yes. Utility location is free, is required before excavation across the country and takes a couple of working days, so make the call before the machine is booked rather than the morning it arrives.