A jackhammer rents for roughly $50 to $250 a day, and almost all of that spread is breaker weight and how the machine is powered. An electric breaker plugs into an ordinary circuit and deals with a patio or a thin slab. A 90 lb pneumatic needs a towable compressor hired beside it, and that second machine is what doubles the ticket.
Three breaker weights cover nearly every job
A 35 lb electric breaker is a chipping tool for tile, thin slabs and stubborn mortar beds. The 60 lb class handles four to six inch concrete and most footpath work. A 90 lb pneumatic is for reinforced slabs, footings and rock, and it wants a fit operator. Past that you are hiring a breaker attachment on an excavator instead.
The compressor is the hidden half of the price
Pneumatic breakers are quoted bare. A 185 cfm towable compressor, the hose and the diesel to run it are separate lines, and the compressor often costs more per day than the breaker it feeds. Electric and hydraulic units avoid that, which is why counters push them for indoor and residential work where exhaust and noise are a problem.
Breaking concrete makes silica dust, and that is regulated
Concrete releases respirable crystalline silica when it is broken, and OSHA's construction standard sets an exposure limit and names control methods for handheld breakers, in practice water applied at the point of impact or a shroud on a dust collector. Ask for the wet kit or vacuum attachment when you book the machine, not when you arrive to collect it.
What else lands on the ticket
Steels are consumables. Moil points, chisels and clay spades wear, and the wear is billed when the machine comes back. A breaker cart is worth the few extra dollars on a long footpath run. Hearing protection is on you, and a running pneumatic breaker sits well above the level at which protection stops being a preference.
Questions people ask about jackhammer rental
Can one person carry a rented jackhammer?
A 35 lb electric breaker, yes, and it fits in a car boot. A 60 lb machine is a two-handed lift into a truck bed and is easier with a cart. A 90 lb breaker plus its hose is a job for two people, and the compressor behind it needs a tow hitch.
Do I need three-phase power for an electric breaker?
No. Rental electric breakers are built for standard single-phase site power and run off an ordinary 15 or 20 amp circuit. What they do not like is a long thin extension lead, which drops voltage and cooks the motor. Use a heavy gauge cord kept as short as the work allows.
How thick a slab will a rented breaker get through?
A 60 lb class machine will work through a typical four inch domestic slab steadily, and a six inch slab with patience. Heavily reinforced or thicker concrete is where the 90 lb pneumatic earns its extra cost, because the smaller machine simply bounces and the day disappears.