When somebody asks a rental counter for a roller machine they mean a compaction roller, and the yard's first question is soil or asphalt. A walk behind double drum unit commonly hires for $110 to $200 a day and covers driveways, paths and small patches; ride on tandem machines start around $250 and climb with drum width.
The four families a yard stocks
Walk behind double drum rollers for paths, patches and confined ground. Ride on tandem rollers for driveways and parking lots. Padfoot or sheepsfoot rollers, whose feet knead cohesive clay soils that a smooth drum only bridges. And tow behind rollers pulled by a tractor for open ground where nobody needs to steer precisely.
Soil or asphalt is not the same machine setting
On granular fill and clay you want the drum vibrating and, for clay, the pads. On thin asphalt patches, vibration can shatter the mat and push the aggregate around, so the last passes are usually made static with the vibration switched off. Ask the counter how the machine's vibration control works before you leave the yard.
Water on the drums, or the asphalt comes with you
Rolling hot asphalt without wetting the drums lifts the mat off the ground in sheets. Every asphalt roller carries a water tank and spray bars for that reason. Fill it, check the bars are all flowing before the first pass, and keep the tank topped up, because running dry for one pass ruins the surface you just laid.
Getting it to site
A walk behind roller weighs several hundred pounds and needs ramps and a trailer or a pickup with a proper loading plan. Ride on machines need a trailer rated well above the machine and tie downs at four points. Where either number is uncomfortable, yard delivery is priced each way and is usually cheaper than a mistake.
Questions people ask about roller machine
Do I need a roller or a plate compactor?
Under a few inches of bedding sand or a small paver area, a plate compactor is enough and far cheaper. Once you are compacting a sub base in lifts, or rolling a driveway surface, a roller does it in fewer passes and leaves a flatter result. Area and lift depth decide it.
Can one machine do both soil and asphalt?
A smooth drum tandem roller handles granular sub base and asphalt surfaces both, and it is the usual hire for a driveway from bottom to top. Cohesive clay is the exception: it wants a padfoot machine, because a smooth drum compacts the crust and leaves the layer below soft.
How many passes do I need?
That is set by the material and the lift depth rather than by the machine, and the honest answer on a small job is to keep rolling until the drum stops leaving an impression. On anything structural, a specification and a compaction test decide it, not a feel for the machine.
Is a roller safe on a slope?
Within the limits in the manual, and always straight up and down rather than across. Rollers have a high center of gravity and articulate in the middle, so a side slope is where they go over. Keep off soft shoulders and edges of fill, which crumble under drum weight.