Thinking of doing aerating this fall, and planning on renting one. Doesn't make sense to me right now to buy one, when I am only going to use it very rarely? Any comments or suggestion on this?
i rent one several times in spring and fall but havent had the funds to purchase one. Will be gettin one next year however.
I always rent them. It's like $80 for the day and you can beat the hell out of them and then return it. It would also take me like 3-4 years to pay something like that off.
My problem with renting the aerators always was with motivation. In order to justify the expense, you had to have a pretty good amount of work lined up to use it. Once you had them all lined up for one day, you actually had to go and rent one. And sometimes I had trouble finding one, had to look at a couple of rental places to find one. If you own one, and you have a job to do, just throw it on the trailer and stop by during the day. Far more convienient. I agree though, it's hard justifying the purchase.
For most solo or small to medium sized operations, there is really no need to buy. Sell the stuff first, explaining all the benefits and such. Then, when you have all of them sold that you think you're going to, rent your aerator, and line up a day (or two) and do them all at once. Many rental places are not open on Sundays, and sometimes you can rent it for a Saturday, and not have to have it back by Monday morning. Now, the advantage to this is not just having two days to do them, but more imPORTantly, is exposure. Get out there on a Saturday morning and afternoon when Mr. Johnson sees you doing Mr. Smith's yard, and wants a price because if Mr. Smith's yard is good enough to get it, then by golly, so is Mr. Johnson's. Before you know it, Mr. Miller will be driving by or standing in his driveway from across the street, too.
I line up all my jobs ahead of time and then rent one. Costs me about $80 for a full day rental and, at $50 per lawn, I bring in plenty above that cost. These lawns only take about 15 minutes to aerate (if that long) so I can do a bunch in one day. I easily get $50 each because a half day rental around here is $50 so anyone who wants to do it themselves has to pay$50 plus pick it up, take it back, etc. After they all find that out, everyone pays me to do it.
I just bought a Kees Core plugger with 30 hours for $700 and I hope to have enough aerations to pay it off. I do however glad that I bought it because these people expect it NOW. If you don't do it now around here then the other company gets the job. Seek and you shall find.
