Mini Excavator Rental for Landscaping
When it comes to landscaping projects, one of the best machines to use is the mini excavator. There are several reasons for this including the range of sizes and specs, their ability to maneuver in tight spaces, and how versatile they are because of the range of mini excavator attachments.
Mini excavators, also called compact excavators, can help you get several types of landscaping design jobs done. This includes digging trenches for utility lines, excavating areas for pools or ponds, removing stumps, placing rocks, grading and leveling, land clearing, putting up fences, and more.
Whether you're a professional contractor or DIYer, you can search the DOZR Marketplace to find the right mini excavator rental for single and multi-day projects.
The Power and Versatility of Mini Excavators in Landscaping
Some of the most significant benefits of why mini excavators are great for landscaping projects are their size, versatility, and efficiency. This is what makes them excel in executing several different types of landscaping tasks.
Compact Size, Big Impact
Many landscaping projects happen on small properties like suburban homes and residential areas. These properties are often limited by tight spaces including smaller yards and narrower spaces between homes. This limits the amount of equipment that can work on landscaping projects.
Thankfully, mini excavators are designed exactly for this purpose. Ranging in size from 1 ton to 10 tons, 1-ton and 3-ton mini excavators are narrower and can typically fit through those tighter spaces, including fences. Once you get to 4-ton mini excavators, it can become a bit more difficult for these smaller spaces. However, larger machines can lift more and dig deeper which may be necessary given the task at hand.
The compact design of mini excavators makes them ideal for landscaping projects where full-sized excavators and backhoes can't go.
Superior Maneuverability
In addition to their compact size, they are also extremely maneuverable. Part of this is due to their size but is also affected by their zero or reduced tail swing, articulating boom, rubber or steel tracks, and ease of control. The blade that comes equipped on the front also provides extra stability.
Mini excavators are typically broken down into two categories: zero tail swing and reduce tail swing. Tail swing is just the term used to measure how far the tail of an excavator extends beyond the tracks when rotating.
Zero tail swing has the entire body of the cab rotate within the tracks while reduced tail swing extends beyond the tracks as little as possible. When working in tight, confined spaces, the amount of tail swing each machine has is important to know so that you don't end up hitting obstacles around you.
The articulating boom increases maneuverability by being able to adjust the boom however needed. This includes being able to reach up and over obstacles without having to reposition the entire machine.
The rubber tracks, which can be switched out for steel tracks, give improved traction, lower noise volumes, and lower ground disturbance. This helps mini excavators drive on lawns and properties while providing minimal damage to the surrounding areas.
Range of Attachments
There are so many mini excavator attachments that increase their versatility that we have two guides to the different attachments. Many of these attachments make the job of landscapers easier to perform. Frequent compact excavator attachments include mulchers, log splitters, trenchers, rakes, grapples, and augers.
Each of these attachments performs specific tasks that help with different areas of work including post-drilling, forestry work, removing bushes and shrubs, and more. Renting the right attachment with your mini excavator will help improve efficiency and productivity. Mini excavator attachments can be requested along with the machine on DOZR.
Common Landscaping Tasks Performed by Mini Excavators
Here are some of the tasks that mini excavators can handle comfortably, depending on their size.
Grading and Leveling
Just like excavators, mini-excavators are great for grading and leveling projects. Not only can they move large amounts of dirt efficiently in tight spaces, but the blade at the front of the machine makes grading easy to manage as well.
This can be essential on landscaping projects as the all-in-one qualities help decrease the number of machines you need to get the job done and free up more space to move.
Digging Holes and Trenches
As should be clear, what makes mini-excavators so great is their ability to dig trenches and small and medium-sized holes. With the range of sizes of mini excavators, they also come with a variety of dig depths. This comes in handy for many landscaping needs including making pools and ponds, digging trenches for utilities, and building garden and water features.
Able to be fitted with many different types of bucket attachments, mini-excavators can be used to dig any type of hole that makes a landscaper's job easier.
Removing Stumps and Roots
When fit with grapples, brush cutters, stump buckets, or grab attachments, mini excavators can also be effective at tree stump removal, removing trees, land clearing, and debris cleanup. These attachments can also make it easy to move and place rocks to create a natural landscape, lift and place larger plants in feature beds, and clear vegetation to make that initial flower bed.
Advantages of Using a Mini Excavator for Landscaping
There are clear benefits to using mini excavators in addition to, and sometimes in replacement of, other earthmoving machines on landscaping projects.
Increased Efficiency
There are a few reasons why mini excavator offer increased efficiency. One of these reasons is the all-in-one capabilities mentioned earlier, which come from the versatility of attachments. They can grade and level the ground, transport materials, dig holes of different sizes and types, and be used to place plants and trees into their correct position. This is way more efficient than limiting yourself to just human labor.
Mini excavators are also engineered to be efficient. With fast cycle times, they can get jobs done quickly and they feature powerful hydraulic systems. The front boom also allows them to adjust to the obstacles around them, becoming extremely adaptable and maneuverable to the environment.
Cost Savings
Mini-excavators are also cost-friendly, especially if you like renting equipment. Depending on the equipment rental company, they're typically more affordable than backhoes and compact track loaders and are known to be reliable machines.
Environmental Friendliness
Lastly, mini-excavators are more environmentally friendly. They are available in electric and non-electric models, although the electric sizes are limited, and they have rubber tracks to reduce their impact on the ground.
With their size, they also have reduced fuel consumption because of their smaller engines. They also tend to produce less noise than other machines.
No matter the landscaping project, there's a job for mini excavators to accomplish. Whether it's clearing or grading land, moving big, bulky materials, or digging holes for pools, trenches, or trenches, mini excavators can get it done. Call DOZR today or search the DOZR Marketplace for your next mini excavator rental.
