Home Renovation Equipment and Tools: Buying vs. Renting

Each household should have tools in case of an emergency or for small-scale repairs. Any major work includes tools that many people may not have just lying around. And why would they, after all, a home is meant to be lived in, not to serve as a workshop. That is the reason why home renovation requires outsourcing to get the job done. You can ask your friends for some tools, buy the ones that aren’t that expensive, like a screwdriver, or perhaps borrow a few things from work. However, the entire project cannot be finished without hiring professionals, professional equipment, and professional expertise. A balance is much needed between the tools you have and the tools you rent. Achieving this balance is a problem for many and they end up overspending on things they did not need at all or they had a hard time with some tasks which could have been avoided by hiring equipment. That is why you need to know when exactly to buy and when to rent tools and equipment during DIY renovation projects.

Know which tools you are going to need

We know that it is hard to estimate the total cost of the project, let alone to know all the tools that are going to be involved. However, you need to have a plan or even better, a blueprint of the construction work you intend to carry out. It can be broken down into individual tasks that can serve as a rough guide to the tools you are going to need. In other words, if you are cutting out a new window, don’t just calculate the material and the price, but the tools needed to get the job done. Once all the individual tasks are combined, you will get an exhaustive list of the tools and equipment required to get the job done. Then you can sit down and in a matter of minutes tick the things you have, the ones that can be bought, and most importantly, the ones that have to be rented.

The equipment should adjust to the project, not the other way around

If you make a hasty start, you will soon run into problems. A task will pop up, like trimming wood beams, that you wouldn’t have the right tool for. Failing to admit that you need to get that particular tool, you might be tempted to alter the design and do away with the beams altogether or leave them untreated. Once this occurs more than once during the built, everything you planned will become useless and you will have to start from scratch. When dealing with an unexpected problem, don’t be afraid to admit you were wrong, go to the hardware store and buy the tools you need or pick up the phone and call the expert to rent the necessary equipment.

Calling in the professionals

Professionals are not to be involved in the project only when you need to rent some tools and equipment from them. Besides the raw power and machinery, they have the much-needed experience and the expertise in handling them. You are probably a construction layman, and while you might know how to use a nail gun, you most certainly don’t know how to drive a forklift, for example. That is, you could learn how to do it and simply rent a forklift but that would take forever. The easier solution is a reliable forklift hire that saves time and money. The price you pay for hiring a piece of heavy machinery, such as a forklift, will return to you in the end as profit for not having to work overtime and waste effort and manpower.

Will you use the purchased equipment and tools again?

The essential question that can make or break your renovation budget is the real necessity to purchase the tools required. Good quality power tools cost a lot of money and although they are going to be used extensively during the build, the real question is what happens to them afterward. Are they going to collect dust in your garage for years to come, or are they going to get used from time to time. If the former is your answer then renting is definitely the way to go. Not only do you pay less from the very start, but you save on space by not having to store something that you really have no use for. Not to make things pretty, but the other word for such items is: junk.

The final decision whether to buy or rent is going to depend on the type and scale of the project and your preferences. Small-scale renovations that are restricted to a single room definitely do not require a whole bunch of tools to be bought. In such instances, it is wiser to rent all the missing equipment and tools. The constriction rental companies today let you rent or hire pretty much anything, no matter how small it is.