Tools and Equipment Hire or Buy: How to Make the Right Choice

Using the right tools and equipment is essential if you want to complete your project successfully and on time. They say a poor workman always blames his tools, but if you are using the wrong ones, it won’t be long before things go badly wrong. You will also have problems if the tools you are using are old and poorly maintained, which can happen if you are borrowing an item from a friend, or the equipment you have is ancient. So is it better to hire or buy tools and equipment? 

How Often Do You Plan on Using the Equipment?

The main consideration when comparing hire and purchase should be how often you think you will be using the equipment. For occasional use, it isn’t cost effective to spend a lot of money buying a large piece of equipment. You won’t get your money’s worth from the investment and in this instance, it is much more sensible to hire what you need instead. That way you won’t have to pay out a large amount of money.

Business or Personal Hire

Hiring and buying equipment from a company such as Brookings rental depot for personal projects is a very different proposition to hiring it for commercial jobs. If you are laying a slab of concrete on your property and you need a cement mixer, the purchase or hire cost is a personal expense and will come out of your pocket either way. In the case of a business, bought equipment is classed as a fixed asset whereas hire costs are an expense and therefore needed to be accounted for differently. The hire cost of equipment for business purposes can be used to off-set business taxes because it is an expense. For this reason, it is usually better to hire equipment unless the equipment is needed long term.

Specialist Equipment

Specialist equipment is sometimes required if you are undertaking a complex project, but unfortunately specialist tools and equipment usually come with a hefty price tag attached. If you think you will need to use the equipment on a regular basis, the investment will be worthwhile, but if this is just a one-off job, you will be much better off hiring from a rental company such as rental depot Brookings SD instead.

Do You Have Storage Space?

Tools and equipment take up room. It won’t be a problem if you are a commercial contractor as you will probably have a storage facility, but if space is at a premium, investing in large plant and equipment could cause you a few issues. Hiring equipment from Brookings equipment rental or similar means you don’t need to worry about finding space long term. Instead you can hire, use it for as long as needed, and then return the equipment and reclaim your space. This is particularly the case if the equipment you need to hire is very large and in this instance hiring is really the only sensible option.

Before making a final decision about whether to hire or buy, draw up a list of pros and cons to help you decide.