Mini Digger Insurance
Discussion
Hi all,
So this Bank Holiday I'll be clearing some land at the back of my garden in preparation for a shed, not a massive job, a number of big rhododendron bushes with deep roots and general shrubbery, but an easy day's days work with a mini digger. The hire for the three day weekend is £166, but Jewsons Hire want a £1,200 deposit which seems a bit strong especially as they are also insisting I get digger insurance.
I got a quote for £73 from JCB insurance, my question is does this sound like a good deal or could I do better either for insurance, or the overall cost of £239 digger with insurance? I guess the cost smarts a bit as I'll only be using the digger for one day.
Any other mini digger hire tips gratefully received.
Thanks, Dave.
So this Bank Holiday I'll be clearing some land at the back of my garden in preparation for a shed, not a massive job, a number of big rhododendron bushes with deep roots and general shrubbery, but an easy day's days work with a mini digger. The hire for the three day weekend is £166, but Jewsons Hire want a £1,200 deposit which seems a bit strong especially as they are also insisting I get digger insurance.
I got a quote for £73 from JCB insurance, my question is does this sound like a good deal or could I do better either for insurance, or the overall cost of £239 digger with insurance? I guess the cost smarts a bit as I'll only be using the digger for one day.
Any other mini digger hire tips gratefully received.
Thanks, Dave.
Surely it is cheaper to get someone in as someone else posted, mini digger rental (up in Yorkshire anyway) is ~£50/day, no deposits etc. even if you are paying someone £150/day to drive it, it still works out cheaper than your rental & insurance. You get the weekend off and save money, win win!
Good points and advice chaps, thanks.
The man & digger is point is a good one, I actually only save about £200 when I factor in his offer to lay the shed base too. On the face of it £200 to save the Bank Holiday seems like a tempting deal but as my tree surgeon mate is gifting me two days of his time to help, and I'm sure we'll have fun together on the project I've taken the DIY option.
Even though the saving isn't massive I like doing these things myself as it ensures no shortcuts are taken, I've become fed up paying money and getting work I know I would have done better myself, I guess its the fact we all take more care when its our own property.
I still don't get why Jewsons Hire need to take a whopping £1,200 off my card for three days when I'll have digger insurance too, what's the 1,200 for it's not for theft and damage, Its like they're forcing me to pay twice for the same thing.
I'll look at erminplant.co.uk.
Thanks again, Dave.
The man & digger is point is a good one, I actually only save about £200 when I factor in his offer to lay the shed base too. On the face of it £200 to save the Bank Holiday seems like a tempting deal but as my tree surgeon mate is gifting me two days of his time to help, and I'm sure we'll have fun together on the project I've taken the DIY option.
Even though the saving isn't massive I like doing these things myself as it ensures no shortcuts are taken, I've become fed up paying money and getting work I know I would have done better myself, I guess its the fact we all take more care when its our own property.
I still don't get why Jewsons Hire need to take a whopping £1,200 off my card for three days when I'll have digger insurance too, what's the 1,200 for it's not for theft and damage, Its like they're forcing me to pay twice for the same thing.
I'll look at erminplant.co.uk.
Thanks again, Dave.
Gav147 said:
I would guess the deposit is because you don't have an account at Jewsons? Does your tree surgeon pal not know anyone local hire places, sure he could get you a better deal than that.
Spot on Gav147, no Jewsons account.My mate is from East Anglia, he comes with chainsaws, cement mixer, barrows, a proper petrol strimmer and host of other kit, I'm in Herts/North London where everything is twice the price and I don't have much gear :rolleyes
My mate is helping over two days just for the fun of it, I'm the laborer and provider of food, beer and entertainment
The man with digger makes more sense, but hanging out with a good mate clearing scrub and using a mini digger, shredder ect is more of a laugh than just watching someone else do it.Dave.
Depending on where in Hertfordshire you are, Hire or Buy in Biggleswade may be able to rent to you.
Just had one for the weekend (so not a BH weekend), for £147+vat.
Insurance offered and declined with no problem, deposit of £500 with the hire and fuel costs to be deducted before the balance is refunded.
ETA:
The above for for a 1.5T Hire or Buy
Just had one for the weekend (so not a BH weekend), for £147+vat.
Insurance offered and declined with no problem, deposit of £500 with the hire and fuel costs to be deducted before the balance is refunded.
ETA:
The above for for a 1.5T Hire or Buy
Edited by Ledaig on Tuesday 22 August 00:11
It used to be easy to get insurance through the Hire Co but most have stopped this now.
Some will let you Hire without insurance for small Plant but be aware if it gets stolen you could be paying circa £10k including replacement and loss of hire cost.
I tend to find the smaller local independants are better for such things.
Otherwise it costs circa £80 for single hire insurance or around £200 for a year !
Some will let you Hire without insurance for small Plant but be aware if it gets stolen you could be paying circa £10k including replacement and loss of hire cost.
I tend to find the smaller local independants are better for such things.
Otherwise it costs circa £80 for single hire insurance or around £200 for a year !
I have tried a bunch of smaller local firms and a few of the big corporate outfits, the smaller guys local to me don't have everything I need (compacter, shredder and digger) and I really want it all from one place.
In the end Jewsons Hire came out best at £291 including VAT for all three items, ok so I need to add £73 of insurance (3 days) which brings it up to £364, and I guess as I get three days hire over the Bank Holiday I really should be looking at it as £121 a day which would be quite good value if I was getting a full three days work out of the plant.
The thing that makes it expensive is I'll only be using the digger for one day, but that's not really Jewsons Hire's fault is it, the man with digger would probably be more sensible but there's still a small saving in doing the work myself, it'll be fun and I know the shed base will be laid properly doing it ourselves.
Thanks for all the tips guys, sadly I'm running out of time and very busy at work so I think I'll just bite the Jewson Hire bullet and put their crazy £1,200 deposit on my card for the three days, it'll all come back less the £291 anyway.
Dave.
In the end Jewsons Hire came out best at £291 including VAT for all three items, ok so I need to add £73 of insurance (3 days) which brings it up to £364, and I guess as I get three days hire over the Bank Holiday I really should be looking at it as £121 a day which would be quite good value if I was getting a full three days work out of the plant.
The thing that makes it expensive is I'll only be using the digger for one day, but that's not really Jewsons Hire's fault is it, the man with digger would probably be more sensible but there's still a small saving in doing the work myself, it'll be fun and I know the shed base will be laid properly doing it ourselves.
Thanks for all the tips guys, sadly I'm running out of time and very busy at work so I think I'll just bite the Jewson Hire bullet and put their crazy £1,200 deposit on my card for the three days, it'll all come back less the £291 anyway.
Dave.
Just to close this off Jewsons Hire were pretty good in the end, the hire cost was £291 including VAT for the digger, chipper and compactor.... but after a bit of negotiation they took off the £73 they made me pay for the insurance.
The view from from the house, before we started on the jungle:
The digger:
The compactor:
The chipper:
Lifting in the ballast ect:
Pulling out the giant rhododendron bushes (more like trees), the mini digger makes short work of the very stubborn root balls:
Scraping back to soil:
8" of topsoil dug out:
4" of Type 1 MOT (hardcore) in and compacted:
4" of 1:6 concrete goes in:
The wet cement leveled and tamped:
The finished slab:
The view from from the house, you'd never know we've just created enough new space for a 12' x 8' shed
Couldn't have done it without that mini digger and the help of my mate
Project 'Shed Slab' came in at £900 including looking after my mate, a tough weekend but very rewarding and we had a lot of fun, best of all doing it ourselves saved me a tidy £300 over having the job done by my local builder.
The view from from the house, before we started on the jungle:
The digger:
The compactor:
The chipper:
Lifting in the ballast ect:
Pulling out the giant rhododendron bushes (more like trees), the mini digger makes short work of the very stubborn root balls:
Scraping back to soil:
8" of topsoil dug out:
4" of Type 1 MOT (hardcore) in and compacted:
4" of 1:6 concrete goes in:
The wet cement leveled and tamped:
The finished slab:
The view from from the house, you'd never know we've just created enough new space for a 12' x 8' shed
Couldn't have done it without that mini digger and the help of my mate
Project 'Shed Slab' came in at £900 including looking after my mate, a tough weekend but very rewarding and we had a lot of fun, best of all doing it ourselves saved me a tidy £300 over having the job done by my local builder.
Thanks 
I've just worked out the costs of the project.
The project came in at £825 to clear the land and get the slab down which includes everything start to finish.... IE the plant hire, materials and looking after my mate.
Due to space restrictions we ended up reducing the slab width from 3m to 2.5m which meant we were left with half a bulk bag of ballast and two bags of cement, basically I over spent on materials by roughly £30 so it was really an £800 slab.
The shed I've chosen is a quality 8'x12' extra height workshop in 20mm tanalised log lap with 10' double doors and proper rim lock set which came in at £1,290 made to my spec, delivered and erected on site by Central Garden Buildings in Birmingham.
The plan includes painting the shed green to make sure it blends into the shrubs ect I left in place to screen it from view.
A useful saving of £2k combined with the satisfaction you only get from doing the job yourself, well worth the effort I feel
I've just worked out the costs of the project.
The project came in at £825 to clear the land and get the slab down which includes everything start to finish.... IE the plant hire, materials and looking after my mate.
Due to space restrictions we ended up reducing the slab width from 3m to 2.5m which meant we were left with half a bulk bag of ballast and two bags of cement, basically I over spent on materials by roughly £30 so it was really an £800 slab.
The shed I've chosen is a quality 8'x12' extra height workshop in 20mm tanalised log lap with 10' double doors and proper rim lock set which came in at £1,290 made to my spec, delivered and erected on site by Central Garden Buildings in Birmingham.
The plan includes painting the shed green to make sure it blends into the shrubs ect I left in place to screen it from view.
wolfracesonic said:
Would it be cheaper to hire a guy with a machine, have him do the work in the week and have the bank holiday to yourself?
So the whole project will cost me £2,137.09 including a proper solid shed that should last 15-20 years which I think is pretty good as another mate of mine who's a builder said he'd be looking to charge at least double that if he'd managed the whole project start to finish and supplied a shed of the same spec and quality.A useful saving of £2k combined with the satisfaction you only get from doing the job yourself, well worth the effort I feel
mcbook said:
Was it fairly easy to learn how to use the digger or did it take a while to get used to?
The digger controls are straightforward, I've used diggers before but a few years ago now so it took about an hour to get back in the swing of it, my mate is a tree surgeon and uses diggers on a regular basis, in the end he proved much faster than me so he took on the bulk of the digger work.fat80b said:
Excellent thread update - I am planning a similar project once we get our new place and the information here is spot on. I love it when a thread gets completed - Good work 
, Bob
I'll update this post when the shed arrives from Central Garden Buildings in 3-4 weeks time, they are 120 miles from me but still came in at over £300 cheaper for the same quality shed than my local well respected shed people. I spent quite a bit of time researching sheds and it soon became clear not all are created equal, there's a lot of rubbish out there so while you can get an 8'x12' shed for as little as £550 it will definitely be made badly and clad in paper thin ship lap rather that the infinitely superior 20mm log lap I've gone with., BobYou can get a decent ship lap 8'x12' shed for around £1,000 but it'll probably have a single door and will definitely be of standard height, so to me it made sense to pay the £1,290 and get the higher double door version in with the much stronger an durable 20mm log lap cladding. It's hard to believe but Central Garden Buildings in Birmingham will deliver and erect my extra height 20mm log lap workshop style shed to me here on the edges on London and still come in at £300 less than my local guys, I guess that's London prices for you as we get robbed for everything down here.
Time will tell if Central Garden Buildings make a quality shed, it's a bit of a punt but their spec is spot on and the guy I spoke to really knew his sheds answering all my challenging questions with the right answers which gave me a lot of confidence. They were able to add the extra height I wanted at reasonable cost and added the proper lock set I wanted too, I've researched Central Garden Buildings as best I can and they check out just fine, but if anyone has any experience of them I'd be interested to hear their feedback.
Thanks for following my project, I'll be closing it off when the shed turns up in 3-4 weeks so stay tuned for the next installment, in the mean time if anyone needs any advise on costs, plant hire and materials I'll be happy to share what I've learned so far.
Dave.
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