Buy or rent an excavator for house construction and garden landscaping?

Hello everyone,

we are about to have our construction contractor start our new building. The property is located on a slope, and quite a few cubic meters of earth need to be filled and distributed. We would also like to do some work ourselves (partially drainage with throttling, open water management, filling with about 1 m of earth, etc.)

Now I am wondering whether it makes sense for me to buy an excavator and use it (possibly a smaller one) to complete the work without stress. Alternatively, there are of course many rental companies here where the excavator doesn’t cost a fortune per day and I can get exactly the size and type I need for the work at hand. Unfortunately, I can’t make a precise calculation since I don’t know exactly what a used excavator should cost and at what price I could sell it again.

So far, it seems convenient to me to have an excavator immediately available in order to complete the work without stress when there is time. On the other hand, the investment in a used machine must be manageable, and no major defects should occur during the construction phase.

What is your experience? What have you done? Do you have a tip on where I can buy an inexpensive excavator (that is not a piece of junk)? Or am I completely on the wrong track and renting is the best and cheapest option?

I would appreciate your opinions and suggestions.

Best regards
Sven

Have you ever looked at classified ads or Autoscout?

Hey...

yes, I have studied all the portals I found. But since I am not an expert in construction machinery, I can hardly judge whether it is a fair offer or if someone is trying to get rid of scrap metal and hazardous waste. With a car, I would have less difficulty evaluating this! :-(

Regards Sven

For the few days you need it, the effort is not worth buying and then selling it again..

I would rent.

Have you ever operated an excavator yourself?
Can you repair the excavator? With cheap used ones, you won't get by without repairs.

Have your civil engineer offer you the excavator hour with driver.
My husband and I are both very untalented excavator operators (and drive pretty much everything else). When I look at what an experienced excavator operator can handle, we need multiple times that.

The problem with the slope was that, as always, a digger was needed every few days. But paying for the rental each time, including the departure fee, also gets expensive. We simply rented one together with the neighbors from time to time. And when it really didn't work, 20 cubic meters of mineral concrete were distributed by hand or 60 tons of topsoil substrate.