Plant & Heavy Equipment

Plant and heavy equipment covers tools almost nobody buys: mini diggers, site dumpers, concrete pumps, trench rammers, acro props, scaffolding and large compressors. They cost too much, take up too much space, and only earn their keep on jobs measured in hours or weeks. Hire is the default. A mini digger arrives on a trailer the morning the trench is dug. Props are hired by the week. A concrete pump is usually booked through the ready-mix supplier as part of the pour.

The exception is the sledgehammer. It sits here because it does the same demolition work as the bigger plant, but it is cheap enough to buy outright and keep for years. Air compressors split the same way: a small portable unit is often bought for nail guns and tyres, while the large diesel compressors that drive breakers are always hired.

Each guide explains what the plant does, how hire works, what to expect on day and week rates, and the safety points that make a project-managed groundwork phase expensive when something goes wrong.

Where to start

Read acro props before any steel goes in. Too few props, or props removed before the padstone mortar has cured, is one of the most expensive mistakes on a domestic structural job. Then read mini digger, which covers machine size, self-drive against operated hire, and insurance, and scaffolding, because idle scaffold keeps charging weekly hire when the programme slips.

The guides, grouped by job

Digging and moving spoil. The mini digger and the site dumper, including access widths and rollover safety.

Concrete and compaction. The concrete pump for foundation pours and the trench rammer for backfilling around drainage. The plate compactor handles wider areas of sub-base.

Breaking out. The sledgehammer for thin or already-cracked concrete, the SDS breaker for anything thicker, and the air compressor guide for when a pneumatic breaker is needed.

Temporary works and access. Acro props for supporting walls while openings are formed, and scaffolding for blockwork and roofing.

Where these fit in the build

Diggers and dumpers belong to excavation and muck-away, where the muck-away spoil estimator sizes the spoil. Pumps come in for foundations and footings, and rammers for drainage. Props go up for steels and lintels, and the scaffolding stage covers when to book it and when to have it taken down.