How to Determine Which Attachments You Need for Excavator Hire
Excavator hire has of late become standard practice, with the average homeowner needing to rent one from time to time.
But deciding what you need to have the job done calls for some specialized knowledge sometimes and this article is an attempt to give you a little of that.
Excavators are versatile machines and they can be used in a variety of ways.
Besides digging or excavating they can also be used to demolish walls, lift unwieldy objects like logs, drain mud and sludge from pits and pools, drill holes or break rocks etc.
Each of these tasks calls for a specialized attachment.
When you hire an excavator many of the attachments will not come free with the machine and you have to hire them separately.
Knowing what you might need in advance will help you maximize your use of the excavator and reduce the time needed to do the job.
Attachments extend the excavator's capabilities and may even reduce the time needed to rent the machine by making the work go faster.
Most modern excavators have what is known as a quick coupler that makes it a very simple task to fit the attachments.
Some of the attachments normally used include the following: • Bulldozer blades These are horizontal bulldozer-style attachments used to level and push material, for example to push removed earth back into a hole, or spread a heap of earth evenly on a surface.
• Hydraulic hammers or breakers A breaker is a percussion hammer used to demolish concrete walls or other structures as well as break rocks.
In case your digging has to go through a rocky outcrop or bedrock then you will need to fit a breaker to the excavator so that it can break through the rocks and the substrate material.
• Augurs An augur is a type of drilling attachment that extracts the drilled material as it drills.
It is useful for sinking holes of small diameter where removing the earth with buckets would be impracticable.
• Thumbs and grapples Thumbs enable the excavator to hold and lift or manoeuvre an object.
These can be used to lift logs and debris from the work site, or move it around.
Depending on your excavator hire needs you have to work it out in advance what attachments will do the job before you even hire the excavator.
The bucket is a standard attachment although they also come is various shapes and sizes depending on the application.
But deciding what you need to have the job done calls for some specialized knowledge sometimes and this article is an attempt to give you a little of that.
Excavators are versatile machines and they can be used in a variety of ways.
Besides digging or excavating they can also be used to demolish walls, lift unwieldy objects like logs, drain mud and sludge from pits and pools, drill holes or break rocks etc.
Each of these tasks calls for a specialized attachment.
When you hire an excavator many of the attachments will not come free with the machine and you have to hire them separately.
Knowing what you might need in advance will help you maximize your use of the excavator and reduce the time needed to do the job.
Attachments extend the excavator's capabilities and may even reduce the time needed to rent the machine by making the work go faster.
Most modern excavators have what is known as a quick coupler that makes it a very simple task to fit the attachments.
Some of the attachments normally used include the following: • Bulldozer blades These are horizontal bulldozer-style attachments used to level and push material, for example to push removed earth back into a hole, or spread a heap of earth evenly on a surface.
• Hydraulic hammers or breakers A breaker is a percussion hammer used to demolish concrete walls or other structures as well as break rocks.
In case your digging has to go through a rocky outcrop or bedrock then you will need to fit a breaker to the excavator so that it can break through the rocks and the substrate material.
• Augurs An augur is a type of drilling attachment that extracts the drilled material as it drills.
It is useful for sinking holes of small diameter where removing the earth with buckets would be impracticable.
• Thumbs and grapples Thumbs enable the excavator to hold and lift or manoeuvre an object.
These can be used to lift logs and debris from the work site, or move it around.
Depending on your excavator hire needs you have to work it out in advance what attachments will do the job before you even hire the excavator.
The bucket is a standard attachment although they also come is various shapes and sizes depending on the application.
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