Four Considerations That Will Make Your Crane Rental Quote More Accurate
Many factors can affect how much a crane rental costs. In order to get an accurate price for your crane rental, it's important to know as much as possible about your project. Here are some specific details to consider before requesting a quote from a crane service company.
How Many Items You Need to Lift
First, it's important to know how many items you'll need to lift. The number of items will affect how long you need to rent a crane for. As HowMuchIsIt.org notes, cranes are usually rented by the day or per hour. Therefore, how long you need a crane for will directly affect how much the rental costs.
Determining how many items need to be lifted is often straightforward, and the answer is often only one. Sometimes, however, people don't realize that a feature comes in multiple pieces that each have to be lifted, or they decide to add items onto their lift mid-project.
For example, a homeowner who's installing a fancy outdoor kitchen may initially only reserve a crane to lift a full-size outdoor refrigerator over their home. Later in the project they might decide to also put in a large convection oven and even a dishwasher—which would require lifting three items rather than just one.
The more you can think through your project and determine how many items will have to be lifted, the more accurate your quote will be. You'll be able to avoid price increases as your project morphs—and you can better budget for your crane rental.
How Large the Biggest Item You Need Lifted Is
The size of the largest item you need lifted will determine what size crane you need. For instance, if your biggest item only weighs a ton, you don't need a crane that can lift 25 tons. Conversely, if your biggest item weighs 25 tons, crane with a capacity of 20 tons won't be sufficient.
You want to select the smallest crane that's able to safely lift the biggest item you have. This will ensure that the crane's able to do the lift, but it will also keep your costs as low as possible. Many crane services charge more for heavier duty cranes than they do for lighter duty ones.
What Terrain the Crane Will Be On
In some cases, the terrain that the crane will be on when lifting determines what type of crane is needed. As one post explains, all-terrain canes are suitable for any type of terrain. Crawler cranes can also go on most different types of terrain, even including soft ground, but there might be some terrain that they're not suitable for. Other kinds of cranes may only be suitable for certain types of surfaces.
Knowing what surface you'll need a crane to go on will help the crane service you talk with determine the most suitable type of crane for your lift. This, in turn, will ensure you get a quote for the specific crane you'll need, rather than a range for several different types of cranes that may be suitable.
Whether There Are Any Obstructions Overhead
Overhead obstructions can greatly complicate a lift. Tree branches, tall buildings, and power lines can make getting an item up into the air and lowering it in the desired location much more difficult and time-consuming.
There are two reasons to look around your lift site for overhead obstructions before contacting a crane service for a rental quote. First, you might find that one location is easier to lift from than another, and the two locations could have different terrain. For instance, it might actually be better to lift from a grassy lawn than a driveway if trees cut across the driveway. Second, the crane service's representative you talk with should be able to predict how the overhead obstruction will impact the lift's required time—and, thus, its cost.
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