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Oct 21
Feb 05
Also, you don’t have to worry about storing rental equipment in different places and moving it around to different construction sites. Most importantly, you won’t waste money buying construction equipment that remains idle for a large portion of the year. Opting to rent construction equipment allows you to get your money’s worth at all times, but without the hassle.
Just rent the equipment, use it for the agreed upon time and return it in good condition. If it breaks down, you are not responsible for repairing it. Return it to the dealer and get a replacement delivered to the site at no cost. However, just make sure that you understand the terms of the rental agreement before signing it.
Basically, renting construction equipment is not as cumbersome as buying it. However, there are some things that you should take into account first:
Jan 15
While repainting the walls can have a whitewashing effect that instantly makes the home look cleaner, brighter and more appealing, the color combinations that you choose for your home should be considered with care. You have a rainbow of possibilities for your space when preparing your home for sale, but you want to choose colors that will have broad or universal appeal to buyers and that will showcase your home in the best possible light.
Neutral or Muted Hues are Ideal
Many homeowners love to paint their walls stylish or trendy colors, and they may dislike the banal look of beige walls throughout their home. While this may or may not be what you prefer for your home, keep in mind that you are trying to transform your home so that it has broad appeal to the buyers. The colors you choose should not reflect personal taste or preference. Instead, they should be selected based on colors that may be more likely to appeal to most and that may go well with the color of furnishings most already own. Neutral or muted hues are ideal. These lighter colors can also make smaller rooms seem larger, and they can make your entire home seem cleaner.
Avoid Bold, Dramatic Color Combinations
You may have some colors on your walls that you absolutely love, and you may be sad to see them go. However, when you have a bold, dramatic color combination in a room, a buyer may instantly be taken aback by such an intense color scheme. The buyer’s attention may then be focused on your interior design efforts rather than on the home itself, and this is not beneficial to your goal of selling your home. In addition, some may love your bold choices, but many may not. They may think about how those colors would not go well with their furnishings, and they may instantly start thinking about how they would need to work hard to repaint the walls after moving in. The last thing you want is for a buyer to think about your home as needing work.
If you are preparing your home to list for sale, repainting one room or several may be at the top of your to-do list. When you are selecting your paint colors, lean toward neutral hues that may have better appeal toward a larger group of home buyers.
Jan 04
Dress Up Your Doorknobs
An outdated doorknob can instantly age the look of your home, but what you might not know is that a simple douse of spray paint can instantly change the look of your knobs and provide a facelift. Instead of going down to the hardware store and paying hundreds of dollars to switch out each and every knob in your home, you can grab a can of paint in an appropriate shade and spray away for a result that will be long-lasting, modern and easy to complete.
Fix Up The Fixtures
Instead of just contending with the light fixtures in your home, you may want to consider replacing them altogether for a look that is up-to-date and unique. However, instead of going to the lighting store for an expensive, ornate piece, hit the thrift store or a discount home store. You should be able to find a fixture that will benefit from a quick spray of paint, and will spruce up your home nicely without all the cost of a trendy new piece.
Spray paint might seem like something that you’ll never have a use for, but it can actually be a simple way to dress up your home without the associated costs of new furniture pieces and fixtures. If you’re dressing up your home to put it on the market, you may want to contact your local real estate professional for more inside tips.
Dec 14
Have An Exit Strategy
Fires can break out whether residents are awake in the living room or kitchen, taking a bath or sleeping in the bedrooms. It is important to have a fire exit strategy for every floor of the home and every room of the home. In addition, it is equally important that all residents in the home understand the strategies and know how to get out.
Invest In Fire Safety Ladders
Fire safety ladders are designed to give residents a safe escape route from second story windows, and they should be placed in a convenient location in every second floor room in the home. Residents should know how to attach them securely to the window as well as how to get down the ladder safely.
Purchase A Fire Extinguisher
Generally, it is safer for residents to get out of the home in the event of a fire rather than to attempt to put the fire out, and personal safety should also come before thoughts about saving the property. However, in the event a very small fire has broken out, a fire extinguisher can provide a homeowner with a safe way to put the fire out. It is best to keep a fire extinguisher in a convenient location on each floor of the home.
Place Fire Detectors In Strategic Locations
There are codes regarding the placement of fire detectors in a home, be sure you are familiar with and are in compliance with these standards. In many cases, homeowners may benefit from having additional fire detectors placed in strategic locations throughout the home in addition to the locations required by code.
Check Fire Safety Equipment Regularly
Fire safety and prevention equipment is only useful if it works, so it is important to test the equipment and supplies regularly. For example, a homeowner may test the batteries in a fire detector monthly and may take extinguishers to the local fire department for testing annually. These steps will help to ensure that residents have access to functional safety equipment regularly.
Dec 07
Start With A Trip To The Dump
Before starting your move, grab some garbage bags and do a sweep of the house, making sure to toss out anything that needs to go to the dump. This will clear up the home of anything unnecessary and makes it easier to throw out some items when there’s no decision making pressure.
Decide What Furniture Will Be Replaced In Advance
A new home often means new furniture. By deciding in advance which items will be purchased new, homeowners can prepare to either sell or give away their older furniture before they move. Saving space and cutting down one extra step after moving in.
Sell Or Donate What You Don’t Need
Holiday decorations are the perfect example of items that are only taken out once a year and tend to be replaced before they are ever reused. There are probably similar boxes or shelves in every home filled with items that will never be used again but are still held onto.
Now Is A Good Time To Go Through The Closet
Clothes are not looked at as seriously as other objects when clearing space because they can easily fold down or be tucked away. It’s simpler for most people to just throw all their clothes in a box or travel bag before moving, but this is the perfect time to finally go through and donate anything that doesn’t fit or is never worn.
Be Patient With Children
It is hard for kids to part with their toys, even ones they haven’t used in years. These are part of their identity and telling them what they need to throw out can impact them emotionally and make a move that much harder. Sit down with the children and have a long talk about moving and donating items to see if they are ready to go through their things.
Nov 15
Building, maintaining and enhancing an inventory of work related equipment is costly, risky and often times frustrating. Few can tell you this better than those owning and operating construction companies. The quality and diversity of your inventory determines not only the type of work you can do but also the time frame in which the work can successfully be completed. The traditional way of approaching this topic is for company owners to maintain their own inventory catered to their specialties, this method, however, does come with some major draw backs. An alternative option that comes into play and has been becoming more popular is renting the equipment needed. There are several factors to take into consideration when determining whether or not renting vs owning
construction equipment is the right route to go:
Financial Flexibility When Renting vs Owning Construction Equipment
Big machinery, like that which is common at construction sites around the world, is quite expensive so much so that is is necessary for companies to either leverage an existing line of credit or secure a loan/lease. This is often times risky as it not only ties up cash flow but can also effect future borrowing. With the current state of affairs there is no way to guarantee work years or even months out which contributes to the risk level. Although there may be an immediate need for equipment there is no way to guarantee the same type of work once the immediate project wraps up which means you could be stuck making up payments on a piece of equipment that is sitting idle. Shelling out large amounts of money for a piece of equipment which could end up going unused for months at a time is a very real concern for these companies and certainly one of the more important considerations when determining whether renting vs owning construction equipment makes more sense. Although renting the same equipment may seem short-sighted it is a way to avoid tying up large amounts of cash as well as avoiding equipment sitting idle.
Maintaining equipment compliance
Although this is a smaller part of much larger maintenance requirements it is one that renting construction equipment can directly address and the first factor to look and when deciding whether renting vs owning construction equipment makes more sense. With any large scale construction project there are environmental regulations that come in to play. With the government monitoring compliance of regulations that get tighter and tighter each year there is the very real concern of heavy fines being placed for violations caused by human error and faulty equipment. Covering every aspect of a piece of equipment including coolant, batteries, tires and even storage staying on top of the ever evolving list of regulations can in itself be a full time job. As we already mentioned a single violation can incur large fines which would then be attributed to the operating cost of the equipment that caused the violation. As regulations become tighter older equipment becomes less and less relevant as they don’t have the requirements to keep up with these enhanced regulations. That said, having more current models of specific pieces of equipment is a preemptive method to avoid the fines that come with a violation of one of the many environmental regulations. As mentioned above outright purchasing pieces of equipment may not always be possible for many reasons and that is where renting vs owning construction equipment comes into play. Rental companies cycle their inventory regularly to ensure their offerings are as up to date as possible thus attracting clients. With this comes the opportunity for a construction company to stay up to date with their inventory without having to constantly purchase newer and newer models. Equipment rental companies stay up to date with rules and regulations to ensure they themselves aren’t responsible for violating environmental regulations taking more concern off the plate of the construction company owner.
Operating cost vs rental cost
When deciding between renting vs owning construction equipment the biggest influencer boils down to cost. Operating cost vs rental cost to be more specific. As we’ve already shown construction equipment is expensive to purchase and with the larger equipment unrealistic to purchase without some type of credit or loan. Having said that the operating cost of a piece of equipment, especially the larger ones, doesn’t end with the purchase. Maintenance is regularly required, especially after vigorous usage on a job site, storage is required either a large yard or a warehouse space to keep the equipment from being stolen, additionally fuel cost and the like add to the overall operating cost. On top of that if something were to happen to the machine, such as a breakdown or issue that requires specialty knowledge to correct job down-time and the cost of the specialty labor to fix the machine both go towards the operating cost. With all of these in play its easy to see how a necessary piece of equipment can quite easily and quickly become a money-pit that can not only delay a job but can cut into the profit of the work. However, with rental equipment some of the concerns around operating cost are addressed. Of course no rental company is going to pay for your fuel, they will however be able cover insurance and in the case of a broken piece of equipment most rental companies can provide a replacement which will drastically cut down on the job-site downtime. We also mentioned previously that rental companies regularly cycle their inventory which cuts down on the loss of profit through equipment deterioration which is one of the major highlights of renting vs owning construction equipment.
Contact us to Hear More Benefits of Renting vs Owning Construction Equipment
As you can see there are quite a few benefits to renting vs owning construction equipment. It is best to evaluate each situation rather than using one solution or the other for everything. In fact the best solution is often a combination of owning and renting as some pieces of equipment can be used across many different types of jobs where as some are for very specific situations. As a equipment rental company serving the Chicago and North-west Indiana areas we at Aide Rental take pride in the ability to offer a very diverse inventory of equipment to an array of companies and especially those working in the construction realm. We strive to find the best options for our clients and love our repeat clients. For more information on how to best leverage rental equipment for construction purposes please contact us at 708-756-4020 for our Chicago location or 219-838-4300 for our Indiana location. To find specific pieces of equipment or to find more information about renting vs owning construction equipment visit our website http://www.indianaequipmentrental.com/.