Gear to Help Tradies Save Time on the Jobsite

There’s a raft of well-designed equipment to help tradies save time and diversify. That’s because as equipment becomes more intuitive to operate, it’s possible to offer services beyond your usual range.

For example, a landscaper could use ground penetrating radar to locate utility pipes before excavating a garden. By hiring a GPR unit, the job can be done straight away without waiting for a surveyor to look the site over. 

Let’s look at other equipment that’s saving tradies time across Australia and New Zealand, thanks to its ease of use and availability for hire.

Airless sprayer

The days of paint rollers and trays are not over, but did you know there’s also a quicker alternative to traditional spray painting?

Airless sprayers use a piston to pressurise the paint itself. The paint comes out of the nozzle under much greater pressure than a traditional HVLP sprayer, and so gets the job done faster while applying a thinner layer of paint.

Not only does this save the amount of paint you need, but drying time is faster so you can get to that second coat sooner.

Post hole digger

Post hole diggers have uses beyond fencing. If you need to erect a sign, test soil, plant a tree or install poles for clotheslines or security lights, diggers save you time.

A one-person post hole digger weighs 7kg and runs on two-stroke. It bores up to 150mm diameter holes down to 600mm.

At 80kg, a cantilever digger uses augers up to 360mm diameter for piers, fences and retaining wall supports. It’s also a one-person operation too, thanks to its mobile frame.

The most powerful post hole machine is a mini loader with a digger attachment. This has a cut diameter up to 450mm to a depth of two metres with an extension.

Pipe locator and pipe camera

Pipe locators and cameras solve a perennial problem for excavators: locating infrastructure underground. You could consult original construction plans, but if these are old or non-existent – or someone’s done some DIY work – you risk digging up utility pipes.

To solve the problem, a pipe locator transmitting system shows the depth and direction of underground pipes. If you want to see inside, a camera attached to a fibre optic rod is inserted into the pipe.

The camera shows whether a blockage in the pipe is due to tree roots, a fence post or a collapsed pipe wall. Knowing the cause makes it easier to give accurate repair quotes.

If the pipe is non-conductive, a ground penetrating radar device can still locate it. Similar to a stud-finder, it locates objects with continuous surfaces by first calibrating average ground density.

Concrete clean-up and cutting

There are better ways to clean up after a concreting job than handing the apprentice a broom or a mop. Walk-behind and ride-on scrubbers and sweepers of all sizes mean you can hire a machine tailored to jobs large and small.

Hiring is the solution for tradies who don’t want to buy a sweeper and/or scrubber or don’t have the storage space. It also means you can offer a value-added service, such as cleaning up after a job, rather than leaving it to the client. It’s about differentiating your services from your competitors’ without purchasing new equipment.

For concrete cutting, a high-frequency demo saw outperforms other electric models, having the same power as a petrol-driven unit. You can also use it indoors without creating fumes.

This hand-held saw cuts windows or doorways in concrete or brick walls, if a job requires it. Rather than handball the job to another contractor, with a high-frequency demo saw hire you can get it done yourself.

Compact material hoist

For HVAC installers or builders who need help lifting beams, the 4.9 metre material hoist is a handy tool. This 295kg unit is more compact and easier to transport than previous models. A conventional unit fits in the back of a large ute, but these fit in a station wagon. It’s good for tight access areas, fits through a standard doorway and needs no outriggers.

Cordless cutting & crimping

Meanwhile, a new generation of battery-powered cabling tools is challenging perceptions that battery units aren’t up to heavier tasks.

Heavy-duty cable cutters for nonferrous cables up to 54mm O.D. are specifically designed for cutting the toughest copper and aluminium cables in a limited amount of space. The cordless crimper has a 12-tonne compression rating with a 32mm opening. It accepts midspan copper and aluminium sleeves and cables up to 750 KCM.

Interested in how we can help? Contact your local Kennards Hire branch to see how tools and equipment like these can save time and make your life easier.