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The Mini Excavator Hire Checklist

Hiring a mini excavator can make groundwork, landscaping, trenching, and small construction jobs far more efficient, but choosing the right machine takes a little planning. Before you book, it’s worth thinking through the key details that can affect cost, access, safety, and how smoothly the job runs.

This checklist covers 8 important things to consider before hiring a mini excavator, helping you choose the right size, prepare your site properly, and avoid common issues once work begins.

1) Are there any utility services in the area to be excavated?

Before using a mini excavator, check whether there are any underground services in the area, such as gas pipes, water pipes, power cables, fibre optic cables or drains. Striking a service can be dangerous, expensive, and disruptive, so this should always be checked during the planning stage.

Use cable detection equipment where needed, look for visible signs such as inspection covers or utility markers, and contact the relevant utility companies if you are unsure. Taking a few checks before you start can help prevent serious problems once digging begins.

2) How deep do I need to dig?

How deep you need to dig will depend on the job. Levelling a garden, digging drainage trenches, or preparing footings for a small extension or conservatory will usually have very different requirements to a deeper excavation, such as a swimming pool or basement project.

It is important to know the approximate depth before hiring a mini excavator, as this can affect the size and type of machine you need. Bucket size should also be considered. For example, if you need to cut a narrow trench of around 6 inches, or 150mm, you may need a smaller machine that can work with a narrow bucket. Larger machines may have a bucket linkage or quick hitch that is too wide for this type of trench.

3) What is the ground condition of the area to be excavated?

Before hiring a mini excavator, it is important to think about the ground conditions on site. Soft, wet, or unstable ground can make excavation more difficult and may affect the size or type of machine you need. It can also influence how deep you need to dig, especially for footings or foundations.

Hard, compacted, or clay-heavy ground may require a more powerful mini excavator than lighter soil or previously worked ground. A smaller 1.7 tonne digger may be suitable for many domestic jobs, but tougher conditions may call for a 3 tonne machine with more digging power.

You should also consider what is on the surface. If you need to break through tarmac, concrete, or other hard materials before digging, it may be worth hiring a hydraulic breaker attachment alongside the excavator.

4) What do I intend to do with the excavated material?

Before hiring a mini excavator, think about what you will do with the material you dig out. Excavated soil, rubble, clay, or hardcore all need somewhere to go, and material can often take up more room once it has been removed from the ground.

On larger sites, you may be able to reuse or spread the spoil elsewhere, especially during landscaping projects. On smaller sites, this may not be practical, so you may need to arrange a skip or another form of waste removal.

If you are moving larger amounts of material, it may also be worth hiring a dumper alongside the excavator. A skip loader dumper or high-tip tracked dumper can be loaded by the excavator and used to move spoil around the site or tip it directly into a skip. This can save a lot of time compared with moving material by hand.

5) Are there any access or work area restrictions?

Size matters here, so check access to your site carefully. How much space is available within the work area? Are there any width, height, or turning restrictions? If you need to reach the rear of a property through a narrow side gate, one of our smaller micro diggers - with a retracted track width of just 750mm - may be your only option.

It is also important to consider where the machine will be delivered and unloaded. Make sure there is suitable access for the transport vehicle and enough room to safely unload the excavator.

And it is also worth considering whether an electric machine would be beneficial for your project

Finally, think about the roads surrounding your project. If access involves a winding single-track road, restricted parking, a school run route, or nearby roadworks, let us know when booking so we can plan the delivery accordingly and help avoid delays.

6) How long is the project likely to take?

When booking a mini excavator, you will usually be asked for an estimated hire duration. This does not need to be exact, but it is worth thinking carefully about how long you are likely to need the machine, as the hire cost will increase the longer it stays on site.

Where possible, try to plan the stages of your project that need the excavator into one clear working window. This can be more cost-effective than hiring the machine, returning it, and then hiring again later.

Before delivery, make sure the site is ready, access is clear, and any labour, materials, skips, or additional equipment are arranged. Delays at the start of the hire period can quickly waste paid hire time.

It is also sensible to allow for weather disruption. Rain, frost, snow, and very wet ground can slow down even straightforward excavation work, so build in a little flexibility when estimating how long you will need the machine.

7) How much will the hire cost?

You can hire mini excavators for anything from a single day to several months. Rates vary depending on the size and specification of machine required, so contact your local FTH Hire Hub for a quote.

When it comes to reliability, FTH invest millions of pounds every year in fleet renewal, which means the machine that arrives on your site will be modern, well-maintained and ready to work. Across our network, we operate over 800 excavators ranging from 0.8 tonne to 8 tonne, so whatever your project demands, we'll have the right machine available. 

8) Looking to Hire a Mini Digger or Excavator?

If you'd like to hire an excavator of any size or specification for your next project, get in touch with the FTH Hire Group or get a quote online.

Our excavators are available for hire across the South East of England, Scotland and Wales. Our hire hubs are located in Farnborough, Farnham, Basingstoke, Guildford, Reading, Maidstone, Horsham, Worthing, Southampton, Chelmsford, London, Airdrie, Bridgend, Cardiff, Cwmbran, Newport, Pontypridd and Swansea. Contact your local hire hub today.

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