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Your project
1. What kind of job?
2. Do you have a truck rated to tow 7,000 lb, with the hitch?
3. What is one of your days worth? (day off, lost income, or just your weekend)
🔧 Rent and do it yourself
- A hit gas line, electrical cable or pipe: the repair is billed to the owner, often several thousand dollars.
- The rental company's damage protection still leaves a deductible, usually $1,000 to $2,500, if the machine is damaged.
- A lawn or pavers crushed by the tracks, a drain pipe laid without slope, a trench that caves in.
🛠️ Altitude Services
Do the numbers make you want to call?
We come by, we look, and the written price is the final price. The visit costs nothing, and there is no obligation.
When renting really is the right call
We will not lie to you: there are cases where renting wins, and the calculator shows it. A small hole, a short trench in a yard with nothing buried, a free day and a truck that tows: go for it, and have a good weekend. Two pieces of advice anyway, because we would rather see you succeed than call us to fix it.
- File your locate request with Info-Excavation before renting, it is free but takes three business days. Nobody locates your irrigation, your lighting or your invisible fence: that one is on you.
- A 1.7 tonne mini excavator digs fine, but it does not get the soil out of your yard. Plan where it goes before you start.
When it is worth calling us
As soon as there is soil to remove, a slope to respect, a foundation next to it or more than a day of work, the rented machine is only part of the bill. The lost day, the soil, the trailer and the risk of hitting something quickly weigh more than the rental. And a French drain laid without slope or a poorly compacted paver base gets paid for twice.
Where the numbers come from: renting a 1.7 tonne mini excavator at about $300 a day (rates posted by the major rental companies in the area in 2026, from $280 to $490 depending on the model), damage protection around 14% of the rental, fuel $45 a day, delivery and pickup around $180, trailer $95 a day, 10 yard soil container around $550. Our side: labour and Kubota U25 excavator at $185 an hour, travel and soil haul-away included, as in our quotes. The number of days for a first-timer comes from our experience: what we do in a day usually takes two to three days for someone discovering the machine.