How To Rent Large Equipment At Home Depot
Hardware stores both big like Home Depot and small like a family-owned local shop are essential when it comes to all sorts of projects. They're a great place to find most, if not all, of the tools you need for DIY projects, home repairs, and car maintenance. The thing is, you can find more than your standard hand tools and hardware supplies at the franchised shop with the big orange logo. It's also a place where you can rent (or in some cases even buy) much, much larger gear.
If you've got a home project that's bigger than a leaky sink — we're talking tasks on par with outdoor pool installation, concrete pouring, digging trenches for plumbing, and so on — chances are you can borrow something big that'll make things go whole a lot faster. Granted, renting an earth mover is going to cost a lot more than buying a few shovels (and maybe some pizzas to help bribe friends and family to help), but it'll also save you a lot of time. And probably sore muscles.
What you can rent
It's probably not accurate to say that you can find any piece of large equipment you might need, but the assortment at Home Depot is pretty extensive. Chances are good you'll be able to find just about everything required for a variety of home improvement, repair, or renovation projects, though.
Of course, there are the obvious items like portable light towers for nighttime work, wood chippers, stump grinders, lawn mowers, and trenchers for irrigation and plumbing, but that's just the more obvious stuff. You can also borrow trailers to help you haul materials around (though you'll need your own vehicle to hitch them to), buggies for moving concrete, air compressors for use with paint spraying or air-powered tools like pneumatic nailers, and trench rollers for soil compaction.
The equipment on offer gets even bigger than all that, though. Home Depot also rents out forklifts, tractor loader backhoes, boom lifts (articulating, straight, and towable), multiple types of scissor lift, tracked and wheeled skid steers, and honest-to-goodness mini excavators. Then once you figure out everything you need, you can schedule a pick up or delivery — and if necessary, get some guidance (from a store associate or, if you're using aerial equipment, Mobile Elevated Work Platform training) before you start operating anything.
How to rent it
Actually renting any equipment is a relatively simple process, though Home Depot's delivery service isn't available in all areas. So make sure you know whether you're going to be expected to go pick things up yourself before you finish ordering.
- Visit Home Depot's official large equipment webpage rental to find the items you need for your project. Or you can call the Contact Center (1-888-266-7228) to discuss everything with an agent.
- Select the equipment you want to rent to visit its own webpage for more details. Pay attention to availability and demand, as you may have to find an alternative or delay your project if none are currently ready to go. You might also need to call to reserve one if demand is too high.
- Figure out how long you want to rent the equipment for and note the per hour, per day, per week, and four week costs.
- On the website, click the "Schedule a Delivery" button on the item's webpage. Then enter your details to sign up for delivery.
- An agent will then call you to confirm the payment, rental, and scheduling details (unless you're renting over the phone already).
- Your equipment will be delivered and then picked up based on the schedule you choose.
Be aware that some equipment is not available for pick up and can only be rented through VIP delivery — which, again, isn't available in all areas.