Rented equipment: simple, if complete
For rentals, price the rate for the duration (day, week, four-week month, whichever combination is cheapest), plus everything around it:
| Item | Basis |
|---|---|
| Rental | Per day, week or four-week period, per unit |
| Delivery and pickup | Per trip; extra for after-hours or restricted access |
| Damage waiver or insurance | Percentage of rental, or your own policy |
| Fuel or charging | Per hour or per day; refuel charges if returned low |
| Operator | Labor hours if not in the crew |
| Environmental and other fees, taxes | Per the rental contract |
Rental "month" pricing is often a 28-day billing cycle, not a calendar month, and rental hour limits (commonly a single-shift allowance) can trigger overtime charges on double shifts. Read the rental terms.
Owned equipment: ownership and operating costs
Many contractors set an internal hourly rate for owned equipment. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publishes a full method in EP 1110-1-8, Construction Equipment Ownership and Operating Expense Schedule, with regional rate tables, age adjustment factors for ownership and standby, and area factors. Even if you never work for USACE, it is a well-documented framework:
- Ownership: depreciation (purchase price less salvage, over the useful life), cost of money (interest), insurance, taxes and storage.
- Operating: fuel, lubricants, maintenance and repairs, tires or tracks, wear parts, per operating hour.
- Operator: labor cost, priced separately unless it is in your crew rate.
A compact track loader bought for $70,000, 20% salvage after 5 years, used 1,000 hours a year. Interest, insurance and taxes assumed at 8% a year on average investment. Fuel 3 gal per hour at $4.00; repairs and maintenance assumed at $8.00 per hour.
Low utilization drives the hourly rate up. Compare the result with local rental rates; if renting is cheaper at your actual utilization, ownership needs another reason (availability, attachments, control).
Duration comes from productivity
| Step | How |
|---|---|
| Quantity | Units of work from the takeoff |
| Productivity | Units per hour from your history |
| Hours | Quantity / productivity |
| Days | Hours / productive hours per day |
| Equipment days | Days on site including setup, gaps and demobilization |
Where equipment sets the pace (excavation, hoisting, paving), its production rate drives the duration. Where the crew sets the pace (ceiling work from lifts), size equipment to the crew and the schedule.
Worked example: rented lifts for a ceiling scope
A ceiling crew needs two scissor lifts for six weeks. Hypothetical rates: $900 per four-week period, $400 per week, $250 delivery and $250 pickup per lift, 12% damage waiver.
Price the schedule, not the scope. A lift that sits idle between phases still costs money; state the rental duration you assumed.
Mobilization and standby
- Mobilization and demobilization per move, including multiple mobilizations for phased work.
- Standby when equipment waits on others. For owned equipment on changes or delays, many public contracts set standby at a reduced rate without operating costs; USACE EP 1110-1-8 publishes standby age factors. Your contract governs.
- Small tools and consumables as a percentage of labor or a per-hour rate.
- Lifts, scaffolding and hoisting for interior trades, often forgotten because they are not drawn.
Training and safety costs
OSHA 29 CFR 1926.453 covers aerial lifts and 1926.454 covers scaffold training (scissor lifts are generally treated as mobile scaffolds). ANSI A92 standards for mobile elevating work platforms add operator and occupant training and site risk assessment. Price training time and any fall protection the work requires.
Before you finalize
- Every crew activity has the equipment it needs.
- Durations match the schedule, including gaps between phases.
- Delivery, pickup, fuel and fees included.
- Operator labor in the crew or priced separately, not both.
- Owned rates checked against rental market rates.
Where RenderDraw fits
Equipment durations follow quantities. RenderDraw's AI takeoff proposes quantities with sources for estimator review, so durations and equipment days start from checked numbers. Try a free sample takeoff.
