I need 8 pole jacks for a project for about a week. Rental cost is 50% of just buying them.
Do I rent to save 50% and deal with ones that might be bent and not work properly or do I just go buy new ones and then have to store them possibly never using them again?
Thoughts?
Replies
Buy at 100%, you can probably sell at >50% if they're like new.
Alternatively, I would look to see if a scaffolding company can set you up, they might be able to come in and stage it for you at a competitive cost.
Jon Blakemore
RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
what are your long term plans?
I mean you were thinking a while back about getting out of business. If you now realise that you intend to stay in the industry I can't see where you really can go wrong owning rather then renting..
On the other hand if you are hand to mouth and day to day perhaps now is the time to save 50% even if it should cost you more in the future..
(me? I'd buy but then I can never have too many tools)
Hello my name is Frenchy and I'm a tool-a-holic
why do you need 8 pole jacks?
I'm just sayin'
why do you need 8 pole jacks?
To hold up walk boards to stand on to work up high in the air.View Image
I'm guessing you all are talking about pump-jacks...
Andy makes a good point...
My siding guys only carry 4 or at the most 5 poles per crew. Sometimes only 3 since a 3 man crew usually doesn't need more than 3 poles at once. I guess if you had a 5 or 6 man crew you would need more... Or maybe a house with a ~100'+ long straight wall... Sounds like he wants to go all the way around the house at once - or at least 1/2 way...
I've got 12 and sometimes that's not enough.
I've done several jobs lately that required nearly 500' of gutter each and there weren't many pieces more than about 25' long. Lots of stopping, starting and turning.
We often do our work and then the painters come behind us. We leave the scaffold up until they finish, but we have to move on.View Image
We leave the scaffold up until they finish,"Aren't you worried about liability?
Aren't you worried about liability?
Nope. The GC is paying rental on them. Everything moves quicker if only one setup takes place.
I had a meeting with a GC and a masonry sub the other day so we could get the rigging co. to set the scaffold up so we all could use it.
We typically work around the same subs. The framer lets us use his telehandler to stock the roof and start the edges. Then after he's moved his machine and has to come back to trim the dormers after we've roofed, we let him use our boom lift.
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duh. i do know that. I meant why so many
I'm just sayin'
I meant why so many
I know - I think several people here only use two poles with a walkboard in between them to do siding. The stuff we do often requires more than one side to be rigged at a time and some of the houses we work on are pretty big and require us to gang several pics together to go from corner to corner and then we have to be able to turn that corner.
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we always try to stage the whole perimeter .. so we have a lot of alum-a-poles and 24' pics
we set windows, trim, siding , roof edges, the painter uses them
they go up with the walls and come down when everything is doneMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
By "pole jacks", I assume you mean what we call here Pump Jacks.
The kind that use wood 2x4s screwed or spiked together are cheaper and really cheap on Craig's List. They're limited in the height you can go and how far apart the poles can be safely spaced.
The aluminum ones (Alumapole or the like) are much more costly but you still see them alot on Craigs List. They are much more secure feeling and you don't need nearly as many for a given distance of linear wall.
I'd buy them from Craig's list then sell a week later. buy low sell high.
I've got six poles and five jacks. Where are you located?
Edited 10/20/2008 9:53 pm ET by fingers
if you're in for the long haul.... buy your alumapolesMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore