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Floor Sanding Equipment

A set of floor sanding equipment includes a drum or orbital sander and a powerful disc sander, called an edger, for sanding right up to the baseboards. Together they would cost several thousand dollars to buy, but you can rent them together for about $140 a day or $550 a week.

When renting a drum sander, choose a heavy one with a clutch if you want professional results. For light sanding (removing a single coat of finish with no leveling required), choose an orbital flooring sander with a round base. You might not need the edger, which will cut your rental costs in half.

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Hole Auger

Building a fence? If it’s a long one, you’ve got a lot of post-hole digging to do, and it may take days. Save time — and your back — by renting a gas-powered hole auger and do the entire job in an afternoon.

The cost to rent a one-man auger is about $80 a day, compared to $250 or more to buy one. A standard eight-foot wood fence needs post holes at least 28 inches deep. Most rental augers can do that.