What is grab hire?
The ProBlock team offers a vast range of commercial and private construction equipment hire, alongside security services for clients throughout the UK.
We’re often asked about grab hire, whether it’s suited to a particular site, and if it’s the right solution for a clearance project. Let’s explain how it works, what’s included in your grab hire quote, and what sort of projects need this sort of equipment.
What is Included in a Grab Hire Service?
Grab hire equipment is a hydraulic arm mounted on a lorry. The most popular uses are to clear large areas of waste and access sites, which are difficult to reach with traditional vehicles.
Grab hire can cope with large volumes of waste materials very quickly, avoiding the weeks required to manually clear a site and the additional costs of dealing with numerous small amounts of waste disposal.
You can hire a grab lorry to fill with materials such as gravel, soil, sand, or any kind of waste, making it flexible enough to use for heavy-duty waste materials that can be a challenge to remove without specialist equipment.
Most lorries have the capacity for as much as 18 tonnes, meaning it is significantly cheaper to hire a grab truck than to rent skips, and pay for each delivery, removal, and emptying service.
Can I Use a Grab Hire Truck for my Construction Site?
While not reserved explicitly for construction projects, this is one of the most common reasons for grab hire services; clearing plots of land and empty properties quickly so development works can begin.
The ProBlock team works with a diverse range of clients, from one-off hire projects to regular usage:
- Renovation Projects: landlords, homeowners and developers often hire a grab truck to clear out waste products, building project by-products and demolished walls, for example.
- Landscaping Work: from clearing overgrown commercial sites to levelling residential gardens, grab hire is ideal for landscaping and gardening projects where large volumes of soil, stones, and garden waste need to be removed.
- Trade Businesses: we also often work with self-employed business people, such as businesses laying driveways, working on private properties, or carrying out renovations and building maintenance that need waste products removed cost-effectively.
What Waste or By-Products Can I Remove with Grab Hire?
There are very few limitations on what sort of waste products you can remove with a grab truck. Exceptions, or things you need specific licenses or permissions to deal with, include:
- Asbestos
- Batteries
- Gas Canisters
- Hazardous Waste
- Paint and Oil
- Tyres
Other forms of waste can be removed with a grab hire service. Still, you’ll need to cover the costs of disposal from a licensed site where it is appropriate to the specific type of material – that can include rubble, and any general or unidentified waste.
Typical waste products that are dealt with by hiring a grab truck are:
- Soil, earth, hardcore and topsoil.
- Branches, garden waste and tree offcuts.
- Bricks and concrete.
Most grab lorries are around three metres wide, with 18 tonnes of capacity, and so can clear large areas very quickly. The trick will need to have sufficient access to the site, as well as clearance for the hydraulic arm; that is just under four metres in height and just under eight meters in length.
If you’re looking for waste clearance solutions for a property or area of land that doesn’t have easy access, give the ProBlock team a call, and we’ll advise on solutions you can consider!
How Efficient is a Grab Lorry at Cleaning Sites?
This type of vehicle is very efficient, and often the fastest way by far of clearing up to 18 tonnes of waste. To fully load the vehicle, you’ll usually need as little as 20 minutes or so, provided the waste is easy to access and ready to go.
An empty grab truck weighs about 16 tonnes, with a maximum capacity of up to 32 tonnes, so if you have a substantial volume of waste, it might be necessary to organise two hire trucks or to carry out the waste disposal in two runs.
Hydraulic arms on grab trucks are designed for the maximum manoeuvrability. They can reach as far as eight metres in length, meaning that clients also rent grab trucks for general services, where large items are difficult to handle manually, and also in an awkward position.
If you leave your waste as follows, it will speed up the whole process:
- Away from trees or obstacles that might make it difficult for the grab hire truck to have access.
- Not adjacent to power lines or overhead cables.
- With straightforward access for the hydraulic arm to pick up the waste.
- In an open area, without being stacked against walls, vehicles or properties.
Grab hire is a great way to deal with large volumes of waste or materials that would otherwise take weeks to remove – and can expedite the clearance stage of any renovation, construction or groundwork project, so you can save time on preparation and get down to business.
