A micro digger is what you hire when the problem is not the digging, it is getting to it. At 690mm across the tracks it goes through a standard timber side gate, down the passage between two semis and through most garage doorways, which is the difference between doing a job in a day and doing it with a shovel over a weekend.
Ours go out from the yard on Brick Kiln Lane in Etruria, serviced and tested between every hire. Collect it yourself on the way to site or we will run it out to you. Either way you get the machine, not a machine and a driver, so you are working to your own clock.
Will it actually fit?
A standard timber side gate is roughly 900mm. At 690mm over the tracks the micro has over 100mm either side, which is enough to walk it through without taking the gate off its hinges or scraping the render.
Measure the narrowest point of the whole route, not just the gate. The usual culprits are a soil pipe on the passage wall, a meter box, or a step up into the back garden. If you are not sure, ring the yard and talk it through before you book. It takes two minutes and it is a lot cheaper than a wasted delivery.
The numbers
Micro Digger specification
Weight0kg
Width0mm
Dig depth0.00m
Against a side gate
690mmSide gate 900mm
210mm to spare through a standard timber side gate.
Measure the tightest point of the whole route in, not just the gate. The micro digger is one of the machines it fits past.
The rest of the sheet
Hire type
Dry hire
Getting it there
Collect or delivered
Ring the yard if a figure matters to your job and we will check it against the machine before you travel.
What comes with it
Three buckets as standard: a ditcher and two trenching
Fuelled and ready to work when you take it
Delivery to site, or collect it from the Etruria yard
Off hire from the day you ring, not the day it comes back
What you will need
Someone who can run it safely. We hire the machine, not an operator
A trailer and a licence that covers the weight, if you are collecting
Boots, gloves and eye protection as the job needs
Dry hireCollect or deliveredServiced between hiresSame day when we have it
What people hire it for
The jobs it actually gets used on
Six of the jobs the micro digger goes out on most. Keep scrolling and they stack.
01/ 06
Footings and foundations
Extensions, garden rooms, garage bases. Deep enough at 1.75m for domestic footings without hiring something you then cannot get to the back garden.
02/ 06
Drainage runs
Trenching for soil pipes, land drains and soakaways. Narrow tracks mean less made good afterwards.
03/ 06
Lifting a patio or path
Quicker than a breaker and a barrow once you are past a few square metres, especially with a dumper alongside it.
04/ 06
Clearing a garden
Roots, rubble and old borders. Pair it with a tracked dumper if the ground is soft or you are going over a lawn.
05/ 06
Post holes and fencing
Faster and squarer than an auger by hand when there is a run of them to do.
06/ 06
Levelling and grading
Stripping topsoil and pulling a site to level before hardcore goes down.
How it works
Hiring the micro digger start to finish
01
Ring, message or send the details
Tell us the job and the dates. We will say whether it is in, when it is back if it is out, and whether it is the right machine for what you are doing.
02
Collect it, or we run it out
Pick it up from the yard on Brick Kiln Lane in Etruria, or we will deliver it to site. If you ring early enough and it is free, it can often go out the same day.
03
Ring when you are done
We off hire it from the day you ring rather than the day it happens to come back, and collect it from site if we delivered it.
Before you book
What you need to know
Micro Digger, in the yard on Brick Kiln Lane, Etruria.
01
It is dry hire
You get the machine on its own. We do not supply an operator and we do not take on the digging, so you or someone on your team needs to be able to run it competently and safely.
02
Getting it to site
Collect from the Etruria yard if you have something that can legally carry or tow it, and check your licence covers the trailer before you set off. We hire plant trailers if you need one. Otherwise we deliver.
03
Fuel and checks
It comes to you fuelled, greased and tested. Keep an eye on the levels on a long day, and ask at the yard what they want doing about fuel on the way back.
04
Ground conditions
Rubber tracks spread the weight and mark a lawn far less than wheels, but nothing is magic on saturated clay. If the ground is wet, board it out.
05
How long you need it
A day, a weekend, a fortnight. Ring when the job is done and we will off hire it from that point rather than the day you happen to bring it back.
06
Need it today
Most of what we hire can go out same day if you ring early enough and it is not already booked out. Worth a call rather than an assumption either way.
From the Google profile
Used Elite for the first time after using other companies before, wow what a breath of fresh air, prompt replies to messages, Cameron dropped the micro digger off and what a credit to the company he is…
Neil Gerrard · Micro digger
Fantastic experience with Elite Plant Hire! I hired a mini digger and a tracked dumper, and both were top-quality, modern, and reliable machines…
The yard is on Brick Kiln Lane in Etruria, a couple of minutes off the A500, so most of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme is a short run either way. Collect it yourself if you have something that can carry or tow it, or we will deliver it to site and collect it when you are finished.
Ours are Kubota and Takeuchi, 690mm across the tracks, which clears a standard 900mm timber side gate. Measure the narrowest point of the full route to the back garden, not just the gate itself.
There is no legal licence requirement to hire it for use on private domestic ground, but you do need to be competent and to work safely. If you are operating on a commercial site the site itself will usually want a CPCS or NPORS card, so check with whoever runs it.
Yes. Tell us the postcode and the access when you book and we will sort it. If you would rather collect, the yard is on Brick Kiln Lane in Etruria, a couple of minutes off the A500.
For most jobs, something to move what you dig out. A tracked dumper crosses soft ground and gets through the same gaps, and a 1t dumper shifts more if you have the room for it.
Get it booked
Tell us the job. We will tell you the machine.
Ring the yard and you get a straight answer on whether the micro digger is available, when it is back if it is out on hire, and whether it is the right thing for what you are doing. If it is not, we will say so.
