Lawn Mower Service Log
Keep a mower running past its fifth year, by tracking the three things that actually kill them: stale fuel, a blocked air filter and neglected oil.
OM-01 2 pages
Garden and growing · GG-10
Garden Machinery Hire Record
A garden machinery hire sheet — each rotavator, chipper or scarifier hired in, fuel and condition out and back, the cost, and a table for what is worth buying.
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2 pages. Choose your paper size — both versions are laid out identically, so neither one gets shrunk to fit.
Print it and write on it
Fill it in type and save
The fillable versions have real form fields — open them in any PDF reader, type into them and save. Printing help.
What this sheet is for
Keep hire costs, deposits and condition notes together, so a damage claim can be answered from a record and a machine hired every spring is noticed before the fourth time.
Who it is for
Gardeners, allotment holders and smallholders who hire in machinery a few times a year rather than own it.
How to use it
- Fill in the site and your usual hire firm once at the top.
- At collection, note the machine, the job, the fuel level and whether you photographed its condition.
- At return, add the date back, the cost including fuel, and when the deposit came back.
- Once a machine appears more than once, move it to the lower table and work out whether owning it would be cheaper.
- Keep the sheet with the hire firm's paperwork so the two agree.
What is on the sheet
2 pages, in this order:
Page 1
Printed under the title: Every machine hired in for the garden or plot — rotavator, chipper, scarifier, stump grinder — with what it cost, how it came back and whether hiring it again makes sense.
The hire firm's figures, your record. Write the deposit, the daily rate and the fuel arrangement in from the hire firm's own paperwork, not from memory. A photograph of the machine at collection and at return, noted here, settles most damage disputes before they start.
Write-on lines: Garden, plot or site · Year · Usual hire firm
Hire log — one row per hire, filled in at collection and again at return
Table, 12 rows: Date out · Machine · Hire firm · Job it was for · Fuel out / back · Condition noted · Date back · Cost · Deposit back
Page 2
Worth buying? — machines that keep coming back on the log
Table, 6 rows: Machine · Times hired · Spent so far · Price to own · Where it would live · Decision
Hire firms and accounts — so the details are here, not in a drawer
Table, 5 rows: Firm · Phone · Account or ref · Delivers? · Deposit taken how · Notes
Ruled lines: Notes — what went wrong last time, attachments needed, fuel to buy first
Questions
Why is there no daily rate or deposit figure printed?
Because every hire firm sets its own, and they change. The figures on the sheet are copied from the firm's own hire agreement at the time, which is the only version that counts if there is a dispute.
Is this for machines I own too?
No — a machine you own has its own service history, and that belongs on the Lawn Mower Service Log, the Chainsaw Maintenance Log or the Small Engine Service Log. This sheet is only for kit that goes back to somebody else.
Related sheets
Small Engine Service Log
Give every small machine in the shed the same maintenance record, using one sheet per machine.
OM-06 1 page
Equipment Loan Register
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Allotment Plot Plan
Get the plot down on paper to a consistent scale, so bed lengths, seed quantities and next year's rotation can be worked out in the warm.
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