The choice is yours. You can have a fleet of dedicated machines that spend most of their time waiting to be needed or you can have a selection of core machines that will provide the power for the attachments that really do the work.

In order for you to make your compact equipment truly versatile, you should invest in attachments. With the right attachments, you can use your skid-steer loaders, compact track loaders, mini loaders, or compact excavators to tackle every step of the construction process — from land clearing to landscaping.

At the start of the construction process, you are often faced with clearing undeveloped land that's overcrowded by trees and brush. In the past, it was common to go into an area, clear all the land with a bulldozer and plant new landscape after completing construction. But when developers favor keeping existing trees, greenery and other landscape features, you are faced with working around these obstacles while prepping the job site.

Many of you have found new ways to use your compact equipment in these congested areas. Instead of buying a dedicated machine for every task, you can equip your skid-steer loader or compact track loader with a rotary cutter, brush saw and stump grinder.

"You can selectively remove trees when you have compact equipment and a variety of attachments," says Lance Mathern, Bobcat Company marketing manager. "The benefit of this for contractors is that they save money by not having to haul in additional trees to plant."

Mathern says you might start out by using a rotary cutter to cut through the toughest grass and brush, and mulch small branches and saplings up to 3 inches. Most rotary cutter attachments come in 60-inch and 90-inch cutting widths, travel in forward and reverse, and have double-edged blades.

A newer attachment you might not think of using is the brush saw. The brush saw uses a 28-inch-diameter high-tensile steel blade with replaceable weld-on carbide teeth to cut through brush and small trees up to 15 feet tall. And there's no need to worry about protruding stumps, because the brush saw cuts trees and brush flush with the ground or slightly below ground level. For tackling larger trees and stumps, Mathern suggests you cut down the tree and then use a chipper and stump grinder attachments.

When the project requires demolition of existing structures or pavement on a site, there are several attachments you can choose from, including the hydraulic breaker, grapple bucket, wheel saw, and drop hammer.

"Compact equipment and a variety of attachments allow you to systematically demolish what you need to," Mathern says. "The new demolition attachment that a contractor might not think of using right away is the drop hammer."

The drop hammer is an easy-to-operate attachment that breaks concrete and asphalt slabs as thick as 18 inches with little noise or vibration, while reducing machine and operator stress. The Bobcat® drop hammer, which is a 1,140-pound steel weight that free-falls to deliver a smashing blow, can be attached to compact skid-steer loaders, track loaders and all-wheel steer loaders. The attachment leaves the surface somewhat intact while breaking the concrete below.

While the hydraulic breaker and grapple bucket are more traditional demolition tools, contractors have also discovered the wheel saw attachment, which is more precise than the hydraulic breaker when cutting through asphalt, concrete, frozen ground, or wire mesh. Equipped with a hydraulic trench cleaner, the attachment also saves contractors time and labor when repairing roads and laying water, gas, electric, and fiber-optic cables.

"The wheel saw helps you define what you want to demolish, and it can cut a trench from 6 inches to 24 inches in depth," Mathern says.

Unlike other areas of the construction process, it may seem that excavating doesn't require many different attachments. In addition to buckets, you can purchase an auger or trencher attachment for the loader or excavator. Contractors who also perform utility installation commonly use the trencher attachment.

Mathern says you might want to invest in a Hydra-Tilt or PowerTilt attachment for use with their excavator trenching buckets. These attachments let the operator tilt the bucket right or left without moving the excavator for faster, easier digging, grading, contouring, and many other jobs. In addition, a rotating grapple attachment for excavators allows contractors to dig straight down in a tight area.

When it comes to grading, a bucket is a bucket, right? Wrong. As technology has advanced over the years, so have the capabilities of grading buckets.

"There's an opportunity for contractors to be more productive by looking at the different grading bucket features they can use with their loaders," Mathern says.

An advancement that improves the performance of a grading bucket by oscillating the bucket 15 degrees in either direction is a hydraulic tilt-tatch attachment. The tilt-tatch fits between the loader's mounting frame and non-hydraulic attachments such as buckets and rotates either side of the bucket. Mathern says it's a fast, easy way to cut a level path on a side hill, dig drainage ditches with the bucket corner, or adjust your grade without repositioning your loader.

If you want a bucket that can be used a variety of different ways, Mathern suggests you equip your loaders with a combination bucket. With its clamshell closed, the combination bucket can dig, doze and level dirt. Open the clamshell, and the bucket works like a blade, grapple or dumping tool.

In addition, there's also the six-way adjustable dozer blade which can turn your compact track loader into a mini dozer. And finally, for precision grading, contractors can use a box blade or grader attachment that can be equipped with laser control system, which combines a durable laser and receiver to control the blade precisely and automatically within 0.25-inch of final grade. Mathern says the laser control system is just one way you can save money in the construction process because it reduces material costs and eliminates the time and expense of checking the grade manually.

Instead of buying a tow-behind concrete pumping unit or paying for a concrete pump truck to come to their site, Mathern says you can save money by using a concrete pump attachment on your skid-steer loader.

"It's a unique attachment that a lot of contractors don't think of when it comes time to do concrete work on a job site," he says. "It's less expensive than a dedicated unit because it doesn't require its own motor. In addition, it gives you flexibility as to where you can place the pump and you can utilize the loader for other jobs when you are through pumping."

Another commonly used concrete attachment is the concrete mixer. By attaching a concrete mixer to their loaders, you can mix, transport and pour concrete much more quickly than with a stand-alone mixer. And a remote attachment control kit allows one person to operate the mixer from outside the loader.

Finally for selectively removing concrete and asphalt contractors can utilize planers and or more specialized attachments like a curb planers and surface planers. After the concrete is poured, contractors can use a curb planer to mill down slip-formed concrete curbs, creating a smooth approach from streets to driveway. For uneven sidewalks and other pathways, Mathern suggests using the surface planer to level out and smooth the concrete.

Compact equipment can be used for a lot of general tasks around a job site once building begins, Mathern says. For example, you can save time and labor by attaching pallet forks to your loader to move materials and building supplies with ease.

An attachment that you typically only think about for landscaping can also be valuable while building. "The soil conditioner can be used to knock down ruts on a job site, making the area smooth and easier to get equipment in and out," Mathern says. "It's a good all-around jobsite tool."

With forward and reverse raking action, the soil conditioner grades and levels topsoil and windrows, and separates rocks and other debris.

As building on a job site progresses, waste begins to accumulate. The dumping hopper attachment can be used with your loader to move and dump waste materials wherever you want. It features flat, smooth interior surfaces to prevent materials from sticking and pre-drilled holes to drain rainwater.

Compact equipment is your equipment of choice for landscaping — the final step of the construction process. Once building is complete, Mathern says you find you have increasingly smaller spaces to install retaining walls, plant trees, lay sod, and complete other finishing touches. That's why you need equipment that is compact, but also versatile.

"Why use shovels and rakes and wheelbarrows? With compact equipment and attachments, you can save on a ton of manual labor and increase productivity," he says.

You might use a tiller attachment to quickly break up the ground and mix compost and other materials into the soil. Mathern says you can then use the soil conditioner again, this time to create a smooth, soft bed for laying sod.

Instead of having crews lay the sod by hand, the sod layer attachment can lay 24-inch to 28-inch wide sod rolls quickly and easily. Its automatic spindle-arm brakes prevent unwanted rolling and a relief valve prevents "over-squeezing" of sod rolls. There is also built-in storage for sod staples.

If planning to seed the property, you can use a landscape rake to leave a smooth level-seeding surface. Then, follow up with a relatively new seeder attachment on your loader. The seeder is a ground-driven unit that seeds directly into the soil for better germination and more accurate coverage than a broadcast seeder. The front roller firms and presses the seed into the top half-inch of the seedbed, while the rear roller ensures optimum seed-to-soil contact.

The tree spade and auger are some of the more commonly used attachments by landscapers. The tree spade lets an operator dig, transplant or package a tree without leaving the cab of the loader. The attachment has an open design for easy access to trees, and overlapping blades that cut roots cleanly and supports the root ball. Another attachment that can also dig holes for trees is the auger. The auger can drill 6-inch to 42-inch holes for placing fence posts, piers, poles, and trees in all kinds of soils conditions.

Keeping the job site clean throughout the construction process has become an increasingly important objective as more and more municipalities institute fines for violating erosion control regulations, Mathern says.

He says many of you have invested in grounds maintenance tools such as sweeper and angle broom attachments for your loaders, material handlers or utility work machines. The angle broom sweeps away dirt, dried mud, light snow, and other debris from driveways, sidewalks and parking lots. With the sweeper, you collect and dump dirt and debris, or you can use it to spread material evenly across a site. "Many contractors are utilizing sweeper attachments to clean and maintain the streets in front of their construction sites; keeping the site clean and reducing potential fines from street and highway departments," notes Mathern.

From start to finish of the construction process, Mathern says compact equipment provides versatility that larger, dedicated machines cannot. By interchanging attachments, a skid-steer loader can go from a brush saw machine to a drop hammer machine, and then to a soil conditioner machine. Not only do attachments for compact equipment eliminate manual labor, but they also save time.

"You can greatly increase productivity by having the right equipment and the right attachments," Mathern says.