Rental Center: Doubling up & doubling down
Pine Valley Rentals builds on its 33-year history to expand into a new facility that’s more than twice the size of its original rental facility.
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Pine Valley Rentals and Sales’ manager, Carissa McPeak, and owner Bernie Martinez, look forward to serving customers out of its new facility two doors away from its previous location. |
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The new facility will more than double Pine Valley Rentals and Sales’ yard and shop space. |
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The new yard has recycled concrete covering the majority of the lot; pick up and drop off areas will be paved with concrete. |
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| “If we have a certain piece of equipment requested by customers more than 10 times, we start looking to purchase that piece of equipment,” says Bernard Martinez, owner of Pine Valley Rentals & Sales. |
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If customers pick up equipment between 2 and 5 p.m. on Friday and return it by 9 a.m. the following Monday, we charge only the one-day rate, says Carissa McPeak, manager. |
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| Pine Valley Rentals and Sales plans to expand its equipment fleet with larger models requested by customers. |
by Clair D. Urbain
Bernard Martinez started his rental career in construction, where he first was a parts and supply runner for a crew. The light bulb went on for getting into the rental business when he picked up a power trowel for the crew and saw how much they were charging to rent it. “That got me to thinking that if I was able to rent three power trowels at that rate, I wouldn’t have to work. So I got 10 and now I am working like a dog to keep up,” jokes Martinez, owner of Pine Valley Rentals in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
He started a rental operation in 1991 in Bayfield, which carried both equipment and party/entertainment rentals; that location was open until 2020, when he decided to phase out the party and entertainment side of the business.
Today, Pine Valley Rental has one location in Pagosa Springs, a touristy town of about 2,000 people nestled along the San Juan River is southwest Colorado. It’s well-known for its mineral-rich hot springs and scenic views.
Martinez has been in the rental business for 33 years, serving contractors and homeowners in the area. While his Bayfield rental center has been closed for almost four years, he continues to slowly phase out of the party and entertainment side of the business at his Pagosa Springs location. He is selling his remaining party and entertainment inventory to Mountain Peak Rentals, another local rental outfit that is concentrating on party and entertainment rentals.
Pine Valley Rental presently has six employees: two maintenance people, two yard/counter people, and Martinez as president and Carissa McPeak, manager.
Expansion-minded
As he exits the party and entertainment rental business, he’s expanding his equipment rental operation and is in the process of moving into a new facility that’s more than twice the size of his present location. While he is doubling down on equipment rental by getting out of the party and entertainment rental business, he’s doubling up on capacity to further expand his rental fleet.
“We have skid steers, mini excavators, man lifts and scissor lifts. We have a large selection of sewer snakes that are rented heavily in the winter. People don’t understand that if you’ve got a snow-covered sewer line, you’re safe. But if you plow the snow, you’re going to cause freezing problems. We also rent quite a bit of scaffolding,” Martinez says. “I’d like to continue adding equipment. We are getting requests for bigger equipment all the time and I plan on adding some telehandlers to the fleet. A water truck would also make a great addition to the fleet.”
In the past year, Martinez added six skid-steer loaders and brought on some attachments into the fleet. “We added a stump grinder, a brush cutter and a broom. We got them to keep the machines busy, and it worked. The broom went out with a skid-steer loader and it turned out the contractor kept the unit on rent for weeks,” he says.
Martinez gauges equipment demand by customer requests. “If we have a certain piece of equipment requested by customers more than 10 times, we start looking to purchase that piece of equipment,” says Martinez. “It’s amazing how that puts us on to some equipment that we wouldn’t have thought of bringing into the fleet.”
Changing market
“The housing market in Pagosa Springs has slowed some,” says Carissa McPeak, Pine Valley Rental’s manager. “Most areas have been developed, and many homes in the area are second or third homes for rather affluent people. With higher home prices and higher interest rates, home sales have slowed but the inventory of homes for sale remains low,” says McPeak.
Pine Valley Rental has a nice mix of customers who are primarily contractors that serve rather wealthy residents. “We have a good mix of construction contractors, landscapers and plumbers but we also have some DIY homeowners.”
While they are not open on weekends, they have a healthy weekend clientele. “We offer a one-day rate for the whole weekend,” explains McPeak. “If they pick up the equipment between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Friday and return it by
9 a.m. the following Monday, we charge them only the one-day rate. The only caveat is if the machine has an hour meter on it, they can’t have put more than eight hours on it. But if it’s something like a plate compactor that doesn’t have an hour meter, they can use it as much as they like.”
“We created that one-day rate during the pandemic,” says Martinez. “We decided we would only be open during weekdays, and this was a way to appeal to those who wanted to use equipment over the weekend without us incurring extra hours.”
“Being close to the New Mexico border incurred extra business during the pandemic. The governor of New Mexico practically shut the state down, especially wedding venues. People still wanted to get married, so we had calls from all over New Mexico inquiring whether we would put a tent up on private property. Several complained they put money down on a tent rental with other firms, but never got the tent delivered or even their money back. We told them if they wanted a tent, they got it. I think we ended up doing more than 20 tent rentals during COVID that way, and the customers were very happy,” says Martinez.
Another way Martinez differentiated Pine Valley Rental from other tent rental centers was to offer tent erection and take-down. “Others were willing to rent tents, but wouldn’t set them up. That was a no-brainer. We soon were invited to meet with regional non-profits. There were more than 100 people there from Durango, Four Corners and other communities. I offered any authorized non-profit a 25 percent discount on any rental. That has worked out well for all of us,” Martinez says.
New rental yard
Pine Valley Rentals’ present equipment yard is less than an acre in size and
the building that houses equipment
and maintenance is less than 2,400 square feet.
“Our new yard and building is two doors away from our present site and has a yard more than twice the size of present yard. The building is 5,000 square feet, doubling our space,” says Martinez.
They are presently moving into the new facility. Martinez plans to pave the front of the area of the building for equipment pick ups and drop offs; the rest of the yard will be covered in gravel made from recycled concrete. “We are going to have an entrance in and an exit out to help with customer flow, if we can train them to follow the signs,” says Martinez.
The building process started three years ago, and Martinez faced a few challenges while it was in progress. “Finding a contractor to build the building was difficult. We know all the local contractors and they know us, but none were interested in the project,” says Martinez. The banker insisted we have a general contractor, but I have built other buildings like this one and after looking for nine months for a contactor, the banker finally allowed me to be my own general contractor.”
“Bernie finally took control of the whole project and got it moving,” says McPeak. “The project moved rather fast after that.”
The office features private offices for Martinez and McPeak; all shop workstations have pneumatic lines plumbed to them for easy access. Each bay has air and electrical cord reels.
“Right now, we only have two maintenance people, but we want to make room for more. We’ve been trying to hire more mechanics all along, but it’s hard to find qualified workers in this area,” says Martinez. “Some of the best applicants are the ones who are new to the area.”
“We advertise locally for help as well as on Indeed; we also get several customers in here and if they show an interest, we give them an application,” adds McPeak.
Once in the new facility, Martinez would like to offer power tools for sale such as impact wrenches, hammer drills and even electric jackhammers.
Building a reputation
With a 30-plus year history in the area, residents have come to think of Pine Valley Rentals first, ahead of national rental chains, says Martinez. “We offer good service and our customers say it’s one of the main reasons they rent from us. While we always offer training on equipment operation, too many renters choose not to go through it, only to call us later saying they are having trouble with the equipment. Once a customer has a problem, you have to jump on it. It makes all the difference in the world.”
Because of that commitment to service, Martinez says that Pine Valley Rentals has been able to grow on average, 25 percent a year. He is setting his sights on expanding his offering at the new location, further fueling that growth.
“There are some equipment categories I have gotten away from offering. One is snowblowers. Even in Colorado, snowblowers don’t make money. When the sun comes out and the snow gets harder to blow, users invariably break the shear pin. Renters complain it’s our problem, but they are pushing the machine too hard and the shear pin breaks. We stopped renting them.”
“Another item we don’t rent anymore is small utility tractors. There is simply too much rock here, there is no farmland and people were using these units more like bulldozers or were trying to pick things up that were too heavy for the tractors. And finally, we don’t rent brush hogs. There are too many rocks around here and hitting rocks tears them up. We quickly learned that if you don’t have these available for rent, customers can’t break them!” Martinez concludes.
This article originally appeared in the November-December 2024 issue of Pro Contractor Rentals magazine. ©2024 Urbain Communications LLC. All rights reserved.
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