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Hi Richard, battery life on my Stihl blower is very short and it lacks power for wet leaves on hard surfaces, it is useful for other things though. We also have a BR600 and if you can stretch to £400 ish it will be a sound investment. It is probably also worth looking at equivalent ones from other manufacturers too.
I'd echo Jim's comments and say stretch yourself if you can for a BR600, if budget is tight you can pick them up second hand on eBay for reasonable money.
With regards to the digger hire I was in the same predicament about a few jobs I needed to do at home, I opted for paying a bloke with a digger rather than hiring just the digger, having tried it and seen the speed he operated it that was definitely the right decision!
I'd definately hire one with an operator. You'll also need (well, want) a muck truck or tracked barrow to remove the soil to roadside for a grab lorry.
If you get all your ducks in a row (and depending upon space), you could probably get the soil dug and moved to roadside, then have the new compost and and turf delivered to site, moved with the digger and power barrow and the compost roughly leveled. All in a day's hire. If you hire just the machine you'll take that long just to get the area dug out, and probably not too level. If you have aroun 1.1m for access, get a 1.5t. Avoid the micro machines unless it's something like a Bobcat E10 with servo controls- they're hard work.
Expect to pay around £270 - £300+ VAT for a digger, driver and power barrow for the day.
Leveling a large area with a mini digger is the equivalent of flying the space shuttle or having sex in a hammock while eating jelly. You should only try it after a lot of training and practice even if it looks easy when a pro does it. Hire a driver
I use a stihl 86 hand held blower does a great job and you don't have to humph it onto your shoulder just to use it
I have never tried flying the space shuttle!
Years ago my mate and I hired a JCB tractor and set about digging a trench across a field with the backhoe , the job went far better when my wife took over the controls!
Regards the blower, if you have Makita 18v cordless tools and a collection of batteries to go with them, then if is worth considering one of their blowers.
I have 2x4 Ah and 4 x 5 Ah 18 volt batteries that I use with other tools, after a lot of deliberation I bought a Makita 36 volt brushless blower that takes two 18 volt batteries to run it and it is good.
Screwfix advertise it at £300 bare, without batteries or charger.
I managed to get one brand new from a recognized toolshop for £99 through EBay, at that price it's a bargain and I don't regret buying it.
Having said that ultimately I only bought it as I already had the batteries and chargers, as well as a petrol blower.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dub362z-twin-18v-li-ion-lxt-brush...
Here is a Makita blower at a third of the Screwfix price, direct from a tool shop.
https://www.fastfix.co.uk/makita-dub362z-twin-18v-brushless-blower-...