From the job to the machine
Ceilings, lighting, cabling, ducts indoors
Machine: Electric scissor lift, 6–12 m
Why: Two people and tools on a big platform, straight up, non-marking tyres, passes a door
Shelving, signage, fit-out in a warehouse or a shop
Machine: Electric scissor lift, 8–12 m
Why: Platform space for materials; works all day on a charge
Render, paint, glazing on a facade you can park under
Machine: Scissor lift 12–18 m (diesel outdoors)
Why: Straight up from the pavement or the yard; cheapest per day
Air-con units, gutters, signs over an obstacle
Machine: Cherry picker 12–22 m
Why: The boom reaches over the balcony, the car park, the hedge
Blocks of flats 5–6 floors, hotels, street facades
Machine: Truck-mounted cherry picker 20–40 m
Why: Drives to the site with its driver; one day, one permit
Palms, pines, street lights, cabling along a road
Machine: Cherry picker 12–20 m, truck-mounted on a road
Why: Reach around the canopy; moves along the row
Pallets of blocks or tiles to the 2nd–4th floor
Machine: Telehandler 7–17 m with forks
Why: Lifts the load, not the people; drives on rough ground
Two people to the eaves on a building site
Machine: Telehandler with a basket, or a rough-terrain cherry picker
Why: The site is soil and gravel; a scissor lift sinks
Steel, trusses, a hot tub, a pool shell, a container
Machine: Mobile crane 25–80 t
Why: Nothing else lifts it; see the crane guide
| The job | Machine | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ceilings, lighting, cabling, ducts indoors | Electric scissor lift, 6–12 m | Two people and tools on a big platform, straight up, non-marking tyres, passes a door |
| Shelving, signage, fit-out in a warehouse or a shop | Electric scissor lift, 8–12 m | Platform space for materials; works all day on a charge |
| Render, paint, glazing on a facade you can park under | Scissor lift 12–18 m (diesel outdoors) | Straight up from the pavement or the yard; cheapest per day |
| Air-con units, gutters, signs over an obstacle | Cherry picker 12–22 m | The boom reaches over the balcony, the car park, the hedge |
| Blocks of flats 5–6 floors, hotels, street facades | Truck-mounted cherry picker 20–40 m | Drives to the site with its driver; one day, one permit |
| Palms, pines, street lights, cabling along a road | Cherry picker 12–20 m, truck-mounted on a road | Reach around the canopy; moves along the row |
| Pallets of blocks or tiles to the 2nd–4th floor | Telehandler 7–17 m with forks | Lifts the load, not the people; drives on rough ground |
| Two people to the eaves on a building site | Telehandler with a basket, or a rough-terrain cherry picker | The site is soil and gravel; a scissor lift sinks |
| Steel, trusses, a hot tub, a pool shell, a container | Mobile crane 25–80 t | Nothing else lifts it; see the crane guide |
Scissor lift: straight up, lots of room
The scissor lift is the cheapest and simplest: a platform of 1–3 m² that rises to 6, 8, 12 or 18 m directly above where it stands. It cannot lean over anything, so the machine has to park under the work — fine for a ceiling, a flat facade, a warehouse aisle; useless for a balcony or a tree. Electric models need a flat, firm floor and are the choice indoors and on finished surfaces; diesel rough-terrain ones go outside on gravel and slopes. No operator needed: a joystick and a button, shown on delivery.
Cherry picker: reach over and around
A cherry picker — a boom lift — carries one or two people in a basket on an arm that reaches up and out: over a car park to a sign, over a balcony to an air-con unit, around a palm. Self-propelled ones (12–22 m) are delivered on a low-loader and stay for the days you need, electric for indoors, diesel for sites; truck-mounted ones (16–40 m) drive themselves to a street job with their driver and leave the same day. Basket load is the limit: 200–250 kg, two people and hand tools, not materials.
Telehandler: lift the load, drive with it
A telehandler lifts pallets, bags and beams on forks to 7–17 m and carries them across a site; with a basket it lifts people, with a bucket it moves sand. It is the machine when the thing going up weighs more than a toolbox: blocks, tiles, roofing sheets, solar panels. It comes with an operator or for a trained operator of your own, drives on soil and gravel, and arrives on a low-loader.
When it is a crane after all
A single heavy object — a steel beam, roof trusses, a hot tub, a pool shell, a container — is a crane job: slung and placed by an operator, half a day with travel and set-up. A crane also does the lift a telehandler cannot reach: over a house into the back garden.
The three questions the form asks
- How high is the work? Floors are easier than metres: a floor is about 3 m, plus 2 m for the person to reach above the platform.
- What is between the machine and the work? Nothing — scissor lift. A balcony, a car, a hedge — cherry picker. Rough ground — diesel, rough-terrain.
- Does it stand on a public road or pavement? Then a municipal permit comes first — 20 working days in Limassol, a few days on side streets in Nicosia. In a car park, a yard or a garden, none.
What they typically cost
- Self-propelled boom lift, self-drive, 12–22 m
- €120–250 a day
- Truck-mounted cherry picker with operator
- €80–120 an hour, minimum 2–3 hours; €350–600 a day
- Delivery and collection
- about €120 within 20 km, then about €5 per km
- Electric scissor lift, 6–12 m
- €85–150 a day; a week costs about four days
- Diesel rough-terrain, 12–18 m
- €150–250 a day
- Delivery and collection
- about €50–120 depending on the distance
- Self-drive, 7–17 m
- €150–250 a day
- With operator, rotating 26–30 m
- €70–110 an hour, minimum 3–4 hours
- Delivery and collection
- about €120 within 20 km, then about €5 per km
What operators on the island usually quote (open listings and price lists, October 2026), VAT not included unless stated. Your operator confirms the exact price for your job before anything is agreed.
