By Eric Morse for Bobcat Company

They're on the job from the beginning, and they don't leave until it's done. Through all phases of a job, they're doing multiple tasks, making them productive members of the workforce. What are they? Skid-steer loaders. What makes these machines so versatile? Attachments.

Attachments increase productivity and reduce labor by decreasing the amount of work that is done by hand. Multiple attachments used on one carrier is the solution to completing many different tasks and lowering equipment costs. When one machine can do many things, it eliminates the need for multiple pieces of equipment that are dedicated to one job.

Beyond the attachments dedicated to concrete work, a concrete contractor will find just about any attachment useful. These attachments assist with every phase of concrete projects. Here's how:

Site preparation
There is no more critical phase to a concrete construction project than site preparation. One attachment that aids contractors with this stage is the grader attachment equipped with a laser control kit. K+L Construction Inc., a commercial concrete contractor headquartered in Moorhead, Minn., uses the laser-equipped grader to level sand. "It's not unheard of for one worker to single-handedly level 6,000 square feet in 45 minutes. It would take a half-dozen guys a couple hours to do about the same work without the laser grader," says Josh Krieg, a project manager with K+L Construction. "It saves us time and manpower. We use it once or twice a week and wish we could use it more."

Krieg's crews use the Bobcat® grader and laser control package for more precise grade control in concrete flatwork. The laser system automatically adjusts the blade height to keep the base material within plus-or-minus .25 inch of grade.