Most people call a crane company and open with the weight. It is the obvious number, and it is genuinely important, but on its own it tells us almost nothing about which machine to send.
Here is what actually decides it.
1. The weight
Start here anyway. Get it off the equipment plate if you can, or the submittal if it is new. A rough figure is fine as long as it is honest. Rounding down because you think it will get you a cheaper machine is how a crew ends up standing on a roof watching a crane that cannot make the pick.
Include the rigging in your head. Slings, spreader bars and a lifting frame all add up, and on a marginal pick they are the difference between yes and no.
2. How high it has to go
Not the height of the building. The height the load has to clear before it can swing into place, which is usually higher than the roof line once you account for the parapet and whatever is already up there.
3. How far out it has to reach
This is the number that surprises people. A crane's capacity drops fast as the boom goes out. The same machine that lifts a unit easily at thirty feet might not touch it at seventy. So the honest question is not "can you lift this," it is "can you lift this from where you can actually park."
Which brings us to the one that matters most.
4. Where the machine can set up
Outriggers need solid, level ground and more room than most people picture. We need to know what is between the crane and the load: power lines, trees, carports, a canal, a neighbour's fence.
In Cape Coral this is the whole conversation, because canal lots often put the only sensible setup spot on the wrong side of the house. On Fort Myers Beach it is access and staging. In Lehigh Acres it is usually not a problem at all.
The shortcut
Take photos. Stand where you think a crane would sit and take a picture toward the load, then stand at the load and take one back. Two photos answer more questions than a paragraph ever will, and they let us size the machine properly before anyone commits to a date.
Then call. Weight, height, reach, access. Four answers and we can tell you what we would bring and whether the day you want is realistic.