Rock Question

[fensoncont.]

Hey guys, I'm doing a little bit of work with rock. I was wondering how much a LCY of shale would weigh that is 8" in diameter??

[rino1494]

I figure around 3,000lbs per LCY for shale.

[Steve Frazier]

Most rock weighs in at about 1 1/2 tons/yard.

[fensoncont.]

Thank you for your help. I have a bank weight, I just need an exact loose weight to determine my load factor. I'm trying to figure a load factor to get BCY on haul units for rock that is 8" in diameter.

[rino1494]

Thank you for your help. I have a bank weight, I just need an exact loose weight to determine my load factor. I'm trying to figure a load factor to get BCY on haul units for rock that is 8" in diameter.


What is you weight for BCY?? Typical shale will swell 50% which would put you right around 4,500lbs/BCY.

[fensoncont.]

I have 2800 lb/CY bank, as stated in my Caterpillar Performance Handbook Edition 36

[rino1494]

BCY will always weigh more than LCY.

[dayexco]

i have a real dumb question here. if this is another project you're helping your uncle bid, why wouldn't you take a sample of the rock you're wanting to use, and have it professionally weighed? i truly admire your determination to figure out, calculate all aspects of the construction business, but think you are making a big mistake in asking globally what a cubic yard of rock weighs! i'm sure rock where i live is considerably different than in other parts of the US, let alone your neck of the woods. if you're looking at practice quoting or coming up with legitimate numbers for your uncle, you'd be a lot better served researching locally, what your rock weighs per cu. yd.....what your labor costs are locally, what your fuel costs are locally, what your tax structure is locally. if you're looking for generalizations, this might not be a bad place. you said your uncle used your #'s on the last job he bid, and that he was elated. again, i have no clue what it costs to operate in his neck of the woods, nor his cost of operation. with that said, your uncle left a PILE of money on the table. without knowing the reason, i shouldn't comment. maybe competition was busy? maybe it was a lot closer to your home operation than the other bidders? but to give up 35% between low and #2 bidder, would concern me a bunch

[JimBruce42]

i have a real dumb question here. if this is another project you're helping your uncle bid, why wouldn't you take a sample of the rock you're wanting to use, and have it professionally weighed? i truly admire your determination to figure out, calculate all aspects of the construction business, but think you are making a big mistake in asking globally what a cubic yard of rock weighs!

To sort of play devil's advocate here... I think I know where fensoncont. is going here. He'd asked for a theoretical job to help him work on his bidding and estimating, and I was more than happy to oblige, unfortunately for him ;) I gave him quite a run for his money, cause I added a few new variables for him, like rippable red and not so rippable gray shale. I don't know the first thing however about estimating:beatsme , I just move the dirt:cool2, so I think this is where he's getting the questions. Could be wrong though.

[dayexco]

don't get me wrong, i truly appreciate this young man's desire to learn!! to discredit him, or dampen his desire to learn about this business is not my intent!!! what i'm saying is "if"......he's trying to put up accurate compables to bid by based on what his uncle is doing......he needs to forget about pricing globally, or information he gleans from the internet, and deal with what his uncle's actual costs are at that time. i guess my point is, if he's in a "seek and learn" mode, we may as well give him the best advice we can. mine would be based on what i've said here on forum......is to look closer to your own back door to help you determine what things weigh.....what things cost.

[fensoncont.]

Jim is right, these questions are for my own use only, for the job he made for me. This has nothing to do with my uncle.

[dayexco]

several weeks ago.........you said you put #'s together for your uncle, he used them, and that he ended up being low bidder by 35%........that's a LOT of money! if now you are using them strictly for your own "practice" bidding....that paints a totally different picture here.

[fensoncont.]

That job a few weeks ago was for a totally different job. That bidding is over. This job is totally made up, but I want to use real numbers for practice. This new job has nothing to do with real work or my uncle.

[dayexco]

let me ask you this then? what you're asking can have 2 zillion variables. how will you account for them to come up with this hypothetical bid? you need to be asking local market questions. local bidding scenario questions. i'm going to give you material/labor rates for south dakota which no doubt are considerably cheaper than what somebody here from south california will quote you. so in reality, you could just set up an exel spreadsheet...and type in whatever number you want, and come up with whatever bid you want.

learning to bid a job...is #1, base it on what it costs YOU to do the job, and knowing what profit margin YOU want to make. #2, plugging in the variables....weather, how busy competition is, potential complications with that job....geesus, i'm forgetting 22 reasons here.