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Job bid I lost

CM1995

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Jan 21, 2007
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Alabama
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Running what I brung and taking what I win
Nice clean work.:thumbsup

Dozier are you just clearing the lots or doing the grading for the house as well?

Also, even though it's PIA work you could look into providing erosion control services - silt fencing and a load of stone for the construction entrance. Erosion control can be profitable.
 

Dozier Digging

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Jan 1, 2015
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Georgia
I cleared the lot installed 200 ft type a silt fence a fabric mat and 1 load of stone and graded the lot down for the house and driveway for add. Cost mainly hourly on the equipment and labor and cost of materials these pics were after 8 hrs on the job right before silt fence and stone went down
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
Gotcha. I price erosion control by the unit for commercial jobs and sometimes it's the most profitable (% wise) of the entire job.
 

Dozier Digging

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I've not done much commercial work in past couple of years the contacts I had all went out of business so I've done residential mainly ever since
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
I know several GC's in the southeast area that build "box retail", the small chain stores and they have projects all over. They can be profitable and it's my bread and butter. If you want I can PM you a few if you're interested. It requires some BS paperwork, contracts, insurance, etc. but it's worth it IMO. They are always looking for site guys and if I could travel and make money, I'd have more work than I could do. However, us excavators can't take our traveling circus on the road like an electrician or steel erector can and make money at it.:rolleyes:

Typical scope of work is - erosion control, demo, grading and storm sewer.
 

Dozier Digging

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I know several GC's in the southeast area that build "box retail", the small chain stores and they have projects all over. They can be profitable and it's my bread and butter. If you want I can PM you a few if you're interested. It requires some BS paperwork, contracts, insurance, etc. but it's worth it IMO. They are always looking for site guys and if I could travel and make money, I'd have more work than I could do. However, us excavators can't take our traveling circus on the road like an electrician or steel erector can and make money at it.:rolleyes:

Typical scope of work is - erosion control, demo, grading and storm sewer.

Yes please pm me the info the ones I have found only are bidding the jobs then you spend all the time bidding them and to come to find out they don't even have the job
 

CM1995

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Running what I brung and taking what I win
Yes please pm me the info the ones I have found only are bidding the jobs then you spend all the time bidding them and to come to find out they don't even have the job

There is competition between the GC's bidding these projects but it's usually the same ones. Once you get into the invitation to bid chain with these GC's, you'll find the same names bidding a certain chain store on a regular basis.

Basically you bid to all the GC's you know that are bidding the job. PM sent.
 

AustinM

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Feb 16, 2011
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wyoming
I just cleared a lot very similier to the one I lost the bid on and really paid attention to time labor materials fuel etc. I bid about the same I ended up with 9 hrs on my 943 8 hrs on my bobcat 16 hrs labors it took 8 cans and I was there 3 days and two trips each way moving equipment which ends up being nearly a days work I think I ended up making 1200 for 4 days of work plus the time I spent looking at it and locating property lines with the builder prior to starting the job

If you mean you pocketed $1200 (or $300/day) after paying rent on all your equipment, mobilization, dump fees, labor, etc., I'd say you did pretty well. Just a rough estimate, I'd guess you made in the neighborhood of 20%. $1200 (after all the bills are paid) for 4 days of work doesn't SOUND like a lot of profit, but if you look at it from a percentage standpoint I think you did alright.
 

LT-x7

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If you mean you pocketed $1200 (or $300/day) after paying rent on all your equipment, mobilization, dump fees, labor, etc., I'd say you did pretty well. Just a rough estimate, I'd guess you made in the neighborhood of 20%. $1200 (after all the bills are paid) for 4 days of work doesn't SOUND like a lot of profit, but if you look at it from a percentage standpoint I think you did alright.

I completely disagree.
$300 a day is great for your personal wages. But its a business, you have to make money to cover the cost to purchase and maintain equipment, transportation cost (machines and yourself), insurance, licensing, advertising, office expenses, ect.
No offense to the OP but it sounds to me like you were close to upside down on that job.
A 20% profit for the company would be great, but the company didn't make $500 on this project.
Company profit is calculated after all expenses including projected maintenance, repairs and paying yourself a wage for your days worth of work.
 

AustinM

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wyoming
I completely disagree.
$300 a day is great for your personal wages. But its a business, you have to make money to cover the cost to purchase and maintain equipment, transportation cost (machines and yourself), insurance, licensing, advertising, office expenses, ect.
No offense to the OP but it sounds to me like you were close to upside down on that job.
A 20% profit for the company would be great, but the company didn't make $500 on this project.
Company profit is calculated after all expenses including projected maintenance, repairs and paying yourself a wage for your days worth of work.

I think you might have misunderstood me. When I said " if you made $1200 after all the bills are paid" I meant ALL of them, including what you described. The only way we'll know for sure is how much was billed for the work. With the description of the time and labor it took to complete this work if 6k or less was billed, then I would agree it would be extremely tough to make $1200 free and clear. But we don't know without more information.
 

LT-x7

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I think you might have misunderstood me. When I said " if you made $1200 after all the bills are paid" I meant ALL of them, including what you described. The only way we'll know for sure is how much was billed for the work. With the description of the time and labor it took to complete this work if 6k or less was billed, then I would agree it would be extremely tough to make $1200 free and clear. But we don't know without more information.

Maybe I misunderstood, I thought I read the total job cost listed at $2,500.
 

AustinM

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wyoming
Maybe I misunderstood, I thought I read the total job cost listed at $2,500.

Maybe I missed that too. I also shouldn't get ahead of myself and make assumptions on a percentage of profit without knowing what was actually billed. That's what happens when you're drinking and posting on equipment websites. hahaha
 

Shimmy1

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North Dakota
Looking back, I think be probably billed 8 cans@$350 per can; machine rates around here would be $1125 for the 943, $720 for Bobcat, $800 for man labor, I would hope around $300 mobilization. That figures out to a little under $6000. Like I said earlier, he needs to find some more profitable work, or some way to do it faster but charge the same. This is why I don't like bid work. You end up working for nothing. This particular job, unless my hourly figures are way off, I think he did okay moneywise for time spent. The only opinion I would have is for 17 hrs machine time, he should have been in and out 2 days MAX. Working for yourself, if you're working 8 hr days, you ARE going broke. In the summertime, I work 12-14 hr. days, 6 days per week. Just my opinion.
 

Dozier Digging

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Jan 1, 2015
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Georgia
The problem is I could have done it in two days if I can get the boxes faster one truck hauled 4 each day the first day I pushed everything down and sawed up the fourth day was not a work day on lot I just said I figured a days work hauling equipment to and from the job I completely finished the lot clearing silt fencing and contrustion exit all in the 3 days the boxes hired out was my my time killer but it would've took me as long to haul awY stumps brush in a tandem
 

Hokiesmokes

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Aug 17, 2010
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Ohio
There are guys around here that will clear lots for a minimal cost to get the wood, which makes it hard to bid and make any money on doing the work. They'll haul in a skidsteer or backhoe behind a pickup, cut the trees, load out the logs and chip the brush and just leave the chips on site. Then the excavating contractor has to deal with the stumps or you can grind them out of the work area, but that work can be done fast, a day or so, and it's not expensive to do. Even a small self propelled grinder like a Rayco or a Carlton will have it done quick and they don't cost a lot to hire. Firewood for sale runs about 200 a cord here, so if you're burning your own or selling it, it's valuable. It's a tight market around here; not much work to go around and guys are willing to do it at what has to be less than break even.
 

jacobd

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North carolina
Sorry to dredge an old thread up but I it seems better than making a new one for just a few questions. I have a customer that wants me to clear a half-acre lot for a mobile home and haul everything off. The numbers I'm seeing in this thread and others are somewhere around 300cy of tree debris to a typical acre. However I think my job is smaller potatoes than most. There's no stumps involved, and only a handful of mature trees. The majority is >3" brush and scrub that I can push out with my 7000lb skid steer (the large trees are already on the ground).

What I need to know is should I plan on less volume because there's no stumps? Or more because it's mostly smaller brush? Or about the same? I plan to haul it in a tandem dump with a regular gate. I have virtually no experience hauling brush so any tips are appreciated (especially about not getting the load stuck).
 

Shimmy1

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Sorry to dredge an old thread up but I it seems better than making a new one for just a few questions. I have a customer that wants me to clear a half-acre lot for a mobile home and haul everything off. The numbers I'm seeing in this thread and others are somewhere around 300cy of tree debris to a typical acre. However I think my job is smaller potatoes than most. There's no stumps involved, and only a handful of mature trees. The majority is >3" brush and scrub that I can push out with my 7000lb skid steer (the large trees are already on the ground).

What I need to know is should I plan on less volume because there's no stumps? Or more because it's mostly smaller brush? Or about the same? I plan to haul it in a tandem dump with a regular gate. I have virtually no experience hauling brush so any tips are appreciated (especially about not getting the load stuck).
Can you pull out the top pins and chain the gate so it's like a tailgate on a pickup? Hook the chains so the gate is at about a 30° up-angle?
 

Oldcatpusher

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May 29, 2019
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Arkansas
A lady dump truck driver. Sounds scary. Last mobile home I demolished and hauled off I charged 4k for and it too 7 loads in a quad with the tailgate still hinged on the top hinges. Had a backhoe where it was dumping to help if it didn't dump. As far as brush little trees takes longer then big ones but never had to haul them. Customers think its the other way around.
 
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