Has everyone got enough work?

[atgreene]

I may jinx myself here, but has everyone got enough work? I'm booked through December with excavation jobs, lots of erosion work on the lake and area ponds.

What brings this up is I talked to a large contractor yesterday (2 crews, 8 men) who has no place for them to move to next week. He said he's taking the attitude that he can sit home and make more money than to work for nothing. I know a couple others looking for work as well. I have been naming my price and have only lost a septic to a competitor who is hurting.

I'm assuming because I'm small and doing nitch work that perhaps I'm insulated some from the housing slowdown, but how is it where you are at?

 

[2004F550]

slow actually, unless you want to work for nothing, it does not look good for my area if you want the truth of it.

 

[nedly05]

Theres only 2 of us, and we stay plenty busy right here in town, not taking on anything out of town, but if there were 8 of us we would have to travel a lot to stay busy. It would be nice to have another good person though. No complaints here.

 

[biggixxerjim]

Im gettin my 40, but things are definitely slow in Jersey.

Challenging the Highlands act again, so maybe in the next few years we can have a big boom again :woohoo

 

[Copenhagen]

I stay booked 3-4 weeks out. Would be nice to be booked through December though!

 

[Orchard Ex]

Slow, we have guys in the area that are "installing" paver's for $7 a sq ft. including materials. I just hope that they go broke before I do.
One of my cousin's says "I can go broke chasing every job out there and cutting the price 'til I get it, or I can go broke sitting here on this bar stool. One way is just easier than the other...":drinkup
We usually get a little slowdown around the 4th of July every year.

 

[tylermckee]

more work than we can shake a stick at here. All the utility companies are set to lay conduit at our new development on sept 15th. A more realistic date would have been for the end of october, and thats optamistic. Between that and a couple of house sites, small commercial building, a 19 unit condo and we are booked for a while.

 

[TRACKHOE71]

were slow , we got some things coming up in the next couple of weeks though, in the pharmacutical plant that were working in, but i here everybody is getting slow here in eastern pa, the housing market really took a nose dive, and its hurting everybody, hopefully something happens real soon, im starting to get a little worried, hopefully next sprng will start to go up hill again.


jordan

 

[Squizzy246B]

The econumis....econo...eekonom.....The Boffins reckon we have another 8 years of this housing boom here but some are talking about a slow down already. I normally stay booked for 6 weeks and I don't take too many bookings past that as it just messes people around when one job gets held up. I haven't advertised since christmas but I will put a few small ads around soon.

The big marker is housing affordability...when the prices go berserk its not really sustainable for too long, but its amazing how many new houses are going up despite the price hikes....the scariest thing here is the cost of materials. I'm glad I'm not building at the moment.

 

[CascadeScaper]

They guy I'm working for a couple days a week is pretty busy, there's myself and another guy running iron for him. We're on a pretty good sized commercial project right now, been there for at least a month. I'm only working 2 days a week, I work another 5 at the restaurant, so I haven't really seen a good day off in over 3 months :drinkup Could be worse, I'm not complaining. As a whole, the state is busy everywhere. Will it slow down? Maybe, but not likely in the next couple years. It was booming 2 years ago, now it's consistent, plenty of work for everyone.

 

[surfer-joe]

Housing development and construction has slowed way down here. Even the illegal's are hurting for work. Checked with the union hall last week, more guys on the "A" hook than last twelve years she told me. I'm at the very top of the "B" list........ Dispatcher says state of Arizona is sitting on a big bunch of project permits.

However, Copper mines are hiring like crazy, if you can find a place to stay. Sign-up bonuses (4 grand), work 7 days on, off 7 days, one is building a barracks and cafeteria for single workers or guys from out of town who take the 7 on-7 off route. They have all kinds of alternative shift possibilities. In other words, they are desperate for operators and drivers. Most of the iron they run is top drawer-well maintained stuff, some brand new.

However, I probably am going to have to take a withdrawal card from the union in the next few days as I may go back into fleet maintenance management. I talking to two different companies about the possibilities. Not sure it's a good move for me, but I need the health insurance for me and the ole lady. And now that Mayo Clinic has proven by testing and a CT scan that my brain is reasonably intact, I don't have no excuse not to go back to it, despite what some here might think to the contrary.

There is still plenty of construction and trucking jobs here. But it's way down from what it was. Last year a local contractor was offering 1000 buck sign-on bonus for scraper hands. I hadn't seen an offer like that in thirty years.

So, if anyone reading this wants to head out to the Phoenix area, come on down. Bring your asbestos underwear with you, it's hot!!....112 was official today, and it's been over a hundred for about 6 weeks now every day. Mornings start out around 85-95 degrees. It hits a hundred about 10:30 AM. It's a little after 9 right now, and still over a hundred.

Oh, asphalt workers are always welcome this time of year. Bring your green card!

 

[Dwan Hall]

Haven't had a day out of work for over 25 years unless I wanted it. This town will work you around the clock if you let it. Been self employed and liking 1 to 2 day jobs I have to find a new job every other day. Quit advertising except on the side of my equipment over 5 years ago and still more work then I can handle. I mostly work alone except for a friend when I need help.
In my 26 years of business I have seen a lot of business come and go, Most lost there business because they grew to fast, some due to drugs, but most due to miss management. I have seen some loose there business because they did not charge enough for there work to maintain there equipment.
Durning slow times most of the small contractors here had to leave town to find work to make enough money to pay for there equipment. Leaving me to pickup the work they left. I have always controlled the amount of work I have by the price I charge. The more work the higher my pricing.
Needless to say I could retire today but then what would I do?

I Look forward to days when it rains so I can take it a little slower.

 

[Ford LT-9000]

The boom dropped off for us too I'am a little disapointed. The big factors is greedy people and developers drove the prices of land etc too high and the middle class can't afford the 500,000 to 2 million dollar property. The banks are raising the interest rate so that will really kill any money spending. There might be a few forclosures happening and people claiming personal bankruptsy.

Not good especially for contractors that bought new equipment and have 8 to 10 grand a month payments and homeowners with credit cards maxed out.

 

[rino1494]

We are swamped and have enough work for the rest of the year. We are actually behind and need another excavator. That might happen next year.

 

[Mack]

We need more work but we there is enough to keep us busy for a little while.

 

[BKrois]

As others have said, it seems as though things have slowed down a bunch. I still get my normal week it, but thats about it. We had a few high end houses we were doing work at last year, we just starting demoing a house, but we also do a lot of utility work and that seems to have slowed a bit.

My own side business has been real slow this year, i've priced out a lot of asphalt driveways, but people have been waiting or found lower prices. The one or two days a week i can do sidejobs its only worth taking on jobs where i make good money or else whats the point. I'm starting a small job tomorrow, and have some other things in the works. Even though i do my side business part time, i did put an ad in the local phonebook which covers just my town, it was cheaper than advertising in the local papers, the phonebook comes out in August so who knows what it will or will not generate :beatsme

 

[RollOver Pete]

I'm not sure why or how I do it
I can be a major PITA to work with.
I don't play well with others.....
But I haven't missed a day in I don't know how long.
I was surprised to hear that there were so many on the out of work list.
I've been getting my 40 + 5-10 every week.
:cool2

 

[tuney443]

Very slow for me too.Really don't know why.At least I know it's just not me as most of my friends in our biz and related fields are too.

 

[atgreene]

I had heard that a lot of guys are slow, I didn't realize how many.

I've been doing some math and I have more than enough work waiting to get me through December. I asked one woman if her septic and associated work could be pushed back to April, she's thinking on it.

I'm with Dwan, my prices have gone up again to hopefully discourage a few from using me, some of who I don't want to work for anyway.

Wish I could send some your way guys, good luck.

 

[Coastal]

As of today, I wish I had 3 excavator operators I could use...I took on too much work, and have a big project that should make my year that im putting off until I get this little stuff taken care of. But It has been a roller coaster this year.