John Deere 310 SE Project

[edgephoto]

Any business that buys and sells materials marks them up. You don’t bring food to a restaurant and ask them to cook it.

 

[boone]

That's a fair point. Like I said I'm not against a markup. I just know some contractors give you a receipt and tack the handling, calling, coordinating into the price of the job. I guess if your doing hourly it's harder to get your handling so your left with a markup. Which is a whole nother topic, hourly or by the job.

 

[Tinkerer]

I'm glad you brought up material markup. I was curious what others do. My brother and i debated about material markup. I had actually typed up an invoice on the ditch job with markup on dirt, hay, and seed. Not quite 50% but enough to cover the setup and handling of the material to make a little extra for time since we had time in procuring the materials. But my brother said if he were a customer he'd rather know exactly what the item cost and itemize out handling separate if not just include it in labor. He said when building his house the concrete guy charged a mint for his services and up charged on concrete too. He said he felt he got reemed twice. I don't know. I guess most people who are hiring out wouldn't know what materials cost. He said it wasn't wrong, he just would rather pay more for labor than for making someone think you're paying X amount when it was Y.
I definitely think there needs to be markup. Especially when using my equipment, fuel and wear and tear to go get materials plus my time.

I wouldn't itemize everything on a customer invoice. They don't need that information unless you are doing it time and materials.
I just had two chimneys repaired on my house. The bricklayer said upfront, time ($150 @hour) and materials.
He had to rent a 50 foot lift ($400 @day) and $250 for the lowboy to move it, and pay a helper.
I got an invoice with no line items. Just a total for $4900. I have no problem with his invoice. I have been around long enough to know that was a fair price.
Your brother made a bad choice when he didn't get two or more bids for his concrete work.
Never mind nit-picking an invoice after it was submitted for payment. It is all about total cost.

 

[boone]

I wouldn't itemize everything on a customer invoice. They don't need that information unless you are doing it time and materials.
I just had two chimneys repaired on my house. The bricklayer said upfront, time ($150 @hour) and materials.
He had to rent a 50 foot lift ($400 @day) and $250 for the lowboy to move it, and pay a helper.
I got an invoice with no line items. Just a total for $4900. I have no problem with his invoice. I have been around long enough to know that was a fair price.
Your brother made a bad choice when he didn't get two or more bids for his concrete work.
Never mind nit-picking an invoice after it was submitted for payment. It is all about total cost.

I would think starting out, time and material is probably the way to go until experience can allow for more accurate estimates for total cost quotes. I agree, for some jobs they don't need to know every little item. Maybe in some cases all materials can be combined.
My wife and I just had some tile laid in our utility room. The installer gave a total cost estimate on the job based on the sq footage. I bought the tile and he bought everything else. I would've expected him to upcharge for the materials cause he went to get them, but he didn't. He just gave me a handful of receipts and noted their price on the billing invoice. I would've been happy to pay a markup and I did give him a little extra for that reason.
It's interesting to hear what others do.

 

[Fred from MO]

I hope that stump didnt overwork your hydraulics Boone!! LOL!! Looks nice though!

 

[boone]

I hope that stump didnt overwork your hydraulics Boone!! LOL!! Looks nice though!

LOL! Pretty intimidating stump. Hydraulics almost got hot! I was expecting more of a fight from that little bugger but I got them in one swipe. Pick axe might have been just as fast. They were pretty rotten.

Thanks Fred. She was happy with it, so I was too.

I'm hoping to finish moving my pine tree clippings next week. Went around couple weeks ago for my 4 year trim. The backhoe beats the trailer cause I don't have to handle them twice.

 

[boone]

Wanted to get some feedback from you guys, quickly if possible.

We've started clearing a friend of ours property he just bought. We moved the tractor and bushhog in on Saturday and worked a few hours. This place was so thick couldn't walk through it without scratching your face with briars. We put a dent in it with the bushhog. I could see a skid steer and mini-ex with a fecon mulcher ideal for this job. But he asked us and we use what we got.

Our original plan was to bring the 175C track loader out of retirement over to push out these thickets. But after working Saturday I'm now beginning to wonder if the backhoe could handle most of this.

The guy wants a couple of side of the pond cleared off so the backhoe would be ideal for this. The other thickets and small pines I'm thinking the backhoe would have the pushing power to take most of these out. I could grub out what I can't push.

The 175C would be much heavier and would be cake walk, but the ground disturbance would be more. Plus we (or friend) has to pay $400 to ship the loader over and back.

If we use the backhoe, we could trailer it ourselves though a bit overweight. We could pay ourselves the shipping cost.

I'm still learning what this backhoe can and cannot do and just looking for some reassurance that the backhoe can do the job.

Here's a few before and after shots. Entrance from the road.



Pond to the left. Samplings to the right. It's all about this size. He wants to keep the bigger stuff.

 

[JL Sargent]

I do all kinds of stuff like that with my backhoe. Certainly not ideal in all circumstances. The $400 to move the track machine might cover the ground clearing difference of the machines.

 

[boone]

Good to hear and good point. I also don't want to get near that pond with the track loader. Looks like the land has been dormant for 3 or 4 years. Amazing how out of control it can get.

 

[Fred from MO]

Hey Boone, the track loader would be faster of course but you could also do it with the hoe. It would just take a little longer. I cleared some large trees with the hoe for my shop pad simply digging around the stumps enough to break the big roots free, then I used the bucket of the hoe to put pressure on the tree to get it to start to lean away from me and the tree would go over taking stump and all. Then I’d push the hole mess into a pile with the front bucket. It’s just a matter of how fast you want to go. Depending on what you expect to make on it you could include the $400 in the cost of the job??? Either way it could be done with both machines. One word of caution with the deer is in heavy brush, the hoe has no underbelly pan so your wiring harness is exposed. My hoes former owner warned me that he was clearing heavy brush and it somehow unplugged the break switch solenoid underneath. The machine wouldn’t move and he couldn’t figure it out for the longest time. Food for thought?? Good luck!

 

[boone]

I will indeed have to be careful of the stuff that stands back up. That is one big disadvantage of the backhoe vs loader. Bushhogging Saturday, I had several partial saplings that stood back up on me as I reversed. Would have been nothing for those to rip a fuel line off or some wiring. May have for all I know.

Yeah, he gave us a set dollar amount and said we'd reassess after reaching it.
Well either do just enough, get fired, or have him wanting more.

Yeah, I think we'll give it a go with da hoe. It's been a bit rainy these last few days and the loader doesn't like wet ground.

 

[boone]

We put a good dent in it. The saplings were rubbery. We resorted to the bushog for a good bit.

 

[boone]

Found a faulty valve stem on the front tire. Should've been metal to begin with.

 

[boone]

This field looked like what you see on the left, which we still have to cut. We were pushing the tractor and bushog to its limits.

 

[boone]

 

[JL Sargent]

Looks good. Y'all have gotten a lot done. Now to fence it and put cows on it.

 

[boone]

We got a good bit done. I think one more day and we'll mostly finish it out. Will be interesting to see what becomes of the land. The owner doesn't have a tractor. Has a battery powered chainsaw. I told him if he doesn't keep it cut it will obviously grow back up again.

 

[boone]

Finished this up on Saturday. The only breakdown was the cheap rubber valve stem.
It kept getting wetter and wetter. Glad to get out of there.






Pond Before/After

 

[Fred from MO]

Looks good. That guy needs to at least invest in a gas powered chainsaw now!!

 

[boone]

Good to hear from you Fred. I think the last day we were there, he had a Husqvarna saw from his FIL. Will be anxious to hear if he makes a deal with the guy who is farming the back of the land. He wants to trade farming rights for twice a year bush-hogging. Hopefully, it'll work out for him.