cost of living?

[kf_tree]

Because you have yet to straight answer my question. I take it your individual crew brings in 2900 a day, add that with the other crew and your crew and thats the companys gross for the day.

I get the concept of the crew works for the company which= the crews gross goes to the companys gross plus other crews and workers. Not hard.

As to cost of living, how much does it cost to dispose of wood (broad question) up there? Down here its free after it gets back to the house, there its 40 a ton? Thats a cost of making your living.

i give up...as soon as i answer one question out comes the next. if i wanted to figure dump fee's, advertiseing, ins, fuel cost, papayroll etc i'd still have my own business. now i just do my thing and go home.

 

[Lumberjack]

Ok so I am full of questions, what I am getting at is as the owner of my buisness I have to figure all that, so when I hear someone saying they pull on average 3g's a day I have to ask myself how much is actually profit. The percentage of profit goes down (normally) as the gross figures go up, at least that is what I speculate. It takes money to make money so to speak.

 

[kf_tree]

my point of bringing up the 3k average is......if the tree i walked from was 4000.00 .....even if i all went well and i got it down in a day with no damage there is no way they would have removed all the wood in that day. i estimate it would have taken almost a full second day with 3-4 guys just to get all the wood cut up and out of there. so it's a looser job as far as i'm concerned, there's no money in big pig tree's.

 

[Lumberjack]

Are you the climber or forum (sorry more questions). If your the climber and you already said you dont concern yourself with cyphering the insurance cost and other cost, then why do you care if the job was underbid? Its not your responsibility, unless your the foreman or your looking out for the owner.

Not meant to sound degrading, I am asking your role with the company. Butch is a contract climber, he climbs and leaves, he doesnt concern himself with other things (from my perspective of reading/talking to him over the years).

 

[kf_tree]

i'm the climber.......basicly i run the crew, but once the wood is cut up on the last job i'm out of there. my job is to get the tree on the ground get the wood cut and boogie to the next job. i'm at the yard in the am about 45min before i'm suposed to be there to sharpen all the saw's and get things together. i try to get the address's the night before so i could just grab a guy in the am and get going. i get paid a day rate, so as soon as i bang out the days work i'm done. i dive my own pick up so i leave right from the last job.

the money end is and isn't my concern........like i said my boss does not climb so he needs a little help with priceing every now and then. we discuss priceing all the time, besides the more money the boss's make the better my toy's and chance for a raise. our oldest truck is 3 years old and there all automatics the main owner covers a different area, he climbs so at least he knows what he's looking at. the area i work has like 25 tree svc in the book. so it's very cut throat and hard to get your price so you have to make up for it in volume. my issue with the big job was not the price but the fact i did not feel 100% confident i could do the tree with out damage.

 

[Tinwoodman]

$2.04-$2.10 per gallon, regular. $10/hr, 40 hrs a week-- you wouldn't be a king here, but you could survive ok as long as you don't smoke, drink, gamble, or buy new cars. I own my company, and I charge $15 an hour for my labor, plus I charge my expenses, or I bid really high on the job in case I underestimated. I'm moving into my business slowly-- can't quite go full time yet. I'm buying up the gadgets and licenses right now. I also do some lawn care. This is a real good area to live. Costs aren't too high, including housing-- you can buy a six-room house easilly for $100,000, sometimes less. There aren't enough people doing tree-work here, and the area is saturated with huge trees. (ok, you westerners, huge meaning mature-- many trees over 3 feet thick). Big enough to totally smush a house. Compared to here, Maine, where I come from, is totally logged-out. I'm real confident, if I don't make any serious mistakes, my business will grow. I'm just starting out this year.

 

[Koa Man]

Milk here is $4 a gal., self serve reg. unleaded is $2.42, diesel is $2.67. Walmart bar oil is $3.64 a gal. Median house price is $550,000 on the island I live on (Oahu), but the area I live in (Kailua), the median is $700,000. More than double from when I bought my house in 1993.

 

[Tinwoodman]

I'm impressed, Koa. I thought the cost of living would be much higher there.

 

[a_lopa]

to fill my truck, chipper,toyota and grinder im set back $250-$280 gotta watch the travel.

 

[vharrison2]

Lumberjack....moot point; brick wall. Largest dump bill here $1500.00; chip box truck filled with palm... charged straight to the client with dump ticket provided.

 

[Ekka]

kf tree

Good point, where can you live like a king when your on $10 an hour, the tip?

This industry pays crap money for what we do, for the jobs we do same goes ... people getting huge trees done for dirt cheap, like a ego thing where bosses want to brag about who did the biggest ... and bust everyone in the process.

Isn't it funny, you go to a lawyer here or there you'll pretty much pay the same. You go to a dentist here or there you'll pretty much pay the same.

You get 3 quotes on a removal and you'll get heaps of variation. Like a bidding war. And what do most bids think ... "what's the cheapest I can do this job, get it and make a buck". Not what's this tree worth. Some numb nuts around this place quote an hourly rate as they have no friggin idea of how long things take or how difficult they are.

It's like a mentality thing, think cheap.

When you find out where you can live like a king for $10 an hour or earn a lot more, like $35+ an hour as an employee, let me know.

 

[vharrison2]

I charge $15 an hour for my labor, plus I charge my expenses

You won't be in business long charging 15$ an hour for your labor. At least double that. At least.

 

[kf_tree]

kf tree


When you find out where you can live like a king for $10 an hour or earn a lot more, like $35+ an hour as an employee, let me know.

well i already earn more than 35 an hour as an employee. i work for a day rate so the quicker i work the quicker my day is over. today i was on my way home by 11:30, i started my first job at 7:30. so today it worked out to 100.00 an hour.


but i'm still not living like a king.....a joker maybe,,,,but not a king.

now if everyday could only be like that. sometimes i'm cutting until 6:00 pm...... today was just my kind of jobs.

 

[Proj Eng]

Found these to be accurate for my state... for the most part.
http://www.homefair.com/homefair/calc/salcalc.html

I am guessing, but I think the census bureau helps with some of these figures. I remember putting some of that information down on the long forms (used to help out with that). Never again tho!

 

[Lumberjack]

Lumberjack....moot point; brick wall. Largest dump bill here $1500.00; chip box truck filled with palm... charged straight to the client with dump ticket provided.

1500 was for one chip box??

Dump prices can help show cost of living. Dumps are a biz after all.

Cant burn palm chips as easy as brush, if I had palms here with my setup I would burn not chip due to the cost of land being less and so we own enough land to have a burn pile. Which comes back to cost of living.


Still need a climber? I would like to come down and climb for you for a while but I am needed up here, I would like to just come down for a coupla weeks to help out and learn (always like to learn). Doubt we could work it out though.

 

[vharrison2]

Lumberjack, YES! still looking for a climber!! We are not allowed any type of burning in Monroe County, thats a no no.
Come on down

 

[Lumberjack]

My groundy is going on a cruise the 21-26th.........

 

[Husky288XP]

Vharrison,
Look no further for a climber, I am an ISA Cert. Arborist, and a Penn State Alumini. Just book me a flight.

 

[vharrison2]

Are you serious??????? What airport do you want to fly out of?

 

[kf_tree]

kf tree

Good point, where can you live like a king when your on $10 an hour, the tip?

This industry pays crap money for what we do, for the jobs we do same goes ... people getting huge trees done for dirt cheap, like a ego thing where bosses want to brag about who did the biggest ... and bust everyone in the process.

Isn't it funny, you go to a lawyer here or there you'll pretty much pay the same. You go to a dentist here or there you'll pretty much pay the same.

You get 3 quotes on a removal and you'll get heaps of variation. Like a bidding war. And what do most bids think ... "what's the cheapest I can do this job, get it and make a buck". Not what's this tree worth. Some numb nuts around this place quote an hourly rate as they have no friggin idea of how long things take or how difficult they are.

It's like a mentality thing, think cheap.

When you find out where you can live like a king for $10 an hour or earn a lot more, like $35+ an hour as an employee, let me know.

i really agree with alot of your points......for some reason tree work is like the ugly step child of the trades. i wish there was a way the industry could clean up it's act.