Estimates?

[Oakdude]

I am new in the business and I am wondering how to price jobs. I understand the increasing of the price with hazards, obstacles, hauling, and dumping. I need a base to start pricing, like an hourly rate etc.

 

[DDM]

Well Oak its not Easy Trust me Add up all your overhead and expenses and whatever profit margin
you need to Figure an hourly rate then try to figure hour many hours you need to finish up. Dont forget to add in a little for equipment wear and tear chipper blades,chain saws
ect. and also remember that the busiest guy in town can also be the hungriest.Ive botched up my share and worked for a few dollars an hour until i gained experience estimating. And i have a set price for my bucket truck it wont leave the yard for less than 300.00 minimum if its only one branch and it took me awhile to figure out i had to do it that way.

hope i havent confused you to much.

Later,
David

 

[jack c. loesch]

estimates

hey mate:i don't price by the hour,i price according as to what needs to be done,size of tree,how many branches,etc.an example of a 30' tree with a trunk diameter of 12" with a medium amount of branches i would charge $225 plus $15 for carting away of branches.i don't use a chipper.i try to do all my work the ole-fashion-way.
jack

 

[DDM]

Jack? do you use a crosscut saw in place of a chain saw? I feel for you Jack i tried that for a while but i was spending way to much time driving back and forth to the land fill. theres NO WAY i would part with my chipper.Well Except for a bigger one!

Later,
David

 

[treeman82]

Dave how big is your bucket / what year is it? Most guys up here are askin for $700 per day bare minimum for 2 guys with chain saws / ropes / truck / rigging gear. That is for about a 50 - 75 footer.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Best way for bidding is to ask how much you need for a day. Will the job take 2/3 of a day and then leave you with nothing more? then it should be a full day job.

The best way to loose money is to make ends meet on the hours, but short yourself on the days. When you add the week up it comes out short.

I even tell customers that, i need to pay the crew for a full day.

I know guys who have voiler plate prices, it's in the backyard this that and the otherthing its $600.

Lotta big wood to haul out and I want an extra groundie $1800.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

It's nice to say, I want a full days pay for a job that takes 6 hours, but in the real world you will loose job after job bidding too high.

I might tell the customer that it would be nice to have a full day of work and try to sell 2 or 3 more hours of work. Otherwise try to schedule a small job. It's nice to keep these small jobs under your hat, for short days.

Say someone has a brush pile, tell them you can do it sometime in the next three or four weeks, rather than say it will cost $600, or that you don't do brush piles. Then it's there waiting for the next short day.

We line up as many of these small jobs as we can, if we get too many, we do a whole day of short jobs. These are some of the most profitable days.

 

[DDM]

Treeman Thats a minimum to roll it the price goes up from there.i have to remove a dead branch today it will take 40 min total drive 30 min work.
and its 250.00
its a 84 with a 50' i'm looking into a newer one though.
yes Mike i agree on small jobs i wish those were all i did i make more on those.
Later,
David

before i started that min on the truck i was all over town to remove single branches for 40.00
i learned REAL quick.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

And easiest on the bodey, with the drives between.

There is a differance between a startup and an established company here. This is espesialy true when trying to figuer what the hourly is. Your one day fee many be a bit more then the little owner-operator needs, and less then a bigger company in Merton or Waukesha. My phrasing was _Need_ not want. A small company who may not be getting work to fill every day needs to balance the two.

If you make money on every job, but don't do it of the day or week...

After a while you can get to where you do the boiler plate bidding. That's a $600 tree.

When I was doing estimtes, I always tried to get extra trees and shrubs on the sale. Add in the crab and pick prune the front yews for only $150 or something like that.

I never understood why some people would only make a bid on the item that they were called for.

 

[ArborView]

It's not easy to come up with. I think most people set it too low at first and then as they gain experience will set it higher. This link may help you get started: http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article.cfm/objectID/D57108CA-CD9E-448E-955369600DF96F20

 

[DDM]

As for the earlier Post about the one branch well three other people on the street stopped me and in 4 hrs i totaled 675.00 not bad for 4 hrs work love them small jobs!

Later,
David

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Gotta have a minimum!

 

[Oakdude]

Thanks for all the help! It's starting to make sense.