Help with land clearing

[radracer]

Thanks for reading. Any and all replies are appreciated. I was recently given the opportunity to bid on the clearing of .85 acre near Zephyrhills Fl. The property is fairly wooded but all of the trees that they want cut are under 6” diameter. Most of the property is covered with thick brush and palmettos (see attached photos). The property is next door to an acre of land with a house on it and on the other side it is woods, across the back there is a lake and across the front there is a dirt road. It is in the middle of nowhere so pretty much anything goes. I have done some decent sized cleanup jobs but this would be the biggest that I have done so far. I currently have 1 employee but for this project I will probably hire a laborer from day labor for a few days. I was thinking of going in with 2 brush cutters and clearing all of the brush first. While we are cutting the laborer will be piling it up. Then we will pick up all of the trees and logs that are already down. As far as the trees and palmettos go I was thinking of getting a mini excavator or a bobcat. But will a mini excavator tear down a 4” tree and can it dig up the stump and palmettos. Or would I be better off doing it manually? I spoke with the fire chief and he said that I could burn the debris if I had an excavator or tractor on site to help put it out if necessary. I have a price in mind but I would like to hear your suggestions of both price and method.

What would you charge for a job like this?

Is a mini excavator capable of pulling out the stumps of the trees and palmettos?

Is the mini excavator worth the price to rent? ($180 per day $750 a week)

To get rid of the debris would you burn it, rent a dumpster or would you go the landfill?

Note: If I did burn I would probably just burn the brush and take the logs to the dump.

Thanks in advance for your replies.
Harold Burgess

 

[Buzzlightyear]

Get a BIg excavator 14-21tonne and rip out and burn the whole lot. It's a one man job then ;o) Less than an acre put one man's money on it for a week plus the price of hiring the machine + your profit and go with that. Send your employee out earning money else where while you do the job.

I cleared the attached plot in a week on my own in a 7 tonne machine, for 5,000 £ UK It was very dense with some big trees on, all burnt.

 

[JimL]

days work for the hydroax. grind all that up in no time.

 

[CoreyTMorine]

Yeah i bid $.75 per square foot on stuff like that, Not including stumps. But most of my jobs are yard expansions and pools et cetera,my jobs are small enough that the houselot clearing guys aren't really interested or they can't maneuver their larger equipment around the site. The guys around here who specialize in house lots seem to get $.10 - $.50 per square foot, depending on salvage and ground, no stumps.

JimL is right about the hydroax. There is a timberax guy around here, i end up bidding against him every now and again, if there are no big trees on the site he almost always gets the job from me. I think our prices are real close, but i always ad a few bucks if there are vines and prickers and poison ivy everywhere. I think he ads a few dollars if there are any big trees.

 

[JimL]

I could make quick work of right of ways 10-15 spans long with the hydroax. sure was more fun than running the jaraff. i think they are going with geoboy's next, the hydroax's are heavy and make alot of ruts.

 

[CoreyTMorine]

Whats a span Jim? Do you know what your co. gets per hour for the ax?

 

[JimL]

span is the distance between 2 utility poles. don't remember what the distance was on the 3ph lines im working around. I work in line clearance. around 30 guys on the crew. hydroax are leased thru our leasing co, just like the trucks, jaraff, chippers. every 5 years we get new stuff. not sure what one get for a days work,

 

[begleytree]

Tractor with a brown tree cutter (read-heavy bushhog) would knock out most of that.
softwoods you can cut and mulch 4-6" trees. Its hard on it day in day out, but it will handle it. Easier to manuver in tight/small plots than a big hydro-ax, tradeoff is it won't handle as large of material.
tree cutter is made by brown manufacturing, they're out of alabama if you want to look them up.
-Ralph

 

[JimL]

we had 2 of the brown tree cutters. they worked but too hard on the tractors.