How does he do it?

[swyman]

Here's the scenario. New to the business and last year was involved in a township tree work bid. I kind of took a back seat as I did not yet have any equipment or insurance. There were 15 very large (36"-46") mosly maple. Complete.removal and grind stumps, no cleanup on stump grindings. This guy did them for $290 a tree. I will.say all are easy access between sidewalk and road but all have power lines on them. So this year I have a season under my belt and get the call to bid again but I am properly insured and have all the equipment I need. This year 18 trees just as big, same deal. I bid them individually and at a semi fair rate, mostly all around $600 except one that was in a 70' high voltage primary. Then added another $2k for grinding. In the end I was high bidder but expected it. I figured it would go for $8-9k. Same guy got it for just over $5k. Came out to $277 per tree. Do know this, he has been at it since the late 60s, does not own a Chippers and has 1 groundie. Has a 60' rear mount and a tandem grapple truck. Delimbs, chunks it down, grapples it all in truck. I have spent some time studying him work and wondering if that would be more efficient operating that way. He also has no hesitation on cuts, has done the toughest 100 times instead of me. Still it has been 2 weeks and is still not finished the job so is he really making any money? Well I guess he is doing better than me, he's working and I'm watching. Some say he just does it for the exercise but he is always 100 jobs behind. I guess when you have done it for so long you get a ton of calls. Don't know how many years he has left but is a hard worker. Just need to figure out how he can operate.so cheap?

 

[mattfr12]

How fast is he knocking them out? we did 40 pines at 300 a piece with stumps but took 3-4 days all where 60 foot range. if he's knocking them out one after another i can see it because even at 300 a piece we still made close to 4K a day.

if he's making 5k in two weeks i would just assume he owes no money and its just looking for cash to spend .

 

[treemandan]

How fast is he knocking them out? we did 40 pines at 300 a piece with stumps but took 3-4 days all where 60 foot range. if he's knocking them out one after another i can see it because even at 300 a piece we still made close to 4K a day.

I have never said this to anybody before: God Bless you. Really, and I mean it too... and not in an MDS sort of way.

 

[mattfr12]

I have never said this to anybody before: God Bless you. Really, and I mean it too... and not in an MDS sort of way.

haha thanks on residential jobs we don't do them like that but any type of municipal deal its ether cheap and fast or you'll loose your nuts. and its your usually not bidding against craiglist warriors either they require workers comp and all that fancy jazz. so its usually hew ever has a crane and a big chipper are the guys bidding. the crane guy we rent from hooks us up big time if we rent him for a few weeks at a time.

 

[swyman]

He's knocking 2-3 a day then won't see him for a day. How about his style, doing everything without a Chippers. Would have a heck of a brush pile to burn tough but I like how you can just fly everything out and the stalk lands on the brush pile leaving no damage. Anyone else operate that way? Oh, all his stuff has long been paid for. Like I said he's been operating 40 plus years. Have had some compliments though, a few people could not believe how good a cleanup job we did, said ......... Used to leave a huge mess. Always makes ya feel good with positive feedback.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

If he owns the gear, only hires one guy, has a freehold property and doesnt see the need to get bigger or update his gear, then he can afford to do things that involve more machine than manpower, cheap.

He sounds like the kind of guy that would be worth getting to know better and help out. He probably has more work than he can handle and as he gets older, might be shortening his workload if hes not one to expand his staff.

 

[deevo]

How fast is he knocking them out? we did 40 pines at 300 a piece with stumps but took 3-4 days all where 60 foot range. if he's knocking them out one after another i can see it because even at 300 a piece we still made close to 4K a day.

if he's making 5k in two weeks i would just assume he owes no money and its just looking for cash to spend .

Exactly what Matt said, that's a lot of time and work to only make 5K

 

[lxt]

I hear ya & the same happened to me over a year ago, I posted it in a thread on here somewhere??

Bid 61 acres to clear cut, 9 plots all over a section of strip mined gamelands, all debris must be within the taped off section & cant be left outside of such, was in-accessible to machinery & needed hand cut (literally), there was creek beds to cross, canyon like drops, shale rock hillsides & each plot in the middle of what they wanted to preserve!! sounds like a good job, uh?

WRONG, I bid around $2000.00 an acre...........did I say there was a deadline, yep 90days from determined start date & that was in March of 2010 when we got hit with 2-3ft of snow, stumps cant be higher than 6inches.....so any way the winning bid was under $8000.00 for all stated above...........even other competitor bidders called me & were amazed, cause they knew I lived 10minutes away...........the contractor that got it was from Minnesota.....it just baffles me how they made a dime on that.

since then I have not & will not bid those type of jobs, its not worth all the filing of paperwork & providing of this n that for a job that will be had by some lowballer!!!




LXT.............

 

[mattfr12]

He's knocking 2-3 a day then won't see him for a day. How about his style, doing everything without a Chippers. Would have a heck of a brush pile to burn tough but I like how you can just fly everything out and the stalk lands on the brush pile leaving no damage. Anyone else operate that way? Oh, all his stuff has long been paid for. Like I said he's been operating 40 plus years. Have had some compliments though, a few people could not believe how good a cleanup job we did, said ......... Used to leave a huge mess. Always makes ya feel good with positive feedback.

we don't use chippers on pruning jobs because of the hauling compacity we have tomorrow we will prune 3 oaks and no chipper will go. we just dump it at the recycling plant and they chip it. it is easier to just pile it up and grapple it in the truck then dump it. but our one truck has a hook lift on it with 2 20 foot containers so we can bring a lot of space.

 

[mattfr12]

Exactly what Matt said, that's a lot of time and work to only make 5K

ya thats terrible your just shooting yourself in the foot why make that kinda money when you can make a lot more doing residential single tree take downs for 800.00 a piece and for 800.00 their usually a walk in the park.

 

[the Aerialist]

Funny you say that ...

ya thats terrible your just shooting yourself in the foot why make that kinda money when you can make a lot more doing residential single tree take downs for 800.00 a piece and for 800.00 their usually a walk in the park.

I just did an $800 job and the tree was already laying there. It blew over in a storm and my bid to just cut it up and leave the wood onsite. Pretty big old Oak though, I should have charged more.