Price for a job

[Manvito]

Im not sure if this post is in the right place but here goes. I want to give a price to this guy to dress up his gravel lot. As you can see from the picture, its pretty good size and at has some really large pot holes in it. He tells me he had a guy bring in three huge dump truck loads of stone three years ago and do the parking lot. Im thinking if I just drag the crap out of it with my box blade, with the scarifier teeth down, I can pull up enough stone to dress the lot up without bringing in more stone.

I have a Kubota B2601 with a 48 inch box blade and a fel. I dont need to make a fortune on this job but I dont want to work for peanuts either. My thought is it will take me two 8 hours days to do it and I was thinking of charging $1000 for the job. Im just worried that I am grossly underestimating the time it will take me as I have never done a large parking lot like this before.

Does anyone have any input about this job?
I cant figure out how to post a photo that isnt severely degraded so Im going to have to type the measurements.
Top 150 bottom 160 right side 123 left side 102 feet

 

[Creature Meadow]

Location will dedicate price but here where I live in NC the going rate for this type of work is $75.00 an hour and time starts from pulling out of drive to pulling back in drive. Charging for the drive both ways helps with fuel and wear and tear on trailer and truck.

Good luck sure other will chime in.

I know not a good practice but I don't carry liability insurance to cover any mishaps but I only work for friends and family. Probably be first to sue me but so far so good.

 

[Manvito]

Location will dedicate price but here where I live in NC the going rate for this type of work is $75.00 an hour and time starts from pulling out of drive to pulling back in drive. Charging for the drive both ways helps with fuel and wear and tear on trailer and truck.

Good luck sure other will chime in.

I know not a good practice but I don't carry liability insurance to cover any mishaps but I only work for friends and family. Probably be first to sue me but so far so good.

This parking lot is 5 minute from my house so thats not a problem. I’m trying to stay away from giving him a price per hour. I’m hoping to estimate the hours and give him a set price but I really have no idea how many hours it’s gonna take. If I used your $75 an hour and my estimate of 16 hours it would be $1200 which is right around what I was thinking. I’m just not sure, with my small machine, that I can do it in 16 hours.

 

[D2Cat]

So what happens if it takes you 20 hours...not a big deal. You will use $10 of fuel and learn better how to bid future jobs. You're sure not going to go broke on one job!

I've done a job for a guy who called me and asked if I'd bury a water line from one pond to another a few years ago in a drought. He TOLD me what he was willing to pay per foot and how many feet was involved. I was to dig it and he had a farm hand that was going to come and unroll the pipe and lay it in the trench. I agreed.

The helper never showed up. I did what the helper was suppose to do. Even dug a line the farmer was going to dig by hand.

When I finished he wanted to reduce the amount he promised because I got it done way faster then he thought possible.

I guess my point is, whatever you tell the man you're going to do...do it. Goes both ways.

 

[jryser]

So what happens if it takes you 20 hours...not a big deal. You will use $10 of fuel and learn better how to bid future jobs. You're sure not going to go broke on one job!



I've done a job for a guy who called me and asked if I'd bury a water line from one pond to another a few years ago in a drought. He TOLD me what he was willing to pay per foot and how many feet was involved. I was to dig it and he had a farm hand that was going to come and unroll the pipe and lay it in the trench. I agreed.



The helper never showed up. I did what the helper was suppose to do. Even dug a line the farmer was going to dig by hand.



When I finished he wanted to reduce the amount he promised because I got it done way faster then he thought possible.



I guess my point is, whatever you tell the man you're going to do...do it. Goes both ways.

Sounds like a lot of folks these days. Seems a LOT of people wanted to "borrow" me and my L3560. "No" is a wonderful and complete sentence.


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[85Hokie]

When I finished he wanted to reduce the amount he promised because I got it done way faster then he thought possible.

I guess my point is, whatever you tell the man you're going to do...do it. Goes both ways.

I am with Cat here - whatever price you come up with, have it in writing (you write up the "contract") Spell out exactly WHAT is expected....

have him sign it BEFORE you begin - once finished, require payment IN full.

Not trying to be a scrooge or an ass here.....but if you look back in time to every time someone did something and the outcome got changed somehow and the person doing the work got screwed.....you understand my point....

how does that old expression go???

The road to hell is paved with good intentions!

 

[Manvito]

So what happens if it takes you 20 hours...not a big deal. You will use $10 of fuel and learn better how to bid future jobs. You're sure not going to go broke on one job!

I've done a job for a guy who called me and asked if I'd bury a water line from one pond to another a few years ago in a drought. He TOLD me what he was willing to pay per foot and how many feet was involved. I was to dig it and he had a farm hand that was going to come and unroll the pipe and lay it in the trench. I agreed.

The helper never showed up. I did what the helper was suppose to do. Even dug a line the farmer was going to dig by hand.

When I finished he wanted to reduce the amount he promised because I got it done way faster then he thought possible.

I guess my point is, whatever you tell the man you're going to do...do it. Goes both ways.

I would never think of charging him more than I quoted. If it takes me 20 hours instead of 16, I can live with that. What I’m afraid of is it will take me a week or more. I really have no idea how long it’s going to take. I’m hoping someone here could maybe give me an idea of about how long it might take with my machine. I’m pretty good with the little Kubota but that is a lot of real estate. I think the lot is about 18,500 square feet. I don’t want to get in over my head.

 

[D2Cat]

If the area was 150' x 150' = 22,500 sq. ft. That's not really a big area to "play" on for 16 hours (using your example).

I think you will be amazed at how much material you can move and level in one hour. What ever your competency level is now it will be greater after the time on this job. So you're getting paid to be better!

Just go talk to the guy and tell him you're unsure of how much time it will take to get done, but since you're so close by you will do it for $1200 no matter how long it takes.

Whether you come up with something signed as to what you will do and cost, is entirely up to you and how well you know the individual, his reputation, etc.

I personally NEVER had anything in writing in 18-20 years of contracting jobs for myself. I never went without getting paid immediately and on several jobs the one I was working for insisted on paying more then I told them the price would be because I did more then I said or helped them in some way.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Lets do a little figuring. One strip 150’ long,three passes for shits and giggles.
5 mins per pass. Overlap 6” .Ok,40 strips 3 times 120 passes is 10 hours.
You should have some idea how long it takes to travel 150 feet working with a loaded box scraper. Then do the math.

A road grader type contractor would roll it around in a couple hours. Up here grader rate is like 85/hour.

This is like a $500 job. If that.
The biggest problem is the size of your machine. If i encountered a similar situation i quote $xx per hour. No negotiating haggling or whining.
Time is money,you need to be reasonable with your hourly rate without starving to death.

 

[Flintlock42003]

I would go per hour, I’m a lousy gambler.


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[William1]

I have done the communal road at my home. 10' wide and 2,600' long. 26,000 square feet with my BX in four hours. Neighbors with larger machines can halve my time.
The hard part for you will the the constant changing of direction. You'll pick some skills as you figure out how to make the turns efficiently.

 

[conropl]

I do my 350' x 8' wide drive in about 1/2 hour with a 72" box blade and FEL. That is, 2800 sq ft.
You are doing something less than 20,000 sq ft with a 48" Box blade and FEL.

If I take my 1/2 hour at 2800 sq ft, you would take longer because my box blade is 1.5 times longer, and lets assume it would take 1.25 times longer yet because you are less efficient because you have more passes which means you have more overlap between passes overall. So you would take 1 hour to do the same area. That is:
1/2 hour x (72"/48") x 1.25 (efficiency loss) = 1 hour per 2800 sq ft for you. Or 2800 sq ft / hour

Rounding your job up, you have 20,000 sq ft. That would mean it would take you:
20,000 sq ft / (2800 sq ft / hr) = 7 hours of seat time

Figure 80% productive time (breaks, interruptions, talking to people, etc); plus 1 hour to get set up, plan, and start the project; plus another 1 hour to pack up, clean up, and get paid. That brings you total hours to:
(7 hours / 0.8 eff) + 1 hour start + 1 hour clean up = 10.75 hours total job with out break downs or unforeseen complications (weather for example).

Just a quick gut check... but the 10 hour prediction by Tooljunkie sounds pretty spot-on (plus or minus an hour).

Pat

 

[Sammy3700]

I know this not what you ask but if you have a lot of grading you may want to look at a land plane. I bit the bullet and bought a 6'. It is great for gravel and dirt roads. As far as price I charge 65 a hour with a 2 hour min to start if it is less than 15 miles one way. As others stated a fixed price or bid can bite you if the customer wants more than first what was asked. This why I work by the hour and stay as long as they want.

 

[adventure bob]

Pricing work like this generally takes two forms: Fixed Price (what you've proposed) and Cost Plus. In fixed price you take all the pricing risk and must ensure that all your costs are covered. Any error or oversight by you and your losing money. In a cost plus environment, pricing risk is shared by you and the customer. They know your hourly rate and you estimate how long you estimate it will take you. If it takes longer, the rate is still the same, it just cost more. the opposite is true as well. People like fixed pricing because it limits their known expenditure for the job. The caution I'd give you is that you really have to take into account your costs: Your time (what do want to make per hour?) Tractor use (these have to be allocated to every hour the tractor is running) Fuel, transport, wear and tear... While some will argue that those things don't matter, they are things that you ultimately have to pay for if you don't charge for them. In this endeavor, I'm assuming this cash off record somewhere so you have to take into account the tax benefit of a cash transaction. You can make up to $.15 on the dollar less if your not paying taxes on it. All this is just a very long way of saying make sure you have your costs covered, or your giving away work and tractor wear.

 

[Manvito]

I would go per hour, I***8217;m a lousy gambler.


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I***8217;ve considered doing an hourly rate but I***8217;m afraid to put him off with that. I think I will just charge $1000 and work until it***8217;s done. It seems to me that I am not crazy in thinking I can get it done in two days.

 

[Manvito]

Lots of good information coming! I really don’t have anything to lose if I don’t get the job, and I would be coving my time if I charge him by the hour. I can work until he is happy with it. The lot is very packed down and in pretty bad shape so it will probably take me a little longer than I think.

I’ve considered getting a land pride gravel grader for my own driveway so maybe I will get one if I get the job and pay for it with the money from the job.

I thinking $75 and hour for me and my machine. Does that sound reasonable? At that rate, I will have paid for my tractor after 300 hours in the seat. I have a hot 150 hours on my tractor right now so I’m kind of a master operator now. <-joke.
Sorry about all the questions but I am new to hiring myself out, this will be my third paid job.

 

[Tooljunkie]

75/hour. Really, is that the going rate in your area?thats pretty steep.

 

[Manvito]

75/hour. Really, is that the going rate in your area?thats pretty steep.

As I said, I don’t really have any idea of what to charge, that’s why I’m reaching out on this forum for some ideas. What is the going rate in your area?

 

[D2Cat]

Might look on you local Craig's List to see what guys are asking. I've noticed a few ads like this one in various areas within 200 miles of me.

"Tractor work $40 per hour - $40 (Bartlesville)
Tractor work $40 per hour 1 hour minimum large jobs negotiable brush hog tilling dirt gravel and snow work call David."

 

[BAP]

$75 an hour for a B2601 and operator is pretty steep. You got to remember that you can’t get the same rate per hour for a small tractor as you can for a dozer, skid steer, pay loader, or grader.