How much ground can a brush cutter cover in an hour?

[mick m]

if they dont like a per hour rate just look at the worst and heavest going job first then quote all on the time you think that will take to do ,,,,,and then offer a per hour rate on the lighter jobs ,,, bet some people change ideas fast
by going on a job by job quote system isnt it think of a number and multiply by 2

be fair and everyone wins

[RDrancher]

Price by the acre?...never. Sounds like the contractor is trying to set YOUR price.

[Rio_Grande]

Well I got it. We will see if I guessed right or not. I don't like the by the job bids unless it is small. But looks like if I want work I will bid it like this and learn from it.

[joshuabardwell]

What did you estimate?

[LD1]

By the acre isnt a bad way to bit if you do it right. You have to figure how many acres you can cut in the WORST case scenerio. Then take what you want to make per hour and come up with that "worst case" rate that you could live with. Bid that. Then on ALL the rest of the jobs that arent "worst case" you make out.

But if that stuff is SOO dense that a tractor and cutter wont handle it, it is going to be SLOW going and hard on your cutter. As dense as you describe, I would thing I would want a mulching head on their. I am figuring you can still probabally come close to an acre an hour with that 7' cutter. And if thats the case, a 4 acre job still just makes your 4 hour minimum. So Just make him aware of your minimum so you dont screw yourself.

Let us know how it all turns out.

[yellowdogsvc]

It's not so much the trees that need to be cut in an acre, but rather the trees they DON'T want cut, the terrain, and whether the acres are contiguous or not. I rarely will do by the acre. Some jobs I can stand on a hillside, look over the terrain and think "I can mow that 7 acres in xx amount of time, so here's what I will charge." The customer doesn't get a price by the acre very often. The government entities regularly send me notices for projects that are going to be bid. They often want a price by the acre with only a small window of time to preview it. Unless they are clear clutting on flat land, it's tough to not throw a number out there to bid that way. I've seen the big boys stall out on jobs that I thought would take only a few hours but because of overly thick brush or rocks or other obstructions, the job bogged down. If they had many acres at a set price and those conditions on each of those acres, it could be a real problem trying to come out ahead.

I'd suggest in the future that unless the acre(s) is fenced off and you can walk and mark the boundaries, that you give them a by the day or by the hour or week price with a realistic estimate (based on your experience on that type of terrain) of how long the job will take. Like someone else mentioned, be fair and everyone wins. I'm never the guy "makin' a killin' " and hopefully I'm not the guy "losing my butt" but rather I try to be consistent in pricing. Yes, my competitors can and do use that against me but they are in and out of business and I'm going into nearly 20 years. It just works for me but your situation might be different or maybe your properties are very similar or flat.. It's not like that where I live. Most every acre is very different and the terrain is rolling to steep across even small parcels. Good luck

[Rio_Grande]

Figured the working hours almost to a tee, underestimated the dead fall that had to be moved but the brush cutting went faster than expected. Over all wish I could book two of them a week.

[joshuabardwell]

Glad it worked out for you.

[LD1]

What....no pics of the job

[Rio_Grande]

LOL!!! And only 4 bee nests, only got stung twice!