Pictures from a skid steer mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

Thats where you get good at estimating and learn from your mistakes.
Mowing.....everything can usually be seen. Sure, you may hit a tire in a field or wrap up wire that takes a little time to dig out.....but general conditions and difficulty usually arent hard to see.

Now doing excavating is a different story. But such things exist in a contract like private utility exemptions and rock clauses, etc.

If you are a contractor and have been in business more than a few years.....per-job bidding is the only way to go.

You go hourly.....customer has no idea how to budget. OR if you tell them you are expecting it to take "about 6 hours".....you for damn sure dont want to go over that or deal with a customer questioning you. Saying "I though you said it would only take 6 hours"....

OR if you come in under hours.....when they were expecting 6, you are leaving money on the table/

OR.....expect them to watch you like a hawk, squabble over minutes....or question why they are paying you to stop and clean the radiator, or fuel machine, etc.

Flat rate.....good, bad, or indifferent everyone knows at the end of the day how much money is expected to change hands.

Yep.
I always bid per job. Of course I know I want to make $180-$200 for the 15 footer and what I want for skid steer work, brush cutting, zero turn, all of it.
But I rarely divulge that.
If the customer wants to know what I make per hour, he will find out at the end of the job.

Experienced guys almost always bid by the job.

 

[bunchgrass]

Yep.
I always bid per job. Of course I know I want to make $180-$200 for the 15 footer and what I want for skid steer work, brush cutting, zero turn, all of it.
But I rarely divulge that.
If the customer wants to know what I make per hour, he will find out at the end of the job.

Experienced guys almost always bid by the job.

I know that almost everyone bids by the job. Just saying that you lose flexibility in charging someone. In fact, I have had people get pissy when I quoted them a price, found things weren't what they appeared at bidding requiring more work and I appropriately charged more. When I used to do small side jobs, I'd rent my time/tractor by the hour.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Perfect candidate for chain conversion

I'm going to hold off on that until I see how some of these test projects work out, I can cut up to 12" softwood stuff with these blades ( not that I do it often ) but I'm not convinced that the chains will do that and out of all the videos posted I haven't see one of those chain rigs on the back of a tractor running circles around what a skid steer can do, and while the chains do seem to do well in scrub brush I'm not convinced it can outdo the blades. Here is a softwood tree I cut with the skidsteer brushcutter with AR400 blades, the tape measure doesn't lie.

 

[Hay Dude]

I know that almost everyone bids by the job. Just saying that you lose flexibility in charging someone. In fact, I have had people get pissy when I quoted them a price, found things weren't what they appeared at bidding requiring more work and I appropriately charged more. When I used to do small side jobs, I'd rent my time/tractor by the hour.

Actually, I think most guys DO bid by the hour or acre. That’s perfectly fine, I don’t generally let the customer know what I charge per hour. Why even bother? Quite honestly, most people would balk at my hourly price.
Also, I have a $250 minimum.
They can figure out what I make per hour after the job is done.

 

[Fixastuff]

I'm going to hold off on that until I see how some of these test projects work out, I can cut up to 12" softwood stuff with these blades ( not that I do it often ) but I'm not convinced that the chains will do that and out of all the videos posted I haven't see one of those chain rigs on the back of a tractor running circles around what a skid steer can do, and while the chains do seem to do well in scrub brush I'm not convinced it can outdo the blades. Here is a softwood tree I cut with the skidsteer brushcutter with AR400 blades, the tape measure doesn't lie.View attachment 812752

Nice! Will it chew that tree up after cutting it down?

 

[bunchgrass]

Actually, I think most guys DO bid by the hour or acre. That’s perfectly fine, I don’t generally let the customer know what I charge per hour. Why even bother? Quite honestly, most people would balk at my hourly price.
Also, I have a $250 minimum.
They can figure out what I make per hour after the job is done.

Not trying to get into a pissing match but just the ads I've seen for tractor work (till a garden spot or yard, mow a pasture etc), they all post hourly rates, I assume because they don't want to go visit each jobsite to come up with a total bid. That's the flexibility I was thinking of. Those are likely people trying to make beer money for a few afternoon's work.

 

[Hay Dude]

Not trying to get into a pissing match but just the ads I've seen for tractor work (till a garden spot or yard, mow a pasture etc), they all post hourly rates, I assume because they don't want to go visit each jobsite to come up with a total bid. That's the flexibility I was thinking of. Those are likely people trying to make beer money for a few afternoon's work.

You are absolutely right.
The un/under insured beer money guys sell hay cheaper, mow lawns & fields, run skid steers cheaper. It’s all fine until it isn’t.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Actually, I think most guys DO bid by the hour or acre. That’s perfectly fine, I don’t generally let the customer know what I charge per hour. Why even bother? Quite honestly, most people would balk at my hourly price.
Also, I have a $250 minimum.
They can figure out what I make per hour after the job is done.

I bid a job the other day that I figured would take at the most 15 hours and 10 hours in the customer started adding in more and more to the point that now I am looking at an additional 5 hours or so which I already told him that it was going to be more but working by the hour it wouldn't have made me any difference how much he added, I also did a limerock driveway the other day but I was glad I bidded it by the hour because they dumped alll the limerock about 300 yards from where it needed to be spread so that added a lot of travel back and forth which added time to the job, working by the hour they can dump it as far away as they like, but I am still a rookie at all this , maybe I will catch on.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Nice! Will it chew that tree up after cutting it down?

No I don't even try to process anything that big, usually about 6" stuff I can shred up pretty good but I would consider trying to process 12" material pretty abusive to my equipment.

 

[bunchgrass]

they dumped alll the limerock about 300 yards from where it needed to be spread

Sounds like the truck driver was the rookie. If you order driveway rock (not road base/pit run), they'll lay you a nice layer down the drive an inch or so deep and wide as the truck bed. Spread from there.