First Job

[12Bravo]

Had a neighbor approach me and ask if I could make him a ditch on the side of his driveway at the top and make a ditch at the side of his driveway closer to the bottom. Then grade out the driveway and smooth it out.

What would be an acceptable hourly rate for this? He refuses to let me just do it, I said $200 for the job and he said I was undercutting myself.

So what is a reasonable rate for this, assume I will be spending 12 hours on it. Long driveway, going up a hill with erosion dirt that needs to be moved before I can cut the ditch in with a tilt blade.

 

[EddieWalker]

First question is if this is something you have experience doing and how nice will it come out? If you can do it so it comes out nicely, a grand would be a good price. If you are just learning and when you are done with it you don't want anybody posting pictures of what it looks like. $500 might be acceptable.

 

[Sprinklerman]

That would be 12 to 15 hundred in my area

 

[12Bravo]

I was guessing $800. So since this is my neighbor and we are on good terms. I've cut ATV's trails on his property and his son rides the trails on their land and mine. $400 is what I was thinking.

I am no professional and am limited by my machine, if I had and a little track hoe it would look a lot better than what I am able to do. I'm not HAND digging, I'll move as much as I can and make sure the water goes where we want it to go. Once he gets more gravel I will come back and spread that too.

I did some work today on it, about 7 hours worth. Got a little bit left to do on the top section and just need to cut the ditch on the lower section.

If it wasn't so expensive to get into I would love to start a small business with a small track hoe and my tractor doing odd jobs. Like what I am doing now, garden prep, drainage issues. Just little stuff that large companies over price because they don't want to do them. My truck isn't able to pull my tractor and I don't have a trailer to haul it anyways.

They always say, find something you love and won't work a day in your life. I love operating equipment, but WAY to expensive to get into that business!

 

[Sprinklerman]

Companies dont overprice jobs because they dont want them . The consumer doesnt realize the costs involved in running a business . Lets say doing grading with a 30 hp tractor . First and foremost you are paying the employee , whether its you or someone else , workmans comp , advertising ,insurance , fuel repairs , truck , trailer , equip payments , taxes , phone , and so on . $ 100 an hour sounds like a lot , but its not after you subtract all the expenses involved .

 

[cat fever]

Since it sounds like you didn't care about making money on the job anyways; tell him to just pay you what he thinks it's worth.

 

[12Bravo]

Companies dont overprice jobs because they dont want them . The consumer doesnt realize the costs involved in running a business . Lets say doing grading with a 30 hp tractor . First and foremost you are paying the employee , whether its you or someone else , workmans comp , advertising ,insurance , fuel repairs , truck , trailer , equip payments , taxes , phone , and so on . $ 100 an hour sounds like a lot , but its not after you subtract all the expenses involved .

I fully understand that. Maybe the equipment business is different than the electrical business that I have had up close and personal relationship with. When the company doesn't want to do the smaller jobs, they over price them. They jack the bid up by as much as 40%, if the customer pays, they do it. I know this for a fact, seen it done and talked to the owner about it. Small jobs are not worth the time and effort to take away from large jobs that pay more and offer more security to the business.

Many companies don't want small work, at least not in some construction trades.

 

[12Bravo]

Since it sounds like you didn't care about making money on the job anyways; tell him to just pay you what he thinks it's worth.

I tried that, it didn't work.

Not so much not caring about making money. I haven't even thought about using my tractor to make money, I purchased it for my back and blood pressure, so to speak. Makes my life way easier around the property. I actually offered to do the job for free, he said no he wasn't going to take advantage of a neighbor. At first I said $200 and he said no to that also.

 

[12Bravo]

I think I would actually like doing this for a living. But the expense of getting into the business is a real negative. Even used track hoes are expensive, then the truck strong enough to pull it around and the trailer good enough to hold it. Heck, you would be $70-100k in the hole just with those items.

 

[cat fever]

I think I would actually like doing this for a living. But the expense of getting into the business is a real negative. Even used track hoes are expensive, then the truck strong enough to pull it around and the trailer good enough to hold it. Heck, you would be $70-100k in the hole just with those items.

Sounds like you and I are in the same boat.
I bought my tractor for my personnel use, but I have neighbors wanting stuff done all the time. I didn't buy it to run around on all these odd jobs. I have cut and baled several fields for people. Next year I'm not going to do it. I don't really care about making extra money and I'd rather not tear up my equipment in the rough fields that they say are smooth.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Last year I priced a job I didn't want, high. Got it anyway, and then still managed to loose my shirt! I did manage to get some new grey hair though.

Jobs like the post mentions are good for fun, good will and experience. Often, a good opportunity to find out what your equipment will and will not do. As long as your expenses are covered, but that can be hard to determine with unknown aspects of wear and tear.

 

[PILOON]

Funny thing is that no matter the size of equipment other than fuel , costs of operation are fairly similar (or should be).
Operator still gets same wages, parts still cost the same as does insurance.\
The smaller the equipment the easier it is to break.

The above being said then the price spread would not be more than $10-$20/ per hour.

 

[two_bit_score]

I was guessing $800. So since this is my neighbor and we are on good terms. I've cut ATV's trails on his property and his son rides the trails on their land and mine. $400 is what I was thinking.

I am no professional and am limited by my machine, if I had and a little track hoe it would look a lot better than what I am able to do. I'm not HAND digging, I'll move as much as I can and make sure the water goes where we want it to go. Once he gets more gravel I will come back and spread that too.

I did some work today on it, about 7 hours worth. Got a little bit left to do on the top section and just need to cut the ditch on the lower section.

If it wasn't so expensive to get into I would love to start a small business with a small track hoe and my tractor doing odd jobs. Like what I am doing now, garden prep, drainage issues. Just little stuff that large companies over price because they don't want to do them. My truck isn't able to pull my tractor and I don't have a trailer to haul it anyways.

They always say, find something you love and won't work a day in your life. I love operating equipment, but WAY to expensive to get into that business!

You should go ahead and start with an actual determination of your expenses for your tractor. I set up a system where I determined my cost for operating my JD 110 BH was $65 per hour. That is how much I charge myself for anything I do with my BH. Labor of $35 per hour if I am charging labor as an operator and that makes it an even $100. Every 1/10 hour on the BH is charged to something.

TBS

 

[12Bravo]

Finished the job today with only one accident. My phone fell out of the towel that was holding it, next to my seat and I ran the darn thing over! Ugh.....There goes $100 to get it replaced, glad I have insurance on the phone!

 

[Industrial Toys]

Job sites are hard on phones!

Curious, if in Texas a 110 is worth $100.00/hr with operator, what a good size excavator is worth an hour. Here you can get a good size hoe for just over a hundred bucks (CDN)! Maybe float charges if it''s a small job.

 

[Sprinklerman]

Funny thing is that no matter the size of equipment other than fuel , costs of operation are fairly similar (or should be).
Operator still gets same wages, parts still cost the same as does insurance.\
The smaller the equipment the easier it is to break.

The above being said then the price spread would not be more than $10-$20/ per hour.

This is so true .