How much to charge for backhoe work and RIG welding

[Gary Fowler]

I did a bit of work for my neighbors brother who just purchased a house close by as an investment. Normally I don't charge my neighbors when I do a few minutes or an hour or so of work, but since this is on investment property and all the work I did was in beautification and cleanup, I think a little bartering is in order.
I did about 4 hours of work trimming tree limbs from some rather large cedar trees and hauling them away to a burn pile located a couple hundred yards from the house. For this work I was using my Stihl 370 chainsaw and my Kubota RTV 900 to haul the limbs. Some of this work was off a 10 foot step ladder.

Next I used my B26 TLB to pick up some residue left from a burn pile that had some metal and lots of rocks left in it and haul it to the back woods for dumping. This only took about an hour.

Here is the welding rig question. I did about 3.5 hours of acetylene welding on a wrought iron fence that had several bent bars. Some were mangled pretty bad and just had to be cut out in order to straighten using a vise, anvil and large hammer. About .5 hour of this time was just using the Kubota RTV 900 winch to hook on to slightly bent bars and pull them back straight.

SO I have about 8 hours of my time involved plus various equipment, welding wire, oxygen and acetylene. I have no idea how much to charge for this work, so hoping someone here that does this type of work can chime in. I am looking to charge my time against purchasing some firearms from him so it will be barter work.

 

[hosspuller]

If a fast food worker in NYC is worth $15 per hour, you're at least equal to that.

Plus machine time...

And you'll still be cheaper than a local machine shop.

 

[Teachu2]

When I was doing welding as a side business, I charged $35/hr in my shop (1 hr min), $55/hr mobile (+ travel time, 2hr min). Did a barter once with a local business on a on-site rush job over a holiday weekend, and charged him $75/hr + materials. He was happy to get someone at ANY price - I saved his tail, and allowed him to keep his construction schedule. Most welders charge $75-125 locally, with a $250 minimum and a $150 trip charge.

I've also done lots of donation work for school clubs and service organizations. I spent two full days once building and installing gates for a neighbor - he bought the materials and a case of root beer. If a neighbor needs a quick repair, I'll do those for free most of the time. Investment property is always full price - it's a money-making enterprise. That's completely different than helping out the widow down the street when I see something that she needs done.

 

[xzcVAbc5]

My LWS charges a straight $65/hr fee for work in their shop. While running your tractor I think that would be more than reasonable. Dont set the bar too low. They'll probably be calling you again for more work if you provided a quality service.

 

[LD1]

Given the scope and range of work, all requiring different equip an skills, but totaling 8hrs, I somewhere in the $300 ballpark sounds fair.

 

[JerryK]

Charging for your work, you should also price in some insurance. You open yourself up to a lot of liability that could come into play at some point. Things can go south real fast....

 

[newbury]

So basically is this a TRADE of your time and equipment for his inventory?

Do you expect to get retail full retail value from him or what he bought it for?

Take into account if you think you will want to be or expect to be doing it again and how often. If you are going to have to start figuring insurance, taxes and legal fees the overhead DRAMATICALLY increases.

I just paid a GOOD local mechanic $75 for a half days work. His own shop, tools, etc. Paid a towing "company" he recommended $75 for for a 16 mile tow.

I'd say for a rural area IF you did it when you wanted to $250 worth of trade would be fair, IF you had to get it done under a timeline set by him I'd go more, say $350.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Thanks for the advice guys. It looks like I was in the ball park in my thinking of welding time. I wont be taking this up as a full time or even part time business so I don't plan to invest in a commercial insurance policy.

I was looking at trading my work for one of his guns out of his collection that he is currently selling. It is mind boggling the see what old guns are bringing and new ones are many times cheaper than old one. There was a dealer at the Hot Spring gun show yesterday that had a new Remington Speedmaster 552 listed for $599.00 and said he sells as many as he can get. I have one identical that I bought in 1973 for $69 (discounted because of a small flaw in the stock finish) but was normally $129 at the time. We were selling a used one and had it priced at $200 and no takers but after talking to the dealer we upped the price to $350. Most of the sales were cowboy style handguns yesterday and it looks like semi-auto pistol sales are going flat.
Another hot item for collectors is Hi-standard double nine .22 revolvers. These sold in the 60-70s for $69-79(chrome plated ones higher) and now they are valued at over $550 each in unfired condition with the box.
Speaking of boxes, an original Colt python pistol BOX will sell for up to $250, Just the box. I have bought a lot of guns and never kept the boxes, who would have thought a piece of card board from the 1970's would be that valuable.

 

[Gary Fowler]

When I was doing welding as a side business, I charged $35/hr in my shop (1 hr min), $55/hr mobile (+ travel time, 2hr min). Did a barter once with a local business on a on-site rush job over a holiday weekend, and charged him $75/hr + materials. He was happy to get someone at ANY price - I saved his tail, and allowed him to keep his construction schedule. Most welders charge $75-125 locally, with a $250 minimum and a $150 trip charge.QUOTE] Does your hourly welding rate include consumables or are they priced separately? If steady after it, a welder can burn about 5+ pounds per hour (larger the rods the more P.P.H. can be used) of stick rods.

 

[Gary Fowler]

How about arborist work. I figured my labor + chainsaw was worth at least $30 per hour. What little I have seen from guys taking down a tree it can cost upwards of $300 to put a large tree on the ground and buck it into 3" lengths all in less than an hour. Since my work was only removing limbs up to about 12 feet high I didn't have any issue with anything falling on something other than myself and ladder, liability was pretty low.

I wont charge minimums either like a business would have charged him. I know backhoe or dozer work is 4 hour minimum so he would be getting a great deal at $60 per hour for the TLB, $65 for welding and $30 for my chainsaw time. I did about 8 hours work removing some huge oak stumps for my neighbor (for free) but he gave me a High Standard Double Nine revolver worth $500 for helping him out.