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.

 

[newbury]

How about arborist work. I figured my labor + chainsaw was worth at least $30 per hour. <snip>

Once you get more than about 10 feet off the ground prices escalate geometrically, especially if you have to avoid obstacles like buildings. LOT's of people don't like being 50 foot up in a tree cutting branches with a chain saw.

 

[rbtjr]

I'll put in my 2 cents worth: $300 for 8 hours is $37.50/hour, including the use of equipment and whatever supplies were consumed. I am assuming that the 8 hours is legit--i.e., that you kept after it, didn't have a lot of breaks or downtime or interruptions, etc. I am also assuming that the work was well done. In our area in south Piedmont NC, I would be happy to pay someone $300 for the full day's work you describe. The range of charges here is great. I think that I might have found someone to say they would do what you did for maybe $20/hour. I would not have been surprised at a quote of $60-70/hour with the equipment involved and the welding knowledge. Above that, I would have been surprised. So, if I were the buyer in this equation, I would be glad to pay the $300, especially in a barter. In fact, my only concern as the buyer would be to make sure that you were happy with your side of the deal. Our philosophy about doing business is that we want both sides to have a good outcome and be happy with the deal. Really good long-term relationships are much better in all respects than short-term bargains or short-term money grabs.

 

[ErikVann]

If there is a chance you may do work for this guy in the future on other projects, you should establish a good profitable fee structure for yourself. One that includes operating costs, insurance costs, transportation,maintenance, etc. that is if you are interested in doing more work for him or others. Don't sell yourself short. You'll go broke quick if you are trying to operate your equipment on $300/day. The costs of doing business are always more than they should be. Doing neighborly chores for folks down the road is one thing but doing a solid 8hr days work of skilled labor, using your own equipment for a business owner/investor is a different ball game. Get paid for your time!

 

[MESSMAKER]

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

I agree

 

[Gary Fowler]

Using guidelines from TBN members I have decided that $65 per hour for welding, $60 for backhoe and $30 for chain sawing would be about right. That comes to $405 total. That figure I think is over 50% lower than he could have a professional do it for. Most everyone wants minimum of 4 hours work to warrant moving their equipment. Full sized backhoe runs about $70 per hour.
I think that this is way better pricing for him than he would get anywhere else.

 

[LD1]

If you feel you did $405 worth of work, and he is happy with that on barter terms, nothing wrong with that.

I think the per/hr rate for welding is a bit high. Not as much overhead as the backhoe, and I'd say skill level to be proficient is comparable. I am not a pro welder, neither am I a pro backhoe operator. But I'd charge more for backhoe work than I would to weld something up for somebody. Unless I had a mobile welding truck and tons of overhead. But sounds like you used a few bucks of wire and a set of torches.