What would you charge?

Jeff Lary · Jan 21, 2012

I have this neighbor who lives a mile above me.He has hired me in the past to do some material moving with my tractor and yard some logs for him as well. He called me a little while ago and hears the deal
He want's to cut about 6 coards of Poplar and Hack and wants me to yard the logs for him .He will be felling them into a horse pasture at least some of them and he want's me to move the brush as well. Oh and he also does not have a saw that runs so he wants me to supply him with a saw. I told him by the time he paid me and paid the trucking of the logs there would be very little money left over for him. And he should check the price per coard closely first. He wants to know how much I would charge him for Me ,My 4wd Kubota and Farmi winch and at least 2 saws as i would not go with just one saw,He has absolouty nothing for chain hammer wedge ect.I will have to supply it all.I told him $35.00 per hour gets him me and everything He needs to do the work. I think he feels this is too much,I said well saws are $300 min the Kubota was $14,000.00 winch was $1500.00 and then I have to supply all the incidentals,what would you charge? I should have said $75.00 per as I really dont want to get involved. So I am hopeing he thinks there will be no money to be made.

murphy1244 · Jan 21, 2012

80.00 per hour. What happens if you get hurt? What happens if your equipment breaks down?

5030 · Jan 21, 2012

Being neighborly and freindly is doing it for FREE.:thumbsup:

Glad I don't live by you.

Thomas · Jan 21, 2012

Down this way your price would be more than fair Jeff.
Hope the neighbor realizes when old man winter does arrive cutting/pulling etc. going to take longer and could cause him even more $$'s...my gut feelings saying little distance on this one.

Willl · Jan 21, 2012

Being neighborly and friendly is only asking for small free jobs to be done.

Not large unpaid ones.

Jeff Lary · Jan 21, 2012

Well I did'nt want to write for an hour but in the past the agreed upon price was really not what I got paid in the end I always settel for less.Last time I worked fro 6:30 am till 4"30 pm and when we totaled up 25 per hour for the day I got the sob story we have all heard before I ended up charging $150.00 instead of the $200.00 it really should have been. When I hire my cousin who is a great carpenter I pay him $25.00 per hour and I work every minuite right beside him. The neighbor problem is when you give the guys a break and you dont get one in return.He should have said "look you saved me $50.00 last time we worked together and I appreaceite it so $35.00 is more than fair" I tried to give him a saw and have himm call me when he has it all on the ground,but I get the impression he wants me there to run a second saw to "help out"

teg · Jan 21, 2012

How much of a friend is he really? If it's not a two way street and he doesn't "work" for you the same way... Sounds like he's just taking advantage of you. Up the rate to $50 easily.

Jeff Lary · Jan 21, 2012

Well if he wants to pay 35 per I will do it this one time but from that day foward it will be 50 for the tractor and me.anything else will be extra.The thing is I have ZERO intrest in trying to make money with any of my equiptment I bought it for me and me alone.But everybody figures come on up I buy ya a 6 pack or I"ll give ya 20 bucks.Chri$t fuel is 26 bucks a can. Everbody wants somthing and nobody want's to pay anything for it.It's the ,....old well you already own it sorta thing ,it will only take a minuite.

MtnViewRanch · Jan 21, 2012

We did some work for a friend of my brothers. 22 hours each one of us over a weekend. Money had never been discussed. We used our 10 ton hydraulic crane, Case 580 backhoe, Mahindra 7520, Peterbilt and low bed trailer. On the following Tuesday the guy asks how much he owes us. My brother tells him $1100. The guy is sort of in shock, thinks that it is a lot of money. He is then reminded that over $250,000 worth of equipment was used and that he was only being charged 1/2 price. He also was reminded of what he had paid for 20 yards of dirt ($600) to be hauled in by another company. This guy is in a remote area and the crane by itself would have been a grand from a crane company. Anyway after all was explained to him he couldn't pay fast enough and had us come back 1 other time to do other work for him.

Sometimes people have no idea what stuff costs and things just need to be explained to them. Other times people think because you're in business that you are rich and because they know you and you're rich, you should help them out for free, when it isn't free at all, but costs you TIME and money.

Oh well, life goes on, just an example.

Thomas · Jan 22, 2012

"But everybody figures come on up I buy ya a 6 pack or I"ll give ya 20 bucks.Chri$t fuel is 26 bucks a can. Everbody wants somthing and nobody want's to pay anything for it.It's the ,....old well you already own it sorta thing ,it will only take a minuite. "

Not just in your back yard Jeff,we got those type over here also.

Jeff Lary · Jan 22, 2012

That works. It seems that with neighbors they either want it cheap or free. I'll do some free cutting here and there for the wood, but it's mostly as a favor.

Maybe you could offer to help him with the trees if you keep the wood, and he takes care of the brush.

The ABOVE IS AN OPINION FROM A DIFFRENT FORUM AND I WILL SHARE MY ANSWER TO HIM HERE RATHER THAT TYPE IT TWICE.

Well there is noothing there that I woud want.I own 100 times the land he does so wood is of no interest to me.He takes the winter off every year ( lay off ) and does not try to search for work .His wife has been out of work for 20 years she cannot go back to work as she is to stunninly beautiful and all the men constantly look,leer,and in general harass her.they own 3 useless horse's cannot afford to feed them and are always asking if anyone has hay Reasonable so they can afford it. In my opinion they bring it all on themselves.in the summer he has just recently gone back to work after being fired about 2 years ago.He drive 120 miles one way to where he works now in a 1992 F 350 Ford diesel pick up I am sure that gets great mileage

teg · Jan 22, 2012

So with that bit of information, I personally would not help them any more. Flat out, not even honor your $35/hour bid - because you KNOW his not going to be paying you in full (again). You are letting them get away with it... so of course they are going to continue doing it. Shoot, sounds like a good deal for the deadbeat. Just tell them you are busy working... and you can't help them.

doelake · Jan 22, 2012

Equipment operators and contractors charge $65.00/hr CDN in my area, so I have no problem quoting $50.00/hr. If you don't like my deal, you could always pay more with somebody else

Bigfoot62 · Jan 22, 2012

$35 per hour is very reasonable. If he doesn't want to pay that, then good for you. As some have already suggested, this might be your easy way out, and if he calls back, raise your price.

tift104 · Jan 22, 2012

Like most are saying $35.00/hr is very reasonable. You are supplying labor, saws and tractor. Cant even rent a tractor at that price. My problem with doing jobs like that is they usually end up costing me more than what the job is worth. After fuel cost, blowing a hydro line or popping a tire your in the hole for a favor. Not to mention the liability factor. What gonna happen if the neighbor cuts himself with your saw or a tree that you cut twist the wrong way and falls on a building or worse another person? Who is gonna be liable? Don't get me wrong, I do what I can to help neighbors and friends but line has to be drawn somewhere.

namesray · Jan 22, 2012

tift104 said:
Like most are saying $35.00/hr is very reasonable. You are supplying labor, saws and tractor. Cant even rent a tractor at that price. My problem with doing jobs like that is they usually end up costing me more than what the job is worth. After fuel cost, blowing a hydro line or popping a tire your in the hole for a favor. Not to mention the liability factor. What gonna happen if the neighbor cuts himself with your saw or a tree that you cut twist the wrong way and falls on a building or worse another person? Who is gonna be liable? Don't get me wrong, I do what I can to help neighbors and friends but line has to be drawn somewhere.

i agree with the above quote and i think you are being taken advantage of. and your neighbors haven't stopped to think about the costs associated with all your equipment. buy up, maintenance, fuel, etc. it all adds up to a lot of money and time. what i have done with my neighbors is let them know right up front when they ask, there will be a cost associated with everything they want done for them with my equipment. in return if I need THEIR help they charge me. it keeps tension down and keeps things straight forward. we all try to settle for low end prices if we can. (don't charge top dollar, but enough to still walk away with profit.) i think $35.00 is fair for you to charge and if i didn't want to do it then like you said, tell them a price you feel is worth it to you, and if your neighbors don't like it, they will either learn to appreciate more the help you have given them in the past if they try to do it themselves,, or find out other people with equipment charge A LOT more then you asked for in the past. it may sound a little selfish, but there is a fine line between helping people out and being taken for granted or advantage of. good luck.

MVM · Jan 22, 2012

Can someone get me a price for clearing some very dense, trees and brush on 15-20 acres for pasture and farming land (photo attached).

Stumps would need to be ground down and land smoothed over.
What are the average costs for this in Deland/Pierson Florida area?

Is it less costly if I let the contractor keep the trees for milling or is it the same, in which case I can possibly get a miller to cut them for cross fencing myself...

Also, I would like a price to dig out an acre for a pond/lake.

ddigger · Jan 22, 2012

No good deed goes unpunished. For that price stay home and save your back and skills for those that apreacite it.

Jeff Lary · Jan 22, 2012

Well I said 35.00 and I will do it this time for that but he already knows this is the last time 50.00 per hr from now on. He really has no clue supposedly used to be a wood cutter.Told me "if we start early 7 am or so should be able to do this by the atfternoon" I said I thought you said 6 coards or so ? to me I know I cannot put up 6 coard of anything in one day. He then said well it is only 10-15 trees. Well which is it 6 coard or 15 trees? both he said they are pretty big trees. I guess I did not know we were cutting redwoods. Around here it takes between 8 - 15 trees 8" to 12" on the stump to make a coard.