I may jinx myself here, but has everyone got enough work? I'm booked through December with excavation jobs, lots of erosion work on the lake and area ponds. What brings this up is I talked to a large contractor yesterday (2 crews, 8 men) who has no place for them to move to next week. He said he's taking the attitude that he can sit home and make more money than to work for nothing. I know a couple others looking for work as well. I have been naming my price and have only lost a septic to a competitor who is hurting. I'm assuming because I'm small and doing nitch work that perhaps I'm insulated some from the housing slowdown, but how is it where you are at?
slow actually, unless you want to work for nothing, it does not look good for my area if you want the truth of it.
Theres only 2 of us, and we stay plenty busy right here in town, not taking on anything out of town, but if there were 8 of us we would have to travel a lot to stay busy. It would be nice to have another good person though. No complaints here.
Im gettin my 40, but things are definitely slow in Jersey. Challenging the Highlands act again, so maybe in the next few years we can have a big boom again :woohoo
I stay booked 3-4 weeks out. Would be nice to be booked through December though!
Slow, we have guys in the area that are "installing" paver's for $7 a sq ft. including materials. I just hope that they go broke before I do. One of my cousin's says "I can go broke chasing every job out there and cutting the price 'til I get it, or I can go broke sitting here on this bar stool. One way is just easier than the other...":drinkup We usually get a little slowdown around the 4th of July every year.
more work than we can shake a stick at here. All the utility companies are set to lay conduit at our new development on sept 15th. A more realistic date would have been for the end of october, and thats optamistic. Between that and a couple of house sites, small commercial building, a 19 unit condo and we are booked for a while.
were slow , we got some things coming up in the next couple of weeks though, in the pharmacutical plant that were working in, but i here everybody is getting slow here in eastern pa, the housing market really took a nose dive, and its hurting everybody, hopefully something happens real soon, im starting to get a little worried, hopefully next sprng will start to go up hill again. jordan
The econumis....econo...eekonom.....The Boffins reckon we have another 8 years of this housing boom here but some are talking about a slow down already. I normally stay booked for 6 weeks and I don't take too many bookings past that as it just messes people around when one job gets held up. I haven't advertised since christmas but I will put a few small ads around soon. The big marker is housing affordability...when the prices go berserk its not really sustainable for too long, but its amazing how many new houses are going up despite the price hikes....the scariest thing here is the cost of materials. I'm glad I'm not building at the moment.
They guy I'm working for a couple days a week is pretty busy, there's myself and another guy running iron for him. We're on a pretty good sized commercial project right now, been there for at least a month. I'm only working 2 days a week, I work another 5 at the restaurant, so I haven't really seen a good day off in over 3 months :drinkup Could be worse, I'm not complaining. As a whole, the state is busy everywhere. Will it slow down? Maybe, but not likely in the next couple years. It was booming 2 years ago, now it's consistent, plenty of work for everyone.
Housing development and construction has slowed way down here. Even the illegal's are hurting for work. Checked with the union hall last week, more guys on the "A" hook than last twelve years she told me. I'm at the very top of the "B" list........ Dispatcher says state of Arizona is sitting on a big bunch of project permits. However, Copper mines are hiring like crazy, if you can find a place to stay. Sign-up bonuses (4 grand), work 7 days on, off 7 days, one is building a barracks and cafeteria for single workers or guys from out of town who take the 7 on-7 off route. They have all kinds of alternative shift possibilities. In other words, they are desperate for operators and drivers. Most of the iron they run is top drawer-well maintained stuff, some brand new. However, I probably am going to have to take a withdrawal card from the union in the next few days as I may go back into fleet maintenance management. I talking to two different companies about the possibilities. Not sure it's a good move for me, but I need the health insurance for me and the ole lady. And now that Mayo Clinic has proven by testing and a CT scan that my brain is reasonably intact, I don't have no excuse not to go back to it, despite what some here might think to the contrary. There is still plenty of construction and trucking jobs here. But it's way down from what it was. Last year a local contractor was offering 1000 buck sign-on bonus for scraper hands. I hadn't seen an offer like that in thirty years. So, if anyone reading this wants to head out to the Phoenix area, come on down. Bring your asbestos underwear with you, it's hot!!....112 was official today, and it's been over a hundred for about 6 weeks now every day. Mornings start out around 85-95 degrees. It hits a hundred about 10:30 AM. It's a little after 9 right now, and still over a hundred. Oh, asphalt workers are always welcome this time of year. Bring your green card!
Haven't had a day out of work for over 25 years unless I wanted it. This town will work you around the clock if you let it. Been self employed and liking 1 to 2 day jobs I have to find a new job every other day. Quit advertising except on the side of my equipment over 5 years ago and still more work then I can handle. I mostly work alone except for a friend when I need help. In my 26 years of business I have seen a lot of business come and go, Most lost there business because they grew to fast, some due to drugs, but most due to miss management. I have seen some loose there business because they did not charge enough for there work to maintain there equipment. Durning slow times most of the small contractors here had to leave town to find work to make enough money to pay for there equipment. Leaving me to pickup the work they left. I have always controlled the amount of work I have by the price I charge. The more work the higher my pricing. Needless to say I could retire today but then what would I do? I Look forward to days when it rains so I can take it a little slower.
The boom dropped off for us too I'am a little disapointed. The big factors is greedy people and developers drove the prices of land etc too high and the middle class can't afford the 500,000 to 2 million dollar property. The banks are raising the interest rate so that will really kill any money spending. There might be a few forclosures happening and people claiming personal bankruptsy. Not good especially for contractors that bought new equipment and have 8 to 10 grand a month payments and homeowners with credit cards maxed out.
We are swamped and have enough work for the rest of the year. We are actually behind and need another excavator. That might happen next year.
We need more work but we there is enough to keep us busy for a little while.
As others have said, it seems as though things have slowed down a bunch. I still get my normal week it, but thats about it. We had a few high end houses we were doing work at last year, we just starting demoing a house, but we also do a lot of utility work and that seems to have slowed a bit. My own side business has been real slow this year, i've priced out a lot of asphalt driveways, but people have been waiting or found lower prices. The one or two days a week i can do sidejobs its only worth taking on jobs where i make good money or else whats the point. I'm starting a small job tomorrow, and have some other things in the works. Even though i do my side business part time, i did put an ad in the local phonebook which covers just my town, it was cheaper than advertising in the local papers, the phonebook comes out in August so who knows what it will or will not generate :beatsme
I'm not sure why or how I do it I can be a major PITA to work with. I don't play well with others..... But I haven't missed a day in I don't know how long. I was surprised to hear that there were so many on the out of work list. I've been getting my 40 + 5-10 every week. :cool2
Very slow for me too.Really don't know why.At least I know it's just not me as most of my friends in our biz and related fields are too.
I had heard that a lot of guys are slow, I didn't realize how many. I've been doing some math and I have more than enough work waiting to get me through December. I asked one woman if her septic and associated work could be pushed back to April, she's thinking on it. I'm with Dwan, my prices have gone up again to hopefully discourage a few from using me, some of who I don't want to work for anyway. Wish I could send some your way guys, good luck.
As of today, I wish I had 3 excavator operators I could use...I took on too much work, and have a big project that should make my year that im putting off until I get this little stuff taken care of. But It has been a roller coaster this year.
notice most guys saying its slow are on the east coast as for us im getting 55to60hrs a week so i guess we're not slow but its slow for most guys in this area to
On my recent trip out west to get the 5500 home, I was impressed with the amount of construction in and around Wyoming area. Seems like the oil and mineral co's are hoping, if I were younger and not tied so hard to Maine, I might consider a move, at least temporarily.
Well I've been getting 50+ hours all winter, but there is a catch.... I've been working in the quarries that the company i work for owns. I was hired and still technically am an operator for our dirt division. I have to agree with most of the other guys here in the east, things have been really slow. Word in the wind is things will be picking up soon (for us anyway), and I'll be back out in the field again:notworthy Not saying that I don't appreciate that my company was able to find work for me throughout the year, I really have:usa That being said, I miss that smell of freshly dug up dirt, the sound of tracks clapping, and the idea of not getting up at 4am:drinkup
we're busier than pee wee herman at a double feature
enough work Our projects are beginning to stack on top of each other due to heavy rains down in TX. We're a small outfit and thus low overhead, so hopefully we can ride out the storm (excuse pun). There's adequate work to bid. Case in point on rain issue: Poured concrete topping in the am today on a drainage flume, finished flume, and concrete disappeared by 5:00 pm today while i'm standing in a ditch full of rushing water. Arrggghh! "Only" 30% chance of rain indeed! Literally money down the drain. More rain on the way.....
Many companies around the Atlanta area are slower than normal as well. I thankfully have enough work to run me through the rest of this year.
Welcome to HEF whithunter! :drinkup
Thanks Countryboy, Glad to be part of such a great site!!
We are booked until the end of the year. Our two 8K's are running 7 days a week and will have to until december to get done. I wish it would rain a little we could use a break. Chris
digdeeper, What are you doing with those 8K's for so long? I've got a couple sittin around out here in Ca. DP
we use the 8k's for doing the bulk of our forrestry work. Such as double offset ripping, roll chopping, pulling a savanah plow, v blading, forrestry plowing, ect. I use them every now and then to move dirt for road building but this year the D7H's have been doing it b/c the D8K's are so tied up. Chris
Forestry work? Like what? and how can a person land something like that?
Bad news boys. We just lost both our new 320cL Cats. We're HURT'N'!!!
Were are slowing down on the resi work, but the commercial work seems to be strong. Theres just a little more risk and stress involved on the commercial. We just got a check last week from a commercial job we are working on . It was about 75 days late getting to us . Plus we found out yesterday from our bank that it bounced. ($155,000.) Talk about a fun time we are having this week scrambling for money.
Man I hope they make that check good for ya. Gives me that sickening feeling just reading about it. DP
I don't envy you there. Been there too many times.Not for that big 'o sum, but when you need every dollar, anything you don't collect hurts.Hopefully you'll get it taken care of sooner than later.
Thanks guys, as of today we still havent collected good funds from the contractor. They will hardly give us the time of day , and i get a little sicker as the days go by. I drove 900 miles yesterday to pay them a visit since they werent to good at taking my calls. I did get another check and a promise it was good. Time will tell. :drinkup
as long as you drove the 900 miles...why didn't you grab the dude by the short hairs...go to his bank, and get it in cash? and if the bank said no, .....grab your cellphone and call the sheriff of that county?
I'm swamped with work to do,the owner just keeps finding jobs and lines them up,pay isn't that great but at least its a job and I'm the last to complain about that. Have about 50 water line services to finish off he promised months ago,me and a labourer and a 310SG Deere and a ton of fuel,sweat and plenty of swearing
Wow, that's a hike. If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing, subbing to an out-of-stater? If that's the case, it'll make you gun shy for the next one, I'll bet.
The work has dropped off around here I think some of the contractors will be getting a little nervous. The 10 grand a month equipment payments don't stop and with the work drying up quickly things might be repo man time. Homeowners are not paying their bills or really slow or really late paying the conctractors are suffering. The contractors really thought this boom would continue so they bought new dump trucks and excavators. Probably not the best move. One of the seasoned land developers said to me this boom is going to hurt it is moving too fast. He also figured this year would be 2007 it ends and he was right. He has seen all the building booms none were this long but none of them moved this quickly. Really the only thing going now in this area is Alberta based developers they keep building but they are not selling anything. So the houses they are building are going to sit empty. Their dreams of selling them for 1 to 2 million dollars is going to flop. Condo developements are too over priced for most people so they will sit empty. Developers already tried condos 10 years ago they sat empty for so long they rotted and had to be torn down. The greed for money has blinded too many people now its starting to backfire :roll
Ya from my shop in Maine to Syracuse New York. Yes , we are doing the excavation work for a new Rite Aid pharmacy in Portland Maine. The general contractor is from New York. Thats about as far as i have traveled to collect a check. In years past we have been south to collect from companies in Massachusetts and Conneticut. :drinkup
Collecting money is something I've obtained somewhat of a skill for. I used to mow lawns back in high school and if someone didn't pay there was no calling on the phone, I'd be there with my truck blocking the driveway until I got paid. I never had an issue with a check bouncing, but that must suck, especially for $155K.
Dig Dug, small world! I have quoted about 5 or 6 new Rite Aid stores for a GC out of Syracuse. They have never given me the contract but I bet I know who they are, they are famous for slow pay or no Pay! I live in the Utica area about 50 miles east of Syracuse.
JMAC , i pm'ed you back. I shouldnt say who the contractor is yet. But.... has anyone else here worked for the contractor you mentioned? Jmac , have you done any rite aids? thanks doug
Hope it all works out for ya DigDug. I go by that new store (I assume the new one at Allen and Wash. Ave.?) on a regular basis with the engine. I did have one customer cancel or postpone a septic/frostwall, I think he thought my price was high. Had another think that %k for a water front restoration and reclamation project was high :beatsme . I explained to him that there was $1500 in reloam and seeding the lawn, he seemed surprised at that as well, so to heck with him. I met with a regular customer today who wants a 500' road in the spring, and later next summer a small addition to his house and a 3 car garage, so next summer is filling up quick. Good luck to you guys that have slowed down, things will change soon enough.