so heres the backstory, skip if you want: okay, so im a just a college kid and ive never done any real ass hard labor but some guy is paying me a thowow (he was saying some **** "well i put the bid at about 2000 for the trench", gave me 4dollars per foot and did a little math on the linear footage and came out with a little over a thousand for what he'd pay me) to dig a 2 foot deep trench around the house to place the drainage... well its on sandstone that ****ing is ****ing rediculously hard... like hard as ****ing ****... today was my first day on the job and i was just pounding away alll day on some tiny ass rental electric jack hammer (no power at all? doesnt even have the third ground thing in the plug ((pardon my lack of proper terminoligy)) and weighs about 20-30 lbs) and got a total of about 20 feet in like 5 hours so im wondering how much out my own pocket it would cost to rent the smallest mini-excavator available to dig the trench myself and how much a hammer attachment would run me... also could someone give me an estimate on the time it would take to go through 230 feet of some hard as **** sandstone(the kind that a pickaxe wont even dent).... also since this is just a rebuild of a burnt down house in a residental area with a 3 man contracting (company?) do you think they wont have permits or there will be some other reason i wont be able to bring in a little excavator? also how would I approach him with this... also hes one those old fashion "be blunt/******** to the new guy" and like i know im gonna come off as a retard saying this to him... so any advice?
Quit and go back to school and leave this kind of work to insured licened contractors
Don't want to rain on your parade but I think the you need to do some serious research. If you are going to use a jackhammer get a real one not a tiny 'lectric one. If you want a mini ex you need to call around your area. And you'll also pay for the fuel too. Do some research and see whether you will come out on the short end.
he's insured, he made me sign paperwork, show my insurance information and everything before i even touched a shovel... the hammer is just a rental from home depot. as its right by my house i saw they had a generator, compressor there before, but its gone now... you think I should just talk to him about renting a stronger pnumatic jackhammer or something? also the reason im doing this as a student is that im going into civil engineering and every laborer/tradesman ive talked to has bitched and moaned to me about engineers who have never stepped outside the office to see how retarted their plans can be in the workfield...
Its been a couple years, but I was hired by one of my plumbers to trench a water service line roughly 175' in solid sandstone. I used a bobcat skid steer with a breaker attachment to break the sandstone. This took 3-4 hrs. I used my mini excavator to complete the trench and clean out all the sandstone in about 1.5 hours. If you don't have any experience operating equipment and a method for transporting you might consider passing on the deal. Also it depends on the distance from the rental outfit. If it was fairly close and you can operate, you could possibly get each machine on a half day rental and still make a little??
For somebody just starting off in this business, you sure have the wrong attitude. Hopefully your future customers can look past it...
Way to cheap + the x factor You are gonna have utilities coming out of that building--you could end up on the hook--big money time. The topic is relevant to me though--I'm cutting out about 200' for a crushed concrete retaining wall footer and the geo tech wants it 10" thick. The hard pan I'm clawing my way thru sure seems to be as solid as it can be [besides rock]--I don't see the point of removing it only to replace with granular material--why not just a 2" cushion on top to set the block on?.
^^they have all the utilities marked except a sewer line which ive been keeping an eye out as im coming near it I live aboput 5 miles away from a rental place, have access to a trailer..... altough i do drive a TINY for ranger (4cylinder basic yr 2000 model) fiord ranger, i know it cant pull a even the smallest mini excavators, (should i look into those mini skid stters?) they want a 6in cushion of gravel (we might use lava rock which the house was decorated wqith (explain reasons not to use as opposed to AB aggreegate which they was discussing before i left for home) also my expierence with a forklift and a skidsteer was a 2 minute lesson on what the controls do and i did pretty good, so i figure even if the cost of rental equipment is half my paycheck which would come out to 500 dollars for a day with the cost of equipment... it still beats 80 dollars a day drilling rock with a tiny jack hammer ****ing and ****ing up my shoulders My main concern is how to approach the forman about the possibility of a stronger hammer (pnumatic jackhammer w/ a rental compressor? or a mini skid steer or even a mini excavator) and how to approach him, since as a college boy, i am a bit timid also about the wrong additude... a job in the construction field is my dream,..... but its constrained by actual pluasa bili8ty (excuse me, ive been drinking... i am 21, at a party and its friday night... )
Let me recommend in the future that you avoid posting here on the forums if you have been drinking. I'm not at all impressed with what I see here, and it appears neither is the membership. Clean up the language while your at it, it's unacceptable.
ditto. Very unprofessional and quite annoying.
well at least now he understands what we are talking about in the feild when we say (IT ALWAYS WORKS ON PAPER). i might have tryed a couple test holes first. ya never know what yer gettin into till you break ground!! evean the small jobs have big problems ointhead. next time , after court and all and the judge lets ya go . ask first than dig . ask local contractors, landscapers etc that have worked in yer area what the digging, soil is like :ban lession learned ( I HOPE)!! you should have asked us first. thats what this forum is for AM I WRONG??
This job may be the first of many hard lessons learned, if you signed a contract you are now bound to it. Are you working for him or subbing through him? If you are subbing then get the equipment you need, just let him "the GC" know what you are doing so you are both on the same page. Always over estimate for unforeseen problems and know what you are getting into before commiting yourself. I would now expect some loss out of pocket if i were you but finishing the job on time and properly will save your reputation. Your reputation will make you or break you.
I know what you are saying about some engineers not knowing how different it is on the job sometimes, but you would be better off working for a large company and seeing this problem in real life rather than doing a small 2 ft. deep ditch or any small job that wont matter in the long run for you. If I were you, I would talk to the guy you are working for. see if they are resonable enough to work with you to cover the extra costs. If so, talk to a local company with a small/medium size machine. hire them to get throught that stone. then be done with it.
well if you were goinghard as in your course ,by now youd be an engineer, or still digging that trench, either way you called it.
some how I doubt you did,this three man team of grubs saw you coming before you looked up the address.
3X....The youth of today scares the living daylights out of me....so clueless but full of themselves and entitlements issues.
I'm not sure there was any point in resurrecting this thread from 2008, to take a shot at a member who hasn't posted since then.