I'm new to this forum and thought it would be a good place to get some info and help. I am currently thinking of starting a side business that would do small excavation projects and demoing. I was wondering if there would be any demand for someone with just a mini ex and a skid loader? Also I am from Minnesota so if anyone from MN would help on if I need to be license or bonded?
You´ll have to be licensed and insured.
insurance is a necessity, at least 1 mil. of it. Excavation & collapse, gen. Liability, & Inland marine for starters. Demo is separate. Yes, you can make a living with a mini and a skid steer, but your going to hae to be patient when you get started and get some attachments.
I have demo-ed houses with a crawler loader, then a backhoe and skidsteer with a stump bucket with grapple. Now am using an excavator, by far the easiest and the fastest way to go. Most any method can be used, just the work and time is the biggest difference. If you do it slowly and a lot of hand work you can salvage useable materials. I did that with a pretty good sized building, the floor joist were almost all #1 fir and so were the 6 X 6 post and beams. A lot of the flooring is now wainscoating on my porch and trim around the windows. The rest I will probably sell, some of the big city people love old lumber and there is good money if you want to work at it. Insurance is a must, don't try to do it without. You can loose way to much. All areas are different about license, do it right and save the problems. Keep the area cleaned up and safe, people who want that kind of work done see those things.
Thanks for the replies. I see some guys are licensed and bonded, I was just wondering what the benefits of being bonded are?
What kind of excavation projects would you be looking to do?
I know it's a little late and I still haven't gotten started yet, but I was looking at getting in to digging out ponds, or digging out and building retaining walls, final grade on lots. More small stuff to get started and see where that goes, don't really want to quit the day job right away.
Obviously I don't know your working conditions or amount of work you have locally but if it's anything like my area, I wouldn't quit the day job just yet. It's tough competing with all the other contractors for what little work is out there, it's a very cut throat time right now. IMO, now is not the time to start an excavation business, there's just too much competition out there. That will change eventually but my crystal ball has been fuzzy for several years now..