Neighbor stopped in and asked what i would charge to remove two stumps walking over to look and i see one is roughly 13" across and the other a little bigger 16" across so not terrible big i used to charge by the hour because you never know how long you could have into one of these buggers,tree is down with only a few inches of stump so digging on one side and pushing higher on over is out of the question,but with todays economy should i charge by the job from now on? going at it with a standard TLB
We almost always charge by the job. You never make any good money charging by the hour. IMO, if he is your neighbor and you like him, run over and do it for fuel money. It could only take 30 min with those small trees.
stumps I could tell you a long story about doing things for friends for a favor, but I dont want to get into a long story. So, if I understand you, you are going to dig it up with a mini excavator? Im thinking maybe about 2-3 hours total time. Figure in the travel time, filling in the stump holes, doing something with the stumps, etc If I didnt involve any other equipment, I might do it for a friend for $100, if you dont charge something, it will be a next time for free, then another friend hears about it and he wants you to do his work for free and so on and on Make sure you have all the charges and type of work, up front, if not that might cause other problems. Can you horse trade, something with him, that works for me in some cases Good Luck
Tell him 50 bucks each, if he dont like it he can go rent a stump grinder and do it himself.
He's just one of the neighbors right across the road so thats not a problem for travel he's a good guy but i agree need to charge something been there done that free stuff for friends and when something breaks their now where around to help pay for it. using my backhoe probably charge him $150, he said he would worry about the stumps and backfilling. thanks guy's just wondering on your thoughts.
Hey, daman i think that $150 is fair for a neighbor, its the kinda price that is not to high or to low and @75 a stump you will make a few bucks and i would offer to move the stump for him as long as they stay on site. and you are right about the for free stuff it gets kinda old after awhile and if you do it once he will find more jobs for you to do. good neighbor or not you still have to maintance your machine.
I was going to say the same thing about $75-$85 per stump.
Why not just have someone grind them out? Even though we can dig them out with our excavators, I don't really see the point when the stumps you describe would cost all of $50-75 to have ground out. Then, he could just shovel up the grindings.
He needs them out because he's putting a shed up there with concrete floor and the contractor told him to dig them out.
Been there dun that with buddy,neighbor,famliy member deal. You said he was goin 2 pour slab,tell him $50 r $60 a stump. Sounds like he may need footer dug or maybe more work with your hoe. I would tell him u can dig stumps 4 that if can get u some work from the contractor. Never know might turn into something steady with contrator or you may never see him again. I usually charge $100 a stump if not 2 big.
I asked him what plans he had on building wise traditional stick or pole barn style i said i have a 12" bucket for footings if need be but he thinks he's going pole barn but that could change he said depending on cost. sounds like a reasonable price thanks..
Daman, What did you wind up charging and how long did it take?
Haven't broke ground yet weather has been terrible, rain, SNOW, cold he is suppose to call when ready he said,keep you posted......
hey daman don't forget to get locations for utilities! don't let a discount job for a friend leave you regretting even doing it!
Good idea thanks well noted yea dont need no trouble....but from what i scoped out nothing should be in the area but i sure will ask and call Mrs dig if needed.
fwiw... couple years back i had a hoe in ( southeast ontario ) to pull up some rocks & stumps around the house... paid $60 per hour cash ... and was more than happy to shell out. asked this guy to drop around whenever he was in the area deadheading back home... it was found money for him
i charge 5 bucks and inch to grind them my stump grinder gos 12 " below grade
Stump removal $$ which is sometimes undeniably the better solution. my brother-in-law, who lives in toronto, has some stumps i wouldn't dare try to dig... even with locates ( yeah, those guys never make mistakes, huh? ) on the utilities. grinding ain't gonna sever water, gas or electical and leaves less mess to boot. otoh, grinding doesn't deal with rocks. tool tip -- my hoe guy also took the uprooted stump... turned it upside down and planted it back in the hole... an alternative to leaving a sizable crater that needed to be filled & levelled. moral of the story... use the right tool for that particular job.
grinding doesn't deal with rocks no you do rocks fly all over you take plywood and make a box gas lines are fun to yup hit them i get a mark out now
Yo, Tom Trees, I was out for a drive on this glorious warm Sunday. . . and a darn Vermeer SC 252 '04 model w/ 165 hrs followed me home. The guy needed to sell it really bad, and I. . ., well, I was hoping if I bought just one more thing the ol' lady would actually really finally leave (and to give Atco a laugh!). No such luck--I'll have to try something else. Anyhow, my boy M'take can get some stump action nearby to help with college money. I need to replace teeth and buy a battery but the machine is nice. When you say you charge by the inch, you are figuring $ 5 per diameter inch? OK, then do you add any for trees that have surface roots that you have to grind out? How do you figure those? Any ideas about teeth, etc., would be appreciated, as we're new to the stump grinder game. As that's not the topic of this thread, you can start a new thread.
i have a 630 b the way to charge a straight line from pont you grind to wear you stop= so a 12 stump with a large root mass on the ground could = 60" or morethats $300.00 a stump i have had some days come home with $1500.oo four 1/2 days work tom
Lets not forget, stump removal with a backhoe or other excavator almost always requires "disposal" so is it a removal or both. 100 bucks for a neighbor is cool but in the end I doubt he'll want a couple of massive stumps in the yard to work around while building a barn. I have yet to have a customer that did anyhow. If your in the country you may be able to relocate to another hole, elsewhere on property etc. Long story short, hind sight turns a 100$ job upfront into a should've charged more job... Also grinding is great but if in yard you'll get dry spots in a drought... not really acceptable for pouring concrete over as the stump will eventually decay and settle adding to the cracks that are surely already present.... Good luck.