Hey guys I just bought a new 625 48" Bradco 70/30 chain trencher for my SVL75-2 CTL, and I have done a couple of jobs which paid for the trencher. (All my equipment is paid for and this is work is kinda side work.) Several people found out now they are asking me to do work for them and, their friends but, I don't really know how to price jobs, the last job was putting in cameras and we needed to trench in conduit for their office park, so it was a packaged price. I have called around and most people charge by the foot but, when doing the last job, we had to hand dig around located marked utilities which took several hours, so by the foot I can see where we would get into trouble quoting. Some people say do it by the hour to be safe but, I trenched in about 100 feet in a little over an hour at 18 inches deep. So that job would have made me nothing. I know I need to bid jobs but, I don't have the experience to do that yet and, I am not looking to rack up cheap hours on my machine. I thought about doing a hybrid per foot and hourly, so if I go out and the trenching goes fast but the electrician / plumber takes half a day to install his part then I am making money while I wait to back fill, plus the per foot will cover any material cost on my end for conduit or water pipe (I am not a plumber or electrician) , If I have to hand dig around utilities , run into rock or really hard digging conditions then the hour rate covers my helper and myself. What do you guys think. I live in Northeast GA so we have mostly hard packed clay and some rock.
I would only price a trench job by the hour with a minimum to show up. 4 HR minimum then hourly after the first 4 Hand digging is the same rate per hr as the machine Any material needs to be estimated as a separate line item with a 10-15% mark-up so you cover any extra incidentals
What would hourly rate would you think would be a good starting point. I know it would really depend on the location but would like to know some general figures.
what do you charge for running your skid steer as cm said pricing trenching by the foot can be a big gamble i work almost exclusively by the hour with all my machines and i have a 4 hour minimum and i charge one hour travel time so a minimum job is 3 hours on site if i am over 45 minutes from the yard i charge travel both directions
I would think it would similar to drilling post holes. You don't always know what you'll run into so charge by the hour with a minimum. If the customer wants you to stick around to backfill while you wait for them to finish in the trench, the hour meter keeps running so it may be a lot cheaper for them if you come back later. Of course this depends on how far away the job is and/or if you have another job close by you can work on. For a rate, I think you could charge slightly less than what an actual trencher goes for. I think a dedicated trencher would be a little more efficient driving forward.