Price to Stump Grind a Lime Tree

[jfc]

I think you will find there is lots of info posted here on how to price jobs, not necessarily stump grinding. Very few folk will give you an exact figure, and that's because it is commercially sensitve. Do you want to post your rates so all your competitors know them? Also take any specific figures with a pinch of salt maybe! As has been said before; pricing depends on your overheads (fuel, insurance, vehicle costs, wear and tear, tip fees, phone bills, website, advertising, it goes on and on etc), plus what you want to earn a day. Hope that explains why people don't give exact figures.

[Stefan Palokangas]

Only you know what you want to earn.

[Matthew Storrs]

I always says fair play if you can get it- and obviously people seem to, but even at £450 it works out at about £55 an hour for a full day which is more than I recently paid for a lorry and grab on a job carting granite for £52 per hour. It was a new 130k lorry with overheads to boot, the bloke was running several lorries and knew his buisness. I felt like i got good value for the work achieved. But the profit mark up on stump grinding must surely be huge?

 

[Mick Dempsey]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Storrs said:

But the profit mark up on stump grinding must surely be huge?

 

Yessireebob, it is! (And long may it last)

[Gary Prentice]

3 minutes ago, Matthew Storrs said:

I always says fair play if you can get it- and obviously people seem to, but even at £450 it works out at about £55 an hour for a full day which is more than I recently paid for a lorry and grab on a job carting granite for £52 per hour. It was a new 130k lorry with overheads to boot, the bloke was running several lorries and knew his buisness. I felt like i got good value for the work achieved. But the profit mark up on stump grinding must surely be huge?

 

When you start mending them, like chippers, the profit margin doesn't seem so good. They get hammered, need fairly regular major overhauls and have a short life expectancy. Also they're not out all day/5 days a week, or at least ours isn't and that's not because we're too dear as we get most of the jobs we price. 

 

Lots of jobs may only be charged at £80-£150, with travelling between jobs being largely non-paying time (your wagons earning £52 per hour every hour) and the target £450 day rate isn't achieved (sometimes it's bettered). Income over a year is far from £450x5x48wks I can assure you.

[Woodworks]

14 minutes ago, Matthew Storrs said:

I always says fair play if you can get it- and obviously people seem to, but even at £450 it works out at about £55 an hour for a full day which is more than I recently paid for a lorry and grab on a job carting granite for £52 per hour. It was a new 130k lorry with overheads to boot, the bloke was running several lorries and knew his buisness. I felt like i got good value for the work achieved. But the profit mark up on stump grinding must surely be huge?

 

Yes I have always thought the same Matt. Considered having a go myself but had a chat with a local tree surgeon we both know and I told him the prices some on here charge per hour for grinding and he fell about laughing. Dont think the rates locally match with what they can get up the line. Also not a great deal of demand as us Devon folk dont seem to care about having an old stump rotting in the garden 

[Sequoia]

2 hours ago, Matthew Storrs said:

I have next to no experience with stump grinders so I ask these questions out of genuine curiosity.

Matt, welcome to the forum. You are welcome to ask these questions and it's good that you do - I didn't mean to be rude, just curious.

 

I run a Pred 50XC which cost £32K+VAT.  Needs a trailer and truck to get to site and if grindings are coming off site then that requires a chip wagon and another bod to assist with barrowing mountains of grindings away.

 

Stump grinding is an expensive service to offer and I charge at least £600+VAT per day,  without another bod to assist (if I need them it gets added to the cost).  A set of teeth, which generally get damaged in a full days grind will cost £90 and fuel will be £30.  Then there's the other maintenance on top of that.  I am unapologetic about what I charge.

 

The grinder goes out about 6 days a month, so those costs are not daily earnings. I hope the machine will last 10 years (with good maintenance) and so paid for fully in under 3 at the rate we use it.  We are based in SE.

 

Yes, stump grinding makes more money than other areas of tree work, but if far less interesting.

[Matthew Storrs]

55 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

Yes I have always thought the same Matt. Considered having a go myself but had a chat with a local tree surgeon we both know and I told him the prices some on here charge per hour for grinding and he fell about laughing. Dont think the rates locally match with what they can get up the line. Also not a great deal of demand as us Devon folk dont seem to care about having an old stump rotting in the garden 

Yes, when I was still doing tree work I think in 6 years I got asked as many times if I could deal with the stump!

I do understand that they are machines with perhaps a limited life span compared with other kit and it’s not easy on the machine but just surprised how much people seem happy to pay to get rid of a stump.

Im always thinking of machines where you could command a premium- but generelly if you can charge very good money then likely its either a scarcity job or an unpleasant one. If it’s scarcity then surely your going to have to be chasing around trying to find enough work. I don’t really agree with the idea that you’d have to charge more to cover machine cost simply because the machine is sat in the yard a lot of the time rather than out earning its keep- you either have the work for it or not.

 

 

 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

1 hour ago, Woodworks said:

Yes I have always thought the same Matt. Considered having a go myself but had a chat with a local tree surgeon we both know and I told him the prices some on here charge per hour for grinding and he fell about laughing. Dont think the rates locally match with what they can get up the line. Also not a great deal of demand as us Devon folk dont seem to care about having an old stump rotting in the garden 

It’s not about per hour! It’s about the job, price the job.

[Matthew Storrs]

22 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

It’s not about per hour! It’s about the job, price the job.

Agree- I hate doing anything by the hour myself- too easy for the customer to start quibbling over things- tea breaks, time doing something to a machine etc. what they don’t often realise is the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes before you even do the job.