price for this job

[Retired Climber]

2 minutes ago, John Shutler said:

That may well be the case, however, if it was a couple of my blokes a ladder and a hedge cutter there would still potentially be two valtras, a Unimog, two diggers, a heizohack, big diesel stump grinder and Merlo roto with grapple saw plus numerous other pieces of kit sat in the yard that need paying for so my rate would still be £150-£165 an hour 🙄

The last conifer hedge we "trimmed" I took away 90 cube of woodchip

The value of the job is about 300 quid. The job isn't a good fit for your business. 

[John Shutler]

Just now, Retired Climber said:

The value of the job is about 300 quid. The job isn't a good fit for your business. 

unfortunately I beg to differ, £300 is to cheap. The reality of it is that 3hrs is the best part of half a day so if your then aim to do another "3hr" job afterwards your buisness has only made £600 for the day. Which is not sustainable.

but seeing as your a retired climber you might not be up on current pricing

 

as a side point I started my buisness when £350.00 a day for a two man team with truck and chipper was the norm

[Mark Bolam]

I’d be looking at £400 minimum just for the fuckonery factor.

If people want stupidly big hedges they can pay for them.

 

It’s very rare they plant in from the boundary a bit so you can access both sides easily and keep the hedge slim.

Most people are selfish bastards who don’t see a problem with giving their neighbours half a hedge to maintain.

 

At least this one isn’t underplanted with chicken coops, greenhouses and beds of petunias, so they’re not total twats.

[doobin]

10 minutes ago, Retired Climber said:

The value of the job is about 300 quid. The job isn't a good fit for your business. 

This 100%

 

£600 a day is good money for two blokes, a ladder and some hedgecutters.

 

John, I don't know why you take umbridge at the suggestion that a garden conifer hedge trim isn't an ideal fit for a business that has spent hundreds of thousands on big kit?

 

Nobody is suggesting that the same two man team with a ladder (however long 🤣) takes on a row of sixty feet tall dead ash on the roadside.

Edited July 13, 2022 by doobin

[John Shutler]

6 minutes ago, doobin said:

This 100%

 

£600 a day is good money for two blokes, a ladder and some hedgecutters.

 

John, I don't know why you take umbridge at the suggestion that a garden conifer hedge trim isn't an ideal fit for a business that has spent hundreds of thousands on big kit?

 

Nobody is suggesting that the same two man team with a ladder (however long 🤣) takes on a row of sixty feet tall dead ash on the roadside.

I don't take umbridge to the suggestion that a garden conifer hedge trim isn't an ideal fit for my buisness, we still do the odd one here and there but I charge my usual hourly rate for the work. Why would I sell myself short??

 

Or Maybe the sort of people that I am working for that are happy to pay a decent hourly rate are the ones that are pleased to see climbers wearing helmets when carrying out aerial works? I would go so far as to say  using PPE in general but I can't see if he's wearing a harness, ear protection, eye protection etc

 

or maybe the guys only charging £300 to trim that hedge can't afford helmets? who knows?

[Retired Climber]

13 minutes ago, John Shutler said:

unfortunately I beg to differ, £300 is to cheap. The reality of it is that 3hrs is the best part of half a day so if your then aim to do another "3hr" job afterwards your buisness has only made £600 for the day. Which is not sustainable.

but seeing as your a retired climber you might not be up on current pricing

 

as a side point I started my buisness when £350.00 a day for a two man team with truck and chipper was the norm

We should probably agree to disagree. I was going to use the point that 2 blokes can take 600 quid a day as a point to bolster my own argument. Doing those sort of jobs needs nothing more than a cheap truck, a ladder, a couple of hedge cutters and a blower. I don't think the bloke on the hedge had a helmet and I reckon PPE, method statements and risk assessments might be a bit thin on the ground too. I mean no disrespect to the OP, but if 2 unskilled labourers can consistently bring in 600 quid a day I think they are doing alright. 

 

I take your point regarding my pricing knowledge being a little out of date. I started charging £275 quid a day for a two man team. 

[Domino]

I sympathise with Mr Shutler's vibe.  When you've made a great effort to get a good team/setup together, it is for some reason very annoying to see incorrect methods or pricing being applied, even if the methodology is only slightly wrong, or the price only 20% off where it should be.  

There's similar comparisons across the trades though, you can get an odd job bricky with zero ambition to quote half what an aspiring building company might to brick up a door, but who are you gonna get in to build the extension start to finish without a hitch? 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Domino

[AHPP]

30 minutes ago, Domino said:

 incorrect methods or pricing

What is the correct method, Commissar?
 

Edited July 13, 2022 by AHPP

[doobin]

13 hours ago, John Shutler said:

I don't take umbridge to the suggestion that a garden conifer hedge trim isn't an ideal fit for my buisness, we still do the odd one here and there but I charge my usual hourly rate for the work. Why would I sell myself short??

 

Or Maybe the sort of people that I am working for that are happy to pay a decent hourly rate are the ones that are pleased to see climbers wearing helmets when carrying out aerial works? I would go so far as to say  using PPE in general but I can't see if he's wearing a harness, ear protection, eye protection etc

 

or maybe the guys only charging £300 to trim that hedge can't afford helmets? who knows?

What bit of it don't you get? Your hourly rate is justified for what you do best- big takedowns that would take hundreds of man hours without machinery. If you can convince someone to pay you that for a poxy conifer hedge, then more power to you (and you'll probably make more from sales than being on the ground!)

 

If I have a customer that requires a hedge cut, I don't charge two lads out at what it costs to send a digger and a Heziohack. I charge them a fair rate (one could say the going rate?) that covers my costs and allows profit relative to that job. Meanwhile the diggers are out paying their way at a suitable rate for them. In business, this is called duplication. It's not selling yourself short to charge less for two men than you do for two mean and £150k worth of kit.

 

Your snide dig at a bloke not wearing a helmet in a conifer hedge that you could pretty much walk along, on the hottest day of the year just makes you look butthurt.

[doobin]

8 hours ago, AHPP said:

What is the correct method, Commissar?
 

I don't know, but I hear £600 for a mini skidsteer and operator is about right 🤣