What to cost a job at?

[kev84]

Im hoping someone in the trade could give me a bit advice. Ive been offered the job of re-exposing a public footpath of around 0.5 miles in length. The path is tarmac and is around 20" overgrown with earth to one side. The client wants the full width of the path exposed again. The job would have to be done manually ie with spades, digging the hidden path out. The removed earth would be shovelled into the hedgerow, so there's no removal; its just manual labour of hand digging a path out for about half a mile. Ive absolutely no idea what to cost the job out at. Any advice would be gratefully welcomed.

[likeitorlumpit]

Im hoping someone in the trade could give me a bit advice. Ive been offered the job of re-exposing a public footpath of around 0.5 miles in length. The path is tarmac and is around 20" overgrown with earth to one side. The client wants the full width of the path exposed again. The job would have to be done manually ie with spades, digging the hidden path out. The removed earth would be shovelled into the hedgerow, so there's no removal; its just manual labour of hand digging a path out for about half a mile. Ive absolutely no idea what to cost the job out at. Any advice would be gratefully welcomed.

 

How long will it take you?

[chrisgilltreesurgery]

Ill try and help...

Firstly you need to work out how much you can get done in 1 day, then, work out how many days it will take to complete the job.

Once you have found this figure you need to come up with a cost amount of how much you want to earn per day for doing such a mind dumbing task! Times it by how many days it will take to co plete and hey presto

 

If it were me and i had no overheads I would charge £100 per day, or try and get a bobcat in and use a hire machine, less profit but you will still have a good relationship with your bak at the end of thE job

 

Hope this help matey

[kev84]

Ill try and help...

Firstly you need to work out how much you can get done in 1 day, then, work out how many days it will take to complete the job.

Once you have found this figure you need to come up with a cost amount of how much you want to earn per day for doing such a mind dumbing task! Times it by how many days it will take to co plete and hey presto

 

If it were me and i had no overheads I would charge £100 per day, or try and get a bobcat in and use a hire machine, less profit but you will still have a good relationship with your bak at the end of thE job

 

Hope this help matey

Thanks Chris. Ive no idea how long it would take, but a bobcat isn't an option. The path is on a very busy main main road; the actual path (50% overgrown) is the workspace. Thats why Its got to be manual. I thought it was to brushcut/strim, but upon inspection its the grass has actually grown over the path and established its self. It means slicing through the overgrowth at the original path edge and then using a spade to clear the excess. My usual work is strimming/grass cutting public paths/cemeteries, so this is something I haven't costed before. Thanks for your advice.

[felixthelogchopper]

If you are unsure of how long it will take you, would the customer accept a day rate?

[kev84]

Thank you, very likely, its an option ill likely go with, once I work out a few things. Its one of those jobs you dread starting....but needs must!

cheers mate.

[ukminch]

2 men, 2 days £600 worse case scenario I'd say.

 

R

[likeitorlumpit]

Sometimes in business you have to just get a gut feeling- imagine yourself doing the work and work out how long a 10m section would take. Strimming by a main road would be difficult as stones may fly.

Go with gut feeling and adjust your workrate to suite.

The rest is lesson learned though you may never want to take on such a job again:biggrin:

[Pedroski]

Thanks Chris. Ive no idea how long it would take, but a bobcat isn't an option. The path is on a very busy main main road; the actual path (50% overgrown) is the workspace. Thats why Its got to be manual. I thought it was to brushcut/strim, but upon inspection its the grass has actually grown over the path and established its self. It means slicing through the overgrowth at the original path edge and then using a spade to clear the excess. My usual work is strimming/grass cutting public paths/cemeteries, so this is something I haven't costed before. Thanks for your advice.

 

Are you sure Bobcat isn't an option? You could drive along the path scraping as you go then just bucket the soil into the hedgerow, or shovel the soil out of the bucket into the hedgerow. Obviously you'll need to close the path though doing that.

 

Can't price without seeing the job, but 500 metres of shovelling compacted soil and grass off a path and clearing undergrowth back is a lot. I'd say the estimate above of 2 men, 2 days for £600 is way off. I'd probably suggest £3/metre and see what happens!

[agg221]

I'd be careful not to overprice this one.

 

It's basic labouring. There's no skill, no training and no artistry required. There's no no fuel cost and no real wear and tear on tools (except a spade, shovel and broom).

 

True - if you have a lot of tools and training you're covering those costs, but you can't expect to cover them against jobs that don't warrant it (if a lawyer took a second job as a window cleaner they couldn't expect £200/hr just because it was their normal rate).

 

The going rate for unskilled labour is little more than minimum wage. I would be surprised to be paid more than £10/hr for this kind of work, and be pretty certain someone else would do it for less.

 

The other way around is decide how much it's worth to you and price it at that. If you get the job, you're happy.

 

Alec