Advice on pricing a coni job

[Matthew Storrs]

Get a sack truck with pneumatic wheels, it will save cutting up the trunk so small. I reckon thats a 2man 2days job myself so I would say in the region of £850. but it would have to be more if your getting another company/skips involved. state quite clearly to the customer that the price quoted is on the condition the greenhouse is moved.

[Tom10]

Originally Posted by Tom10

 

I would want 3 men, 1 climbing, 2 dragging (with one of the draggers being your subby transit owner, nipping off to empty as and when)

 

You will be there 2 / 3 days as I understand you are a relatively new climber from previous posts (and presume you'll be climbing them as they dont look like a fell!?) Plus the drag on that material is greater than you think (youll know what i mean when stuff starts hitting the deck)

 

From the pictures alone I would price this at £900 - £1,100

 

At 3 days your charging between £100 and £122 per man day with all that waste to cart away????

 

 

I see your point but you've read / understood wrong. As the red writing above, I am advising on what I think this chap should do, being a new climber I cant see him being out of there within 3 days.

 

As I first typed, I would have 3 people, me climbing, a groundie to just drag brash and assist me in the tree, and a third chipping and removing chip.

 

The price I put was based on the above set up, the difference being I would want to be out of there in a day, or maybe a day and the next morning at the most.

 

Where I stated '3 days' this was my advice to the guy who originally posted as he has not been climbing long and wouldnt expect him to finish so quickly.

 

More emphasis on safety and ensuring the job goes well.

 

Of course, because he may be there 3 days with 3 people doesnt mean he can then charge 'per day, per person' what I would as the customer would be into about £2,000 and he would not get the job.

 

Being new he will have to price it sensibly and take a hit if hes there for longer than I would be for the same money - speed and efficiency only comes with experience.

 

Hope I cleared this up, (I am an avid supporter of keeping tree work prices as they should be.)

 

Tom

[kentjames]

It's always good to look back at your old quotes and threads on here with the added benefit of hindsight and experience.

 

Lots has happened since these early days, we now have a green mech chipper and transit arb truck.

 

I feel I have learnt masses, experienced lots (never everything) and now would look at this job with different eyes. I can see if we quoted for this again that it would be no more than 2 days, perhaps with an additional half day to shift the timber.

 

What's to learn here for newbies? Well don't be daunted by conifers, however always be realistic and double what you think will come away from the job. Price it adequately but not to extremes and always take the first one as a learning experience. To many new climbers they will see this as hard work but once you get to know the flow of conifer removals they certainly come easier and easier, and then become bread and butter work!

[steve@black]

Jesse is the only one talking sense , his figure was the same I had in mind .

[WillTimberlake]

Great advice. How did you do the job in the end then? Did you use roll on roll off bins? How many days? How many men? What kit did you use? What was your price? Was it enough/adequate for what happened? Just interested.

[kentjames]

On this occasion, 3 years ago, we didn't win the job. Back then I had no chipper and no arb wagon. I was playing at being a tree surgeon and this and one other job made me realise that you need to spend money on kit and infrastructure to win the jobs.

 

Of course, having learnt a lot and spent a lot on kit, and with experience, we now win around 80% of our quoted tree work.

[WillTimberlake]

I'm sorry you didn't win the job, but it sounds like it's for the best seeing as you didn't have the adequate kit etc. Just out of interest what did you quote? And I'm glad that your now winning most of your quotes!

[5 shires]

Hey folks.

 

I have done a few conifer jobs in the past however this has to be the largest volume of material i've had to price for so far.

 

Now, i know how to price a job based on costs plus profit so i know roughly what im looking at to price it with.

 

However i would like an overall ball park figure from a few members to makes sure im not over or under on the job?

 

The trees themselves are 5 in number and approx 50ft high and 20ft front back 'width'. The brash is considerable and the drag is approx 50m through a garage to the front of the house where chipper can be sited. The waste away will be via skips, roll on roll off come to mind, as its in the middle of town and no where near any of my dump sites.

 

The green house will be moved BEFORE the job start so thats one thing out of the way!

 

1/ So, ballpark figure, how much would you think?

2/ Volume wise i am worried about calculating the amount of material to waste away, so any ideas how to calculate this including all timber to enable me to price the skips required?

 

I will add some pics in a minute, need to downsize them.

Cheers James

 

I would gharge £1,500 for that job....not so much the cutting as that's always the easy part....but the dragging,clearing and disposal of wood,brash,woodchip etc.

[5 shires]

Hey folks.

 

I have done a few conifer jobs in the past however this has to be the largest volume of material i've had to price for so far.

 

Now, i know how to price a job based on costs plus profit so i know roughly what im looking at to price it with.

 

However i would like an overall ball park figure from a few members to makes sure im not over or under on the job?

 

The trees themselves are 5 in number and approx 50ft high and 20ft front back 'width'. The brash is considerable and the drag is approx 50m through a garage to the front of the house where chipper can be sited. The waste away will be via skips, roll on roll off come to mind, as its in the middle of town and no where near any of my dump sites.

 

The green house will be moved BEFORE the job start so thats one thing out of the way!

 

1/ So, ballpark figure, how much would you think?

2/ Volume wise i am worried about calculating the amount of material to waste away, so any ideas how to calculate this including all timber to enable me to price the skips required?

 

I will add some pics in a minute, need to downsize them.

Cheers James

 

O and of course you have got to take down and then put back up the green house.

[kentjames]

I'm sorry you didn't win the job, but it sounds like it's for the best seeing as you didn't have the adequate kit etc. Just out of interest what did you quote? And I'm glad that your now winning most of your quotes!

 

Back then I believe the quote was around the 1800 mark considering we had no chipper or truck and all the waste was to go into a RORO bin.

 

However...

 

These days I would have said £1200.00 with two days for the main work and a few hours on day three to remove timber from site.

 

It's been a big learning curve BUT if you want to be in the arb game to cannot play at it, get a proper chipper and a reliable truck - both of which we now have.

 

5 shires - I think the crew who won it did so with a 900 quid quote and took three days - personally I wouldn't quote this even these days and I reckon they lost money on it!

 

Edited September 22, 2015 by kentjames