Setting up

[Mark Bolam]

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

 

Steve, there has been a website malfunction, a new lad has taken on board some advice!

 

Woodmouse, fair play to you mate. Listening to advice from people who have been in the game for years will get you there, as will your doubtless enthusiasm.

 

Good luck with it all, the Arbtalk Massive are here to help! (There's no stupid questions, only stupid answers!).

[WorcsWuss]

Thanks fellas,

 

I think i needed raining in a bit. I'm sure experience is going to be valuable, and setting myself up to provide quality support to a more knowledgeable team makes sense.

 

Thanks

 

No harm in thinking big, and this site is a great resource.

And if you can stand the investment, kit will make you more useful...

[WoodMouse]

Thanks all for your advice. Posted an add looking for work in the Employment section.

[Dr.Green]

just to add a quick 10p , best thing i ever did was get a climber in for jobs to get done quicker , why pay a groundie £60 and have the job on the ground run not how i want it while i climb - sometimes i jnow ust pay a climber say £100 and i then get to run the ground like it should... at least i get to respect my chipper

 

for the sake of £40 extra it gets my days graft over quicker..... the way i look at it is im in business , and ive got enough to do without running myself into the ground..

 

currently i take a very small wage - something that i feel should be done to start off with and invest. I knowen people to start businesses and spend loads , take loads and when times go quite theres no money in pot for repairs ..

 

if you have an idea go for it . i still do shitty garden jobs on a monday

 

good luck

[Lorry thompson]

Dr Green u know any decent freelance climbers want graft in our area?

[Dr.Green]

i get a lad in called dan wilson - he is just in gateshead - but does travel - you can pm him on here but not sure he gets on much or drop me a pm and il dig oot his number

[WoodMouse]

just to add a quick 10p , best thing i ever did was get a climber in for jobs to get done quicker , why pay a groundie £60 and have the job on the ground run not how i want it while i climb - sometimes i jnow ust pay a climber say £100 and i then get to run the ground like it should... at least i get to respect my chipper

 

for the sake of £40 extra it gets my days graft over quicker..... the way i look at it is im in business , and ive got enough to do without running myself into the ground..

 

currently i take a very small wage - something that i feel should be done to start off with and invest. I knowen people to start businesses and spend loads , take loads and when times go quite theres no money in pot for repairs ..

 

if you have an idea go for it . i still do shitty garden jobs on a monday

 

good luck

 

Thanks Dr. Green.

 

I had the pleasure of working as part of a three man team on Thursday. It was certainly the sort of pace that i'd like jobs to operate at. But just seeing how things were done certainly gave me ideas how i could separate myself from the 'pack'.

 

For one, personally, i love gardens. I see them as creative works, some obviously tended more closely than others. Now, if it were MY garden. And you wanted to bring three guys round to drag trees through it, id be more likely to pay two guys and a lifter to do it more conscientiously.

 

Besides the damage and debris caused by the trees being dragged over the turf, the major thing seems to be boots. A pair of boots dragging a large branch are going to absolutely tear up any high traffic area. I.e. gates, passageways etc.

 

I think i'd go the Tarpaulin route too. Lots of those large aggregate bags. 1/4 ton lifter, 1.5 ton HAIB. Lots of bags. 3 tons of stuff, six trips with a lifter. Provided it was driven carefully, i think would make far less mess/damage than 3 pairs of boots marching back and forth for eight hours.

 

Also starting to wonder why all the guys have expensive, heavy and bulky chippers, when the trunks, branches, leaves and chip all go to the same place? Why run expensive machinery to produce something to dump along with everything else in the same place?

[felixthelogchopper]

Thanks Dr. Green.

 

I had the pleasure of working as part of a three man team on Thursday. It was certainly the sort of pace that i'd like jobs to operate at. But just seeing how things were done certainly gave me ideas how i could separate myself from the 'pack'.

 

For one, personally, i love gardens. I see them as creative works, some obviously tended more closely than others. Now, if it were MY garden. And you wanted to bring three guys round to drag trees through it, id be more likely to pay two guys and a lifter to do it more conscientiously.

 

Besides the damage and debris caused by the trees being dragged over the turf, the major thing seems to be boots. A pair of boots dragging a large branch are going to absolutely tear up any high traffic area. I.e. gates, passageways etc.

 

I think i'd go the Tarpaulin route too. Lots of those large aggregate bags. 1/4 ton lifter, 1.5 ton HAIB. Lots of bags. 3 tons of stuff, six trips with a lifter. Provided it was driven carefully, i think would make far less mess/damage than 3 pairs of boots marching back and forth for eight hours.

 

Also starting to wonder why all the guys have expensive, heavy and bulky chippers, when the trunks, branches, leaves and chip all go to the same place? Why run expensive machinery to produce something to dump along with everything else in the same place?

 

Firstly, chip takes up less space and, secondly, woodchip is a saleable product which brash isn't.

[WoodMouse]

Firstly, chip takes up less space and, secondly, woodchip is a saleable product which brash isn't.

 

I'm pretty sure a log and a bag of chip made from the same log side by side, the bag would be bigger. Woods pretty dense. Moot point i guess. I sure know if i grate a block of cheese, the grated pile i always bigger than the block it came from.

 

Wood chip is a product yes, biofuel etc. But at the depo i was at in croydon, all the waste went to the same yard. Different piles, but they had to pay to get rid of it regardless of what it was. It was further processed in the yard, but you still had to pay to dump chip.

[felixthelogchopper]

I'm pretty sure a log and a bag of chip made from the same log side by side, the bag would be bigger. Woods pretty dense. Moot point i guess. I sure know if i grate a block of cheese, the grated pile i always bigger than the block it came from.

 

Wood chip is a product yes, biofuel etc. But at the depo i was at in croydon, all the waste went to the same yard. Different piles, but they had to pay to get rid of it regardless of what it was. It was further processed in the yard, but you still had to pay to dump chip.

 

Compare a pile of brash to the pile of chip it creates . This means less trips off the worksite and a more efficient day. You shouldn't be chipping log and you certainly don't need to pay to get rid of them!! You need to create your connections so you can get rid off virtually all your waste either at no cost to yourself or even making a few extra quid. I'm not a groundie anymore, having taken a job as an estate manager, and I will take as much clean chip as people want to give me rather than them needing to pay to get shot of it. Equestrian centres take chip, fishing clubs take chip, Stobarts will even buy it if you have enough and the means of loading it, it's up to you to find who wants it locally to you. As for logs, plenty of people will come up to you asking if they can take the wood. Take a few numbers, suss out which are worth cultivating and tell them they can collect them for free or you will deliver them for a small charge. It's all about networking.