simonm

So after many years of being in business initially tree work but now only grounds maintenance I am considering not having anyone on PAYE and instead only self employed for set days a week. I have tried this in the past with tree work but at the time we were always rammed with work and needed someone there full time so it didn't go anywhere. I can see the pros of not having anyone on PAYE but not many cons. Does anyone operate a grounds maintenance business this way? 

I have a grafter 150 manual that I bought new in 2016 and had a custom chip box built... Touch wood it has been the most reliable machine I've ever owned 72k on the clock towing 95% of the time still on original brake pads and disks same clutch etc. Only issue I had was a broken nox sensor that cost £600 to replace. Good solid trucks expensive parts when they do go wrong. I think the dpf is coming to the end of its life and its around £1500 to replace! Don't bother with the extra money for the auto save your money and get manual... The new 1.9 engine 125bhp are crap when you are towing go for the 150, people are put off by the add blue etc which is peanuts to fill... 

Pros cheap truck "as they are trucks downplated 5.5 tonner for UK market" 

Robust

Reliable 

Work horse

Cons 

Noisy engine "who cares its for work" 

Expensive parts "hardly break" 

Will knock your fillings out of you drive over a pound coin. 

I'd deffo buy again

How do you adjust the carb? Think they are 1 of them electric things as there's no hi low screws. It's fresh fuel & it's deffo always mixed right. 

3 minutes ago, Stubby said:

low compression ?

It feels like it when you pull the cord, what's the cause & remedy? 

I've got 2 stihl brush cutters that are both a year old, when they get hot they like to run rough as hell and cut out. 

Once they stop they are a pita to start! 

Any ideas? 

I've got a stihl long reach hedge cutter that I've had since I first started up, after tons of use it's finally died today. 

I did notice it's sounded a bit rattly over the last few weeks however while on full chat there was a bit of a ping then it cut out. When you pull the starter there seems zero compression at all, I've fiddled with it and the only thing I noticed was a few small shards of metal above the piston & cylinder. I've looked allover for where it's come off and can't find it anywhere. Any ideas what went wrong? Worth fixing? 

3 minutes ago, harvey b davison said:

After years of working as a chippy on building sites, getting fed up of the daily grind, and then having to answer to gaffers that were fresh from college, never having done a day's work on the tools ,telling you how to do your job, I went to work for the NHS doing maintenance joinery. The management is absolutely horrendous, and that is in every department. Everyone is just there for the take, for doing as little as possible. I could tell some right horror stories about wasted money.
Anyway, I'm nearing 50 and getting more grumpy about things as time goes on, so keep thinking about saying sod it, moving away and just working for myself. I know I will never be rich but at least I would have a better way of life, and give me more freedom. So for me staff woes runs from the very top to the very bottom.

This is it pal everyone is on the take nobody wants to put nowt in! Most get away with it at big firms as they blend in with the good lads but at smaller ones they stand out like a neon dildo!!! I know since I worked for myself I've had nowhere near as much time off as I did when I was employed. The upside is I now have a lot more money than I ever would of. 

12 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

Literally everyone!

Reassuring to know

When I first started up I had a friend work for me known him a few years, I would do a 15 mile round trip to pick him up and drop him off every day! Worst thing I ever did, not once got a thanks or here's a fiver m8. They start to expect it from you like its normal then when you say no more and reality hits that they have to get up early and catch a bus it's a shocker. 

At 40 and still doing what a 18 year old would do is a massive drain! He's too old to change and never will and will continue to take the piss as long as you let it go on. Sort another lad out sack the numpty and move on. It's hard work finding good lads but any will be better than the drain you have at the moment! 

Been in business about 10 years started off doing tree work and now mostly transitioned into grounds maintenance. Constant issues with staff over the years, I've had 1 good lad who recently got send down for 13 months! Is it me? Am I a magnet for dummies? Job and knock pay good wages paid holiday pay for an extra week at Xmas out my own pocket, will go out my way if they are putting the effort in but most seem to be unable to grasp the concept of work. Had a lad with me for 4 weeks works well when he is here, rang in sick once, blobed because his scooter broke down rang me an hour after start time to tell me, late twice, drove 6 mile in the wrong direction to pick him up this morning as bike broke again never turned up! Rang an hour later to tell me he forgot he was working! The work ethic now seems to be piss poor! 

Does anyone else have to suffer this rubbish? 

I had it when I sold my little van to a traveller.  He paid me in £20 notes asked for "luck money back" went back in to get a fiver for him instead ?

5 minutes ago, Luke91 said:

Any job where the customer has a cat. Nothing quite like cat poo on a rope. 

Dog bab on your boot, then tree then hands 

1 minute ago, Steve Bullman said:

Carried out a months work of tree work on the new A1(M) around 22 years ago. Most of it involved thinning the roadside stands. Part of the contract was to litter pick all the plots and we took that on ourselves. Didn't have the luxury of littler picking handles, all was done by hand and a lot of it involved crawling through the blackthorn thickets on our hands and knees. There was a whole load of crap in there that had been there for a lot of years. Loads of old bottles full of suspiciously coloured liquids that were so old and degraded they disintegrated in your hands when you picked them up. We wore rubber gloves underneath gauntlets, but it was still grim. There was a Mcdonalds at Alconbury that we had stopped at to eat every night throughout the works. No one had any appetite on the litter picking days. Had about a week of that all in all.

Bet the wagon drivers had left some nasty surprises in the hedge backs ?

12 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

In Arb or generally?

 

Out of Arb it was the brickworks at Rudgwick, repetitive, hard, noisy, dusty, mindless.

I managed a day and a half, there were guys there who had done 20/30/40 years, they had my complete respect, better men than me.

 

In Arb, the usual, underpriced conny hedges, full of brambles driving you to tears until (as @Mark Bolam famously said) “you want to plunge the ms200 directly into your heart at full chat to end it”

Father in law did it all his life, must be like robots. 

7 minutes ago, bigtreedon said:

Brilliant wish u had told me this story befor nearly fell off my chair laughing spilt coke down down my favourite holiday vest ????

Got sent to another one in Bradford, house was rancid the kind where you wipe your boots on way out, Asian lady shouting something foreign at me downstairs bog was packed to the knackers with shit, told her I was going to get something out the van drove back to yard chucked keys at gaffer said its not for me and left £12 an hour no way

Just now, bigtreedon said:

Or stood on your skidder

Ground or seat based only now ?

6 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Un blocking the main sewer at the Nuffield Hospital Chichester .

I did a very brief stint at dynorod, unblocking a manhole overflowing in the middle of Bradford with bog roll and turd allover. Asian kids paddling around in it like they were at the seaside. Still have flashbacks ?

5 minutes ago, bigtreedon said:

You no me and you do loads of hedges !

Not now I don't have to, my arse is destined for a yellow seat now

I will start... Priced to Dismantle a small beech badly topped previously mostly eppi in a front garden steady job 2 blokes could park the chipper under the tree cut & chuck fell stem onto brash pile easy. 

Tree was shared between 2 neighbours, gave 1 of them my price of £500 lad was happy said let me speak to neighbour and come back to you. 3 weeks later lad calls me can you have another look at this tree, not far away goes to look... his neighbour and m8 had tried to take it down got brash off and dragged it down a alley way and crammed it in a tiny garden all criss crossed jammed into the max. Left Pole as they didn't have a saw sharp enough to cut it. Re quoted charged more got the job... Started at 7.30am and didn't finish till around 9pm! Worst job EVER!!!

Pass on conifer hedge reductions, customers always leave them as long as possible to try save money, they are usually wider than they are tall, topped that many times dead as hell in the middle with nawt to stand on & if the travellers have being in them last you can double the amount of brash to come away as they stuff it down the tops. I refuse them straight away now... Folk asking for an hourly rate are normally the ones you're best not working for as they want a shit ton of work out of you and your machinery and won't pay anything for it! 

£15 an hour is stupid cheap, we get £60 per hour for a 2 man team grass cutting. 

Spray with residual, will kill all pre emergence for around 10 months 

SDM Tree services is a small LTD company based in Wakefield, we are looking to appoint a suitably qualified individual to carry out commercial grounds maintenance on private housing estates.

You will be working as part of a 2 man team with the owner operator, duties include mowing "ride on & walk behind" strimming, litter picking, hedge cutting, weeding, knapsack spraying, planting trees & shrubs.

Applicants must be punctual, reliable, able to work on their own initiative, capable of working to a high standard.

Driving licence essential, pa1 pa6 a bonus...must have proven previous experience in a similar role,

further training available for the right candidate.

This is a fast paced job working in all weathers that can involve a lot of walking.

Hours Mon - Fri on a job & knock basis. start time 7.30 finish depends how efficient you work together on site.

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: £16,500.00 to £18,000.00 /year

Please send your cv & cover letter to [email protected]

Would it need anything other than gravity fed? It's already got an oil source from the saw isn't this just drip fed as a bit of a help? 

13 minutes ago, Forest2Furniture said:

It's about 6" which can be reduced a bit if you take the dogs of the saw.

Most people when they start chainsaw milling for the first time start a bit smaller and work up.

Chainsaw milling is seriously knackering on the back. 

 

I've got a bar with chains (new and unused) and mill rails that will give me a 5' cut that I bought for a large London Plane that when it came to it I never used as the client had the trunk ringed up for firewood, let me know if you interested.

 

 

I have ordered a 42" panther mill but are thinking about going a bit bigger as I have a lot of big lumps kicking about. I would like to be able to tackle everything I've got. 

Is it right that you loose around 8" worth of cutting once the bar is on the mill? Thinking I would be better with a 64" mill & oiler if that's the case