doobin

That about sums it up! Wouldn't change it for the world though

Hi chaps Whats the going rate per hour for maintaining gardens for estate agents who offer garden maintenance as part of the rent? I always charge around £15 per man hour. Have been asked to quote for a large garden in a country cottage (just mowing and trimming bushes, the tenant wants to do the borders). Only trouble is they want a quote to maintain it for a year, to be paid in monthly installments. I was thinking it'd take about five hours to do the grass, plus a couple of hours to prune a shrub or whatnot. If I allowed an eight hour day every two weeks (to allow for less visits over the winter) would that be about right? Or is that cutting it too fine (say we have a wet summer and grass grows like mad)? If I go with the above, the yearly cost would be £3120, or £260 a month. Way too cheap surely? But then it is only mowing, edging and occasionally cutting the hedge and bushes. Would I be able to get £150/day for it? That's the minimum I undertake scrub clearance, felling, fencing etc for on day rate. But this is just getting a lad to push a mower (might let him use the ride on tho!) Thanks for any advice.

I run newspapers about early morning. £42.50 cash for 2 1/2 hours easy work

Winter 05:00 till about 18:00/19:00 Summer 05:00 till 21:00/22:00. God I love long summer days! Seven days a week. I'm climbing the walls if I get stuck inside for any reason.

Sorry mate, got to pull you up on that! Stihls biggest clearing saw is 56.5cc- the FS 550. I have two and I sure as hell woudn't want that sort of power on the end of a glorified hosepipe! I'm sure your backpack will be about 35cc, maybe less. All the pro engines for polesaws, reach hedgecutters, brushcutters (not clearing saws) are 30-35cc. Stihl now do a 48cc backpack unit, but it can only take a mowing head as it's the same shaft diameter as the FS400 series apparently.

You sure it's a 13"? I was told I could only have a 13" in .325. Anyone else know owt about this? It has changed my opinion of .325 tho

Where'd you find a 13" 3/8 bar?

If you can take the attachment off like a combi tool, then it's the 130. Or maybe the 120 if it was ten years ago. Who knows?

Learn to use a spreadsheet. You don't need an expensive accountant for the first few years. Plus if you do it on a spreadsheet you have realtime analysis of how the business is doing. Very important.

The biggest Stihl one is the FR480- didn't think that had been out ten years? Do you mean the FR130? They're not bad for hedgecutting actually- only big, long hedges with no curvy corners though!

Not a big fan of backpacks. Mainly due to vibration- after you've used a Stihl 400 series, you won't want to use anything else. Also because the shaft takes a lot more effort to hold- you're hands are supporting all the weight. And if you use a blade, be prepared to keep replacing the flexi drive. I've always though that what is required for bank work is harness with some way of adjusting the height of the machine by pressing a couple of buttons on the handle! Any ideas? Would need some sort of electric adjusting strap I guess.

I don't know what you're worried about, it's a permanent feature of my Corsa.....

Just got a 13" .325 bar and chain for my 036 to use coppicing. Very quick doesn't describe it!

As i understand it, even numbers are pro saws. We have an MS250 and an MS260. They are poles apart.

Cheap on petrol?? I had a 1.3 SJ, may as well have had a V8 landy! Slow, rusty, noisy and uncomfortable. But the dogs danglies offroad!

Are you a self employed sole trader? Are you VAT registered? No? Then a spreadsheet really is all you need.

I like the picture of the lumberjack bloke cutting a downed tree with a top cut when anyone can see it should be an undercut

Seconded.

What's a bunded polytunnel? Agree re the handling!

Think they're minimum is five vehicles.

Right attitude 100%

Excellent, we've got the the bottom of it! Would you mind providing a costing for mechanical harvesting, just out of interest? I can't see there'd be much profit in it, I guess you'd need more acreage. Not worried how many days it takes. I enjoy it, it'll make money as firewood. I still make money from my lads working on other jobs when we're cutting, whilst my two mates are quiet on the work front so this year it's the right thing to do. Next year however we may look back at our costings for harvesting and decide to buy it in. We shall see! Either way firewood is better than money in the bank at the moment.

Wasn't meaning to be sarky mate. if you refer to the original post, the crux of the matter is whether such an operation could be achieved in six days- by my calculations this is the bare bones of profitability (please check, its all in the original post) If you can't do it in six days, back to the original question: how does anyone make money? Burshcutter- digger is mine. Like I said in the original post, I'm not worried about doing it in six days as my sums stack up for firewood production rather than roadside cordwood. It was a sort of hypothetical question; I don't think that was perhaps clear enough! Change of tack- can we all talk figures for a bit? How about everyone posts their take on a breakdown of costs?

All you who think a digger is a bit pointless in a coppice site are missing the point. I can't justify a tractor and timber crane, and neither can most of you. The digger is always busy- fencing, laying driveways, cutting hedges with a mancrate. I'd call that a smart investment- there's few jobs I do that it can't help on. So you think it's pointless in a coppice site? Can you lift a ten foot butt that's ten inches in diameter and place it on top of a stack? Can you grab five trees worth of brash and stick it straight onto the top of a roaring fire? The guy on the digger is always flat out, and if we hit a thin patch he gets off and helps handball it. We fell and section five trees whilst the digger is clearing the last fell. Digger then sits in the middle and can reach and stack all the timbers (15 to twenty ten foot sections) with minimal tracking. Brash from five trees is taken care of in a couple of minutes. Combined Tree Services- Ok, could you do it in six days with a timber crane then?

Well, we've tried straight veg oil the last three days and the saws (MS180, MS 250 and 036) seem to run fine. Bars and chains are cleaner than normal, all looks excellent. Cutting green chestnut though so may be a different story on a bit of dry beech.