land clearing

[br389]

I was wondering if I could get some help on how to bid land clearing jobs? I have to go and look at a small 3 acre job and I was wondering if I could get some pointers thanks

[clww]

Factors that we plan on are: loads we will get from pulp/saw logs (money gained), loads of debris to haul out (money spent), time it will take, what equipment will be needed, amount of money to keep all the machinery operating, how many people are we going to have there, location and geography of the job site, time of the year, time lost due to the weather.
The above are in no particular order, and I'm sure I'm leaving a few out.

[RKH Logging]

     I charge $3500.00/acre, if theirs good timber on it, bonus. I don't haul any thing off the premises nor do i remove stumps. that is just felling the trees on the property. I think 3500 for cutting an acre is a fair price to go off of. As for stumping and hauling the brush away, bill your machines out by the hour. you can never lose this way.

    So you can charge the $3500.00. for the felling of the trees. 105/hour for your excavator. bill each laborer out for 30/hour. plus any addtional fee's for hauling the brush out. then add 10% for your self on top of the final bill.

     I always bill my laborers out for 30/hour to the customer. some only make 25 and some make 15. but each guy I bring to the job site is 30/hour. I find that works good for covering additional costs that aren't planned for.  (trust me there will always be hidden costs).

     I'm not saying this is perfect by any means, and i'm sure there is going to be a million different people telling you different but this is what i charge. I never have a prob finding or getting work, and rarely do I lose money on a job. its better to let a job go then take it knowing your losing or breaking even. I'm not in business to lose money I am in it to make money.

     One final hint. always make sure the land owner is on the same level as you. make it clear to him what is going to be done for this price. and always have something in writing that will cover you..

[thenorthman]

Land clearing is open to interpretation...  You just cutting timber or are you popping stumps and grading?

If the latter then bid on what you think you can make off the timber, if no value bid on how many hours its going to take, and don't forget to factor in removing of the junk

as far as stumps and grading bill by the hour, for each piece of machinery out there, and remember to figure a wage too... (I'll give my self a wage and double that half to the machine half to me, works most of the time).


Now for other hints and tricks.  First thing ya have to look at is the ground, is it wet, soft, hard, rocky?   Second is "high value targets" houses, power lines, neighbors houses etc, while these don't mean much as far as the ground clearing part, when it comes to dumping trees they can become a huge pain in the neck, especially power lines.  Third is look to how your going to get equipment and truck in there, everything has to have a place to park, and still be able to get some work done, at the same time not looking like a bunch of b movie zombie bikers had a party with heavy machinery...

Then the last thing is to figure out what the owner wants done and whether or not you think you can actually accomplish it.

Only then can you make a soup of all this and decide just how much your time is really worth.

[br389]

I dont know if the land owner wants the stumps removed or not I have to meet him today..... thanks for this good advice

[cutter88]

Factors that we plan on are: loads we will get from pulp/saw logs (money gained), loads of debris to haul out (money spent), time it will take, what equipment will be needed, amount of money to keep all the machinery operating, how many people are we going to have there, location and geography of the job site, time of the year, time lost due to the weather.
The above are in no particular order, and I'm sure I'm leaving a few out.

Very well put, that's exactly how we do it.

[Woodhauler]

One thing i would do, If the land owner might have more work to do, i would treat him very fair! If its a one time job charge buy the acre and per man.

[Ryan D]

One thing i would do, If the land owner might have more work to do, i would treat him very fair! If its a one time job charge buy the acre and per man.

Agreed. I'm doing a clearing right now that I will barely break even on. The upside though is the 200 acre woodlot that I'm going to be managing for the landowner. I've also picked up 2 more nearby because my landing is visible from the main road.

The last one I did though was a one off so I quoted high and did quite well on the job.

[timberlinetree]

Be carful of the paper work! We cleared a lot for mister fancy shoes. We had a legal contract but didn't have him initial one part. Cleared whole lot and didn't get paid one dime! Lawyer wrote 7 letters @ $100 each for nothing! Still can't understand why people would do such a thing?