How much to charge for custom cutting

[MG2186]

First off, not sure where to put this post so mods move it where it needs to be.
I’ve been asked to do some small scale logging I guess you’d call it.
The job is dropping 25-35 trees, bucking to log lengths, hauling logs to close by mill, then cutting rest of tree into firewood logs. I’ll have skid loader, trailer, me and my saws. I’ve never actually made money cutting so I have no clue how to charge for something like this. I bucked a bunch of firewood for him last night and didn’t have a clue what to charge for that either. He’s an Amish guy that we deal with for our horses.
I’m no logger and will not charge him logging price but I need to get paid a descent price I feel. Does anyone have any advice?

 

[huskyboy]

I would try to get a rough estimate of how much your going to have invested $ wise first. Fuel for saws/truck/loader, chains, files, wedges, axe and how long you think it will take you (how much your time is worth to you per hour). Then you’ll have a starting point so you know where your profit margin is.

 

[Thumper88]

Doing tree work I make good profit at $150 an hour. Ive made more and Ive made less, but thats what I shoot for. I did 30 yard trees last year on one job for $12k. Now some of those were 40" plus dbh, and I hauled out all the logs and firewood. Brush got chipped and left on site. I made out alright but after I rented the chipper and paid labor on 2 guys I didnt make a killing. Are they all capable of being felled with just wedges or are there a lot of pull trees and structures involved?

 

[Cat 525]

35 cents a bd ft to cut the mill logs. Plus costs of delivery to mill. Do the firewood by the hour. Get enough outta the deal for at least a jackass from him!

 

[Wood Doctor]

A tree service and landscaping company owner just told me that he is now being forced to pay no less than $50 per hour for every man in the crew that works on any job that he bids on. That is almost double what he paid two years ago. He has to cover his cost and customers are almost in shock when they see what they are going to have to pay. One of them told him, "I'll just put up with the dead limbs."

 

[MG2186]

Doing tree work I make good profit at $150 an hour. Ive made more and Ive made less, but thats what I shoot for. I did 30 yard trees last year on one job for $12k. Now some of those were 40" plus dbh, and I hauled out all the logs and firewood. Brush got chipped and left on site. I made out alright but after I rented the chipper and paid labor on 2 guys I didnt make a killing. Are they all capable of being felled with just wedges or are there a lot of pull trees and structures involved?

Trees are in a small timber and in a pasture, so yes I’ll be falling them all in direction of lean for most part, or with wedges. I’m not looking to get rich just pay for my time and equipment and make a little extra

 

[ranchdadmike]

Just pull ‘em down with that big red tractor!

 

[MG2186]

Just pull ‘em down with that big red tractor!

That big red tractor is made to only run for a few minutes at a time…. Lol! But we do have several other big red tractors that could be fun doing it with.,,..,,

 

[Ryan Browne]

Tough to say, but I'd just give him an hourly rate that makes you happy to do the job.

You've got a lot of money involved in the equipment that you'll be using. If you were gonna be doing this regularly, you'd want to know what the replacement cost of all that equipment is and divide it by the estimated service life for each item. That's what you'd need to bill hourly for each piece of equipment. Plus, a small amount for repairs, insurance, fuel, etc. Then your desired hourly wage as the operator, and finally something as profit. Kinda a pain to figure out, and like I said for an infrequent side job situation probably not necessary, but it might help to keep it in mind when coming up with an hourly rate. Err on the side of being a little too high rather than too low.

 

[MG2186]

Tough to say, but I'd just give him an hourly rate that makes you happy to do the job.

You've got a lot of money involved in the equipment that you'll be using. If you were gonna be doing this regularly, you'd want to know what the replacement cost of all that equipment is and divide it by the estimated service life for each item. That's what you'd need to bill hourly for each piece of equipment. Plus, a small amount for repairs, insurance, fuel, etc. Then your desired hourly wage as the operator, and finally something as profit. Kinda a pain to figure out, and like I said for an infrequent side job situation probably not necessary, but it might help to keep it in mind when coming up with an hourly rate. Err on the side of being a little too high rather than too low.

Yea don’t planning on doing it too regularly, maybe a couple jobs a year. Just a little side line gig

 

[sundance]

A tree service and landscaping company owner just told me that he is now being forced to pay no less than $50 per hour for every man in the crew that works on any job that he bids on. That is almost double what he paid two years ago. He has to cover his cost and customers are almost in shock when they see what they are going to have to pay. One of them told him, "I'll just put up with the dead limbs."

Curious...who's forcing him to pay $50 per hour?

 

[Wood Doctor]

Curious...who's forcing him to pay $50 per hour?

Good question. I was shocked when I heard that. Must be a local cartel of workers who climb, saw, clean up. etc. The owner is in a rather remote, low population town. I advised him to bargain that wage down as much as he could rather than pass the cost increase along to the customer.

 

[sundance]

Good question. I was shocked when I heard that. Must be a local cartel of workers who climb, saw, clean up. etc. The owner is in a rather remote, low population town. I advised him to bargain that wage down as much as he could rather than pass the cost increase along to the customer.

Damn, I'm old and out of shape but for $50/hr I might be able to stand around. Where does one sign up with him?

 

[pbillyi69]

do you have to clean up the mess that will be made? limbs and such? if you can pile the limbs and sticks into a burn pile with a tractor that will save a lot of time and work. if that is the case i would try to come up with a figure for the actual felling of the trees and a figure for the cleaning up the mess and add them together. when i used to bid tree jobs time involved to get the tree on the ground was the first part to figure out. then you figure out how long to clean up the mess. the biggest factor is what you feel your time is worth an hour and go from there. if you have cut a lot of trees down and are fast at it charge accordinly if you havent and are slow then figure by then figure an acceptable to you price per tree

 

[pbillyi69]

if you dont have any idea at all how long it will take. pick an easy tree and cut it down and clean up the mess and time it start to finish that will give you a better idea of all of the figures you need to account for

 

[pbillyi69]

we used to charge 50 an hour for the climber and 40 an hour for the ground guys but that was 17 years ago. im sure that has gone up since then.

 

[Wood Doctor]

we used to charge 50 an hour for the climber and 40 an hour for the ground guys but that was 17 years ago. im sure that has gone up since then.

I believe that "Charge" is not the same as "Pay" the laborer. The company has to cover a lot of other costs besides labor. Just MHO.

 

[MG2186]

we used to charge 50 an hour for the climber and 40 an hour for the ground guys but that was 17 years ago. im sure that has gone up since then.

The most I’ll have to clean up is shove the trimmings into a pile out of my way. It’ll mostly be felling, bucking saw logs and limbing off the useable firewood. I’m leaning towards charging $50/hr for me cutting, so much for trucking to the mill and $100/hr for skid loader off it’s hour meter

 

[ElevatorGuy]

$50 an hour is a good number, Cash and no tax. That’s the cash number I shoot for on side work. I had a neighbor call me to blow leaves out of their yard. I told her $100 thinking it would take about 2 hours. I finished in 45 mins. She was amazed as was I but it was complete and looked great.

 

[Loony661]

The most I’ll have to clean up is shove the trimmings into a pile out of my way. It’ll mostly be felling, bucking saw logs and limbing off the useable firewood. I’m leaning towards charging $50/hr for me cutting, so much for trucking to the mill and $100/hr for skid loader off it’s hour meter

I think you are in the ballpark on this. There are a lot of variables of course, but if you would be satisfied with those numbers, then go for it!

One more thing to think about: I know you’re not planning to do this much, but if you’re on someone else’s property (Amish or not), you should consider having a general liability insurance to cover anything that could go wrong, that you could be blamed for. It’s not very much money for a policy and would cover your hind-end in a worst case scenario. Just some food for thought...