Need a forestry mulching contractor asap

[greenheadgrimreaper]

Anybody got any leads on a reputable forestry mulching contractor who's pricing is at least average? Seems the only folks who can get to a job in a reasonable amount of time are charging upwards of 175 dollars/hour or more. At this point, that may be our only option; so don't be afraid to mention your contact if that's the case. I appreciate any info you've got.

-
Austin

[Unlucky Duck]

what part of the state?

[mfalkner]

I'm aware of a few but none that charge much, if any, less than that. That type of work is rough on equipment.

[Smoke68]

I'm aware of a few but none that charge much, if any, less than that. That type of work is rough on equipment.

We checked with an equipment rental place about using one. They said they used to have one, but it cost so much to get it ready for the next rental they either had to charge an arm and a leg or dump it. The latter is what they chose.

[greenheadgrimreaper]

The jobsite is in the Ackerman, MS area, so east-central MS.

For the size job it is, the difference between $150 (seems to be the average) and $175 can make a huge difference, with all else equal, such as the skill and efficiency of the operator. $150 and $200/hour is substantial.

I found 1 guy charging $70- yes, $70 per hour. Suffice to say he's drowning in work; who knows if his profits are suffering the same fate.

[greenheadgrimreaper]

An immediate family member used to do mulching on the side for a guy; said guy has enough money that he bought one for the hell of it. It was a brand new Terex unit, and after 6 months of operations, he promptly said, "**** this ****" and sold it!

[greenheadgrimreaper]

I found a contractor for $80/ hour. We'll see how this goes...

[deltadukman]

I'm replying a little late but I insure quite a few. Know even more than I insure. The price you pay is usually the quality of work you get. Just because its cheaper by the hour doesn't mean it wont take more hours. Old busted equipment, lots of breaks, arriving late/leaving early, etc. That said, if they use CAT machines, tell them you want them to stop twice a day and blow them off and clean them up. Those machines are very prone to burning up. And once it starts it smokes the wiring harness rendering it unmovable. Your trees are next.

[teul2]

TJ Pennick (duckBum on here) owns Land Rite LLC. in the $140/h area.
(601) two five nine-5060

[greenheadgrimreaper]

Somehow this has turned into a classic off-season thread. I'm game.

Just because its cheaper by the hour doesn't mean it wont take more hours. Old busted equipment, lots of breaks, arriving late/leaving early, etc. That said, if they use CAT machines, tell them you want them to stop twice a day and blow them off and clean them up. Those machines are very prone to burning up.

Good point. You've gotta remember though, I'm not insuring them; I'm seeing to it they finish the job to spec. And if a fire gets to the crown of these trees, CNN will be their biggest problem. If not, I'd love to have a prescribed burn finish the job . With that scenario in mind, I'd be hard-pressed to garner more than a passing "son of *****" if I walk out there attempting to tell an owner/operator how, and with what frequency, he is to manage his equipment If it burns to the ground, then I'll need to know when or if he can get another piece of equipment on-site. Time spent putting out flaming equipment is not time I'm willing to pay for, either. That's the stake I have in the event of it happening. I'm very familiar with the caveats involved in the machinery involved with mulching (got a half day's worth of hours on one, to boot, whoop-whoop), and although not forestry mulching equipment, I grew up the son of an equipment operator, turned-owner/operator. I deal with sorting out the good from the bad as part of my daily routine. This ain't my 1st rodeo. I know firsthand that the discrepancy between operators is no different than that of any other occupation- quite the contrary. It's even more important than most other occupations regarding quality of work and final costs. And finding out why "he" is better than "him" is difficult for the general public.

That said, regarding trends, the asking price for heavy machinery services are evidently not immune to the effects that lowballers can have on a market. Other occupations have succumbed to this, and I've noticed the number of contractors for all types of machinery and their associated hourly prices are not what they were just a few years ago. This makes the problem of sorting the goodun's from the baddun's that much harder for everyone; not to mention it makes the goodun's jobs a lot more difficult, as if they need that wrench thrown into the equation. Even lowball hourly prices for machinery work are expensive. Couple that with the fact that it's inherently dangerous work possessing a level of uncertainty regarding the difference between who's legit and who's not, and why, and I'm afraid that the profession itself is not far from doing what other industries have had to do: Self-correct.

Like I said, I found a guy for $80/hour. If he calls back, we will see how it goes.................

As I said, I don't mind paying more money/hour. Equipment work is expensive. It is what it is, but I know what's realistic and what's WTF. What I don't like is price-gouging when a person on the phone senses the immediacy of the need- a point that is unavoidable when sourcing out the work. Maybe the $80/hour guy is breaking into the market? I don't know right now; later on I will. If he does good work, who can blame me? I've got a job to do.

In the meantime, I'm keeping TJ's # handy. Thanks for the tip Teul. $140 sounds like an incredibly reasonable and business-as-usual price for services. Maybe he won't be tied up like my normal goto contacts.

[novacaine]

Like all other types of equipment rental..............size matters.
If the $80/hr guy only has a 2 ft shredder head on a trackhoe................your not getting much for your money.
If you find a guy with a 4 or 6 ft on a serious skid steer...........he can eat up 8" and less trees in a hurry.
Most are going to charge you a day minimum price but they can make it fly in a day.

[mfalkner]

To be more specific, I just had a contractor work 8 hours on a new place I bought. $200/hr which is top end of the market any way you slice it. When I saw the volume and quality of the work he accomplished, I wrote the check without blinking even though it was a little more that I'd told him I wanted to spend. This is a bigger Bobcat machine with the rotary disk cutter, not a drum mulcher. Both have their place, drum mulcher seems to leave a little cleaner (mowable) result but the rotary machine is a beast. Trees up to 6" diameter just disappear, but you need to leave him alone while he's working because it'll chunk debris 100 yards.

I'm sure the size of the contract affects his hourly rates just like anybody else.

[420 racin]

I used to have one of these and do it on the side (hence the USED TO) It depends on ALOT of things on how fast he can go. The machine obviously is the most important. A good machine will make it go quicker than an old one, and in this business a machine with close the 2k hours is busted and needs replacing. The type of vegetation is also key to speed and cleanliness. Obviously hardwoods take longer than pine, even if it's sapling size its still a harder wood. Vines are a bitch, they will make a mulcher man angry. I could do some jobs and do close to an acre per hour and others took me 8 hours per acre. If you are looking to take down more substantial trees/saplings inside a more open forest canopy where a trackhoe can walk around, you would be better to get a big mulcher on the end of a trackhoe, if it's more shooting lanes or CRP/WRP clearing or going through pine plantations to reduce the competition, the skid steer mulcher is the way to go.

I used to do some pine plantations because the landowners did not want to burn, the location made them susceptible to liabilities from the smoke, so in place of prescribed burning, I went down the rows and chopped it up and it looked good.

I used to charge $150/hr and had more work to do than I could get to, but it was a side business and it was taking all my time away from my family so I sold it. But I still want one

[deltadukman]

Rock the flock out dude. I forgot, you're the guy who no one can tell anything. Sounds to me you know more than anyone about the business. Surprised you don't have a machine and a head and doing your own work. I wans just giving advise so when Mr. $80/hr doesn't blow his machine out and burns your place to $#!+ and doesn't have anything to cover the damage, you're not left with a smoldering pile of trees. You can call CNN all you want to, but I don't know what you're trying to clean up and you can't get blood from a turnip.

Benny 2.0, good luck.

[SB]

As pointed out here, there can be a wide range in operator efficiency and equipment ability. In the last forestry mulching job I was involved with I asked for per acre prices to level the playing field. This was for a bigger job, closer to 2 weeks and not a 1-3 day job. The vendor's would rather do the work by the hour and were reluctant to give a price by the acre. When I asked them how you can make a "apples to apples" comparison between operators and machines they understood where I was coming from. This particular job was not a complex job. It was reclaiming some fields where there were some pines and sweet gums that needed to go.

Just a FYI on the per acre prices of one of the very big mulchers (log skidder size and size appropriate mulching head), it came out to right at $450/acre on a job I heard about.