kaiserkahn
ArboristSite Lurker
My previous line of work slowly petered out a few months ago. I soon found a vermeer 352 self propelled at an extremely good price for the condition it was in and jumped feet first into stump grinding.
I went and looked at a utility trailer for my new/used stump grinder. This guy new someone who had about 50-60 stumps. I didn't buy his trailer, but he was nice enough to give me the name and address of the people needing the stumps ground. He already gave them a price of $400 as I think he had a buddy that did stump grinding as well, but was very busy at the time. I go over and talk to the people. I quote $500 as there looked like quite a few stumps. Most were "4-"6 diameter. They said no $500 was too much as they were already quoted $400. I agreed as I quickly needed to start paying for my machine. Long story short the ground was covered with quite a few leaves. There ended up being about 125 total stumps. You couldn't see a lot of them until you start going around one by one. Lots of those were saplings and such that were 2" in diameter. They ended up paying me $560 for 12 hours worth of work as there was certainly more there than what any of us thought.
The second job I went and looked at had about 38 stumps. Half were 20"+. 5 of those were 20" doubles. I quoted $400, but felt it should be like $500-$600. They had $300 in mind, but agreed to $375. The ground ended up being horrible in one spot as I kept finding rocks. Almost got P.O.'d enough to just quit and walk off. About the same time they also built a fire and was burning brush and trash. The smoke kept blowing my direction. Took 11 hours total and they paid $425.
Third job I felt better on. When I met the home owner he had about 12 stumps to grind down just a couple inches below the surface and 1 stump about 30" diameter. When I showed up with the grinder there were about 2-3 more stumps than what I recalled from memory. Oh well, all the stumps were located in the shade and along the shoreline of a lake with a nice breeze and view. Grinding was fairly easy. 2.5 hours and received $160.
Fourth job was a 15" bradford pear. This house was 2 miles from where I lived. It took about 1.5 hour total time and I received $70.
The people from my second job passed my name and information onto their relatives. Kept talking about word of mouth etc. would keep me busy. This relative called and wanted me to remove a stump about 36" diameter. I give him a rough price of $100 considering he lived a good 25-30 miles away. He wanted me to do it quickly(same day) as they were building a wheel chair ramp. $100 was a little too much so we agree on $80 and I would just get it flush with the ground. Hooked up my trailer and down the road I go to their house. Guy calls and decides they will just use a chainsaw to save them some money. I am P.O.'d as I thought I gave them a pretty fair price for what would be considered immediate service to help them out.
Today I talked to a guy about a 19"-20" bradford pear stump over the phone. Give him a rough ballpark of $100-$125 maybe more based on his description of above ground roots. I Said I could be there later that afternoon. There were several roots all over this particular area of yard. Waaay more than I ever imagined and more than what the home owner described. I hesitated initially about doing the job because it would probably turn into a PITA. He said another local and long established stump grinding outfit quoted him $150 over the phone and yet another even higher at $200. He would agree to $150 for this stump. I unhooked and was about to unload the stump grinder when I decided not to go through with it. It is 100+ degrees out now and I am tired of every job so far turning out to always being more involved than what the home owner thinks. The front yard was also very small. The proximity of his windows, neighbors house and yard, vehicles on the street, and utility lines that run underneath some of the roots next to the street was more than I wanted to deal with. I apologized for wasting his time and suggested he use the other outfit.
Gawd, is it the economy or what? I read all the pages that I can on this forum regarding stump grinding and pricing beforehand. Of course most of the posts do not take into consideration of the housing market and economy today. Seems tough to make anything greater than $50-$60 hr. at the most on small simple jobs. The mindset seems to average out to the high $30's/hr. or less than $10 stump for several large stumps. I don't see any money in stump grinding. I called every single tree company in the phone book and have not received a single stump yet from those phone calls. I figured that I need to set aside at least $10/hr. average for maintenance and for the stump grinder to pay for itself. $5 hr. in fuel to run the grinder. That equates to $15/hr. just to own and run a stump grinder. Add vehicle wear and fuel cost, insurance, advertising and then subtract 30% outta the profit for taxes. I used to own a machine shop and machine a lot of aftermarket auto parts. I thought manufacturing auto accessories was a poor career choice due to the overhead to income ratio. Was I ever wrong.
I went and looked at a utility trailer for my new/used stump grinder. This guy new someone who had about 50-60 stumps. I didn't buy his trailer, but he was nice enough to give me the name and address of the people needing the stumps ground. He already gave them a price of $400 as I think he had a buddy that did stump grinding as well, but was very busy at the time. I go over and talk to the people. I quote $500 as there looked like quite a few stumps. Most were "4-"6 diameter. They said no $500 was too much as they were already quoted $400. I agreed as I quickly needed to start paying for my machine. Long story short the ground was covered with quite a few leaves. There ended up being about 125 total stumps. You couldn't see a lot of them until you start going around one by one. Lots of those were saplings and such that were 2" in diameter. They ended up paying me $560 for 12 hours worth of work as there was certainly more there than what any of us thought.
The second job I went and looked at had about 38 stumps. Half were 20"+. 5 of those were 20" doubles. I quoted $400, but felt it should be like $500-$600. They had $300 in mind, but agreed to $375. The ground ended up being horrible in one spot as I kept finding rocks. Almost got P.O.'d enough to just quit and walk off. About the same time they also built a fire and was burning brush and trash. The smoke kept blowing my direction. Took 11 hours total and they paid $425.
Third job I felt better on. When I met the home owner he had about 12 stumps to grind down just a couple inches below the surface and 1 stump about 30" diameter. When I showed up with the grinder there were about 2-3 more stumps than what I recalled from memory. Oh well, all the stumps were located in the shade and along the shoreline of a lake with a nice breeze and view. Grinding was fairly easy. 2.5 hours and received $160.
Fourth job was a 15" bradford pear. This house was 2 miles from where I lived. It took about 1.5 hour total time and I received $70.
The people from my second job passed my name and information onto their relatives. Kept talking about word of mouth etc. would keep me busy. This relative called and wanted me to remove a stump about 36" diameter. I give him a rough price of $100 considering he lived a good 25-30 miles away. He wanted me to do it quickly(same day) as they were building a wheel chair ramp. $100 was a little too much so we agree on $80 and I would just get it flush with the ground. Hooked up my trailer and down the road I go to their house. Guy calls and decides they will just use a chainsaw to save them some money. I am P.O.'d as I thought I gave them a pretty fair price for what would be considered immediate service to help them out.
Today I talked to a guy about a 19"-20" bradford pear stump over the phone. Give him a rough ballpark of $100-$125 maybe more based on his description of above ground roots. I Said I could be there later that afternoon. There were several roots all over this particular area of yard. Waaay more than I ever imagined and more than what the home owner described. I hesitated initially about doing the job because it would probably turn into a PITA. He said another local and long established stump grinding outfit quoted him $150 over the phone and yet another even higher at $200. He would agree to $150 for this stump. I unhooked and was about to unload the stump grinder when I decided not to go through with it. It is 100+ degrees out now and I am tired of every job so far turning out to always being more involved than what the home owner thinks. The front yard was also very small. The proximity of his windows, neighbors house and yard, vehicles on the street, and utility lines that run underneath some of the roots next to the street was more than I wanted to deal with. I apologized for wasting his time and suggested he use the other outfit.
Gawd, is it the economy or what? I read all the pages that I can on this forum regarding stump grinding and pricing beforehand. Of course most of the posts do not take into consideration of the housing market and economy today. Seems tough to make anything greater than $50-$60 hr. at the most on small simple jobs. The mindset seems to average out to the high $30's/hr. or less than $10 stump for several large stumps. I don't see any money in stump grinding. I called every single tree company in the phone book and have not received a single stump yet from those phone calls. I figured that I need to set aside at least $10/hr. average for maintenance and for the stump grinder to pay for itself. $5 hr. in fuel to run the grinder. That equates to $15/hr. just to own and run a stump grinder. Add vehicle wear and fuel cost, insurance, advertising and then subtract 30% outta the profit for taxes. I used to own a machine shop and machine a lot of aftermarket auto parts. I thought manufacturing auto accessories was a poor career choice due to the overhead to income ratio. Was I ever wrong.