[P-Train]

Yesterday I paid a sod company $1,012.50 to cut, deliver and lay nine pallets.

They brought four workers (all hispanic, three guys and one girl)and were finished in 1.5 hours.

They did a great job and I still can't believe how fast they did it.

One of them I was talking to said they lay over 31,000 sq' on a daily basis. no wonder they can do it that fast.

Do you think $1,012.50 was a good deal? That's $112.50 delivered and installed per pallet. I'm thinking that's not to bad.

$65 per 450 sq' pallet is my price to pick it up ourselves.

[jwholden]

Do bees buzz?

Do cow's moo?

I'm liking that price!

[Stonehenge]

Sounds about right for around here - not a bad price, not a fabulous one. We've farmed out sod laying when we've been behind schedule, and get the local sod grower to install it for somewhere between $.75-$1 per yard. Add the cost of the delivered sod and we're at the same price as you.

But I never like farming that out - when I was growing up, working for a landscape company, they used to call me 'monkey arms' because I could carry 6 rolls (yards) of sod at once. So sod is a pretty good money maker for us. Just that it's really hard on my knees these days - one day crawling around on the ground and I get balloons for knees.

[Paul]

Ok a couple of questions? Was it graded out before they came out or did they grade it out? Did they haul out scraps or was that left to you?

As for the install times, they worked a total of 6 hours or at a rate of 675 sq ft per man hour. Their install times are fair for small rolls. You do understand they were installing at a rate of $70.875 per man hour, thats just their labor charge. Now compare that to your labor charge?

[P-Train]

Yes, It was graded and ready for sod when they came to the job.

There were no scraps after the job. Every square inch was used (I did have to haul away the pallets).

Their installed price was good for me.

You're right, Paul, it's close to $70 per man hour that they charged. Can your guys lay nine pallets in 1.5 hours for that price?

Of course not, not at that price, and not at my price either.

This way, I could take care of other business on the phone for that 1.5 hours and put $2,000 on top of the number the sod company gave me without even so much as touching one piece of sod.

Not bad...

[Paul]

I wouldn't question what my men can and can't do. But my hourly charges are $85 per hour. We havn't done a 4000 sq ft job in a while. For us thats a very small job. Doing small rolls I would expect my crew of 3 men to grade and install a full truck load a day watered with travel time and in by 3:30. Full loads here are 12800 sq ft. Large rolls we can triple that.

[Terry D]

P-Train;

Doing what you did is a no-brainer, who cares what our own guys can do?

Fact is, there is no-way any of our hourly guys, would, could, or should try to keep pace with these sod zealots.

They bang out 4 pallets jump into the truck and REST, then they bang out 6 pallets, jump in the truck and rest! These cats are beyond incentived and it shows ...... I'm just curious what the workers actually make per hour when the day is complete.

Other than that, they are very good for my budget so it doesn't matter to me what their hourly rate is, because the sod companies can give such great prices compared to retail that the labor ends up being FREE!!!

[Paul]

You know it's something that I'll think about during retirement.













Not much time left before that happens..............

[site]

Last season I was feeling pretty cool because we had a four person crew lay out a trailer load (10,000sf) by 10 am. Of course it was in ideal conditions. The next time I saw the sod truck driver I asked him who had the fastest crew. He told me about a 3 man crew with a dingo that does 8 trucks of big rolls a day every day. That put it in perspective pretty quick.
And if you want to see fast- go to the farm and watch them cut. they can cut roll and stack a pallet in about 5 minutes with an operator and one laborer.

[Stonehenge]

Doesn't it show you how if you specialize in one thing, you can get so good at it that not a single motion is wasted?

[Terry D]

For you number crunchers ... in CA we measure/order sod by the sq. ft. not sq. yd.

So taking this 10,000 s.f. job, we'd be getting a whole truck discount which equates to a 2.5 cent discount, so the sod is now 24.5 cent per foot.

Labor for them to install is .06 cents/ foot.

Retail the sod costs .34 -40 cents depending on where you go.

So our cost for this 10,000 job would be: $2,450 + $196 tax = $2,646. materials & $600 for the install.

Total cost would be $3,246.

If you divide that amount by 10,000 sq ft. price per foot is .32!

BINGO!?!?!? See what I mean? You get a free install job!

Hope everybody understands this concept, but its true!

[Chuck Sinclair]

We pay 22 cents a SQ' and 8 cents a SQ' for install.

I would rather pay them then waste my guys time when they could be doing more important things.



Chuck

[Terry D]

Hey Chuck! How's it going? So were both about the same, I added tax you didn't!

I agree, keep our guys free for other stuff.

BTW the minimum charge for them to install is $100. in labor costs so that would convert to roughly 1,500 feet as your break even point......but wait!

\You'd spend that on your own guys! So again ... let them do it!!!

[MOW ED]

Hats off to you gents who do the sod installs. I did one today and it was about 85 degrees. Just 45 rolls but I had to remove over a yard of dirt and old sod. Just laying 18" next to a driveway and patio but I had to truck in about a yard of dirt to fill. It took me 8 hours and the cost of product was 66 bucks. The 8 hours was slow because it was very hot and I was alone, I could have been out in about 5 otherwise so I will adjust the price. Its a job for a friend but he has no problem paying because he knows I busted my tail.
Gonna bill 375.00. I didn't have any mowing today and was not gonna make a dime until he called. Man am I tired.

[diginahole]

Originally posted by site
...
And if you want to see fast- go to the farm and watch them cut. they can cut roll and stack a pallet in about 5 minutes with an operator and one laborer.

When I was 12 or 13 I spent a summer on the back of a sod harvester. It seems to me me It took a little longer than 5 minutes to peel and stack 80 yards of sod, but not much. Bruce (the tractor driver) never cut me much slack.Them rolls just never stop coming. Occasionally we would have two guys on the back, those afternoons seemed like holidays.