[Paydaze7]

just curious to hear others input before we submit this bid to a municipality.. they want a 4' x4' sawcut in concrete sidewalks. excavate material, plant a 2.5 " cal. tree and then backfill with topsoil, mulch and stake. just wondering what kind of time estimates you guys think the average cut, plant, etc. will take? oh and they are budgeting anywhere from 300 to 700 trees to be planted. thanks

[Paul]

First off you don't want to get into cutting the concrete, too many outfits around that have big saws that can do it cheaper than you can and faster too! The most you want to do is drill a couple of 1 1/2" holes so you can insert a couple of cable wedges to lift the slabs into a truck, or set them along side the road for later clean up. Time wise for the rest of the work 1 hour for concrete removal, 1 hour excavation, and 1 1/3 hrs for backfill and tree setting. Adding in trucking I would be looking at some where in the $750 to $800 per tree range.

If you can't find a cable wedge add in 1 hour more for equipment time to hammer out the concrete. adding in another $150 to your tree cost. $900 to $950 per tree.

[Fine Edge]

We did one similiar about 8 years ago with some Zelkova. We added the irrigation and the city added electrical outlets at all 45 trees for X-mas lights.
The one thing I do remember was having to clean up any mess as soon as we were done with that tree since people were walking around us, cars were taking up our parking spots, etc...
Paul's estimate sounds reasonable.

[Paydaze7]

i really never thought about the guys with the big road saws, good point.. our numbers are very close. my hopes was if we got the job and started working that we would be able to bring one of our machines with an auger to speed up excavation but i guess that really depends on the amount of utilities... thanks

Originally posted by Paul
First off you don't want to get into cutting the concrete, too many outfits around that have big saws that can do it cheaper than you can and faster too! The most you want to do is drill a couple of 1 1/2" holes so you can insert a couple of cable wedges to lift the slabs into a truck, or set them along side the road for later clean up. Time wise for the rest of the work 1 hour for concrete removal, 1 hour excavation, and 1 1/3 hrs for backfill and tree setting. Adding in trucking I would be looking at some where in the $750 to $800 per tree range.

If you can't find a cable wedge add in 1 hour more for equipment time to hammer out the concrete. adding in another $150 to your tree cost. $900 to $950 per tree.

[dan deutekom]

We were involved with a job like this and the big problem was that no mechanical excavation was allowed withing 2' of the utility markings. This had to be done by hand. After doing the first hole that way we sub contracted the hole digging to a company with a Vacuum excavator truck. Saved a ton of work as well as money on labour. I would say Paul is right in the ballpark with his estimates.

[familyguy]

I am curious how you fellas came across these municipal accounts.

We have 1 account with the city where we do most of our work. Seasonal annual plantings in containers. There are not a lot of opportunities for planting trees on that scale. Usually they go in about 10-20 max at a time. But, in one neighboring town, about 10 3-4" caliper cherry trees were planted last year and that HAD to be sweet money. It was done by a pretty established company, meaning one not desperate for work so they mustve gotten good money.

The seasonal flower thing fell into our laps out of nowhere, but, we would have sought it out had we known about it anyway. Where does one look/inquire about this sorta thing.

Thanks

[Paul]

Each state has various bidding rules and posting rules. Here bidding is posted in the local newspaper or trade publication ( Dodge report) two weeks or more before the bid is due and then read out loud at a public opening.

Don't think that there is lots of money, yes prices are higher but wages you pay are higher too! Here we pay prevaling wages and I know Paydaze7 pays them too.

[Paydaze7]

we use the http://www.constructionjournal.com/ for all of our leads. we used to do a lot of higher end residential years ago and there is def. more money in that than doing dot/municipal work. sure there are some jobs we do pretty good on. but the margins are lower but were doing bigger dollar jobs so i guess it balances out?!?! im much happier doing this type of work than i ever was doing residential/commercial. both markets are shot in nj. thats one of the nice things about bidding on rate work is that its pretty much a level playing field most of the time. everyone is paying the same money per hour, same insurances, paying taxes, etc. but prevailing rate is outta control you got guys making 25 to 55 an hour depending on what they are doing.

Originally posted by Paul
Each state has various bidding rules and posting rules. Here bidding is posted in the local newspaper or trade publication ( Dodge report) two weeks or more before the bid is due and then read out loud at a public opening.

Don't think that there is lots of money, yes prices are higher but wages you pay are higher too! Here we pay prevaling wages and I know Paydaze7 pays them too.

[Paydaze7]

just an update if anyone cares.. they opened the bids the other day the lowest bidder $114 per tree. 3 other bidders 468 per tree, 502 per tree, 515 a tree. I came in at 650, lol

[Paul]

I would really like to see his wage statements!

I can't buy a 2.5" tree for $114 let alone plant one for that.

[Paydaze7]

i didn't realize in my first post that i forgot to say the plants were included by the city. but even still i dont see how the guys gonna make money.. he must know something we dont

[Mark Oomkes]

Heck, that's nothing. One of the cities by us did this earlier this year so I can't remember the exact numbers, but, the winning bid was between $80-90 per tree, I think they were 2", guaranteed for 2 years.

Installed.

If your city had any brains, paydaze, they'd throw out that bid. I wouldn't hold my breath on that though.

[Paydaze7]

the only way i think they can do it for that number is if they got someone on the inside and are going to make $$$ on the change orders/extras.. after all NJ has the best government money can buy!