Dirt Work Bid School
How to price dirt work so the number holds up: bidding method, takeoff, what your machine really costs, reading the site, and overhead.
Everybody in this trade wants to talk about the number. Almost nobody wants to talk about the twenty minutes before the number, which is the only part that decides whether the number is any...
Read the article →Stand at a hole with the pile beside it. Same dirt, and the pile is obviously bigger than the hole. Everyone in this trade knows that, and a surprising number of people never price...
Read the article →There is a thread on one of the heavy equipment forums asking how you should charge for excavating. Hourly, by the foot, or a lump sum. That thread was started in 2004. Contractors are...
Read the article →You can be busy all year. You can win everything you bid, run good crews, do good work, and never have a customer complain. And you can finish the year with nothing in the...
Read the article →Most guys running a machine are charging an hourly rate they made up. They heard a number at the dealership, or they took what the guy down the road charges and knocked ten dollars off it....
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