Charge for digging house footings

[farmer1157]

Do you charge by the sq ft of the house, or flat rate, or by hour.

[bobcat_ron]

Hourly rate, you never know what's under there, could be straight dirt or an old Indian burial ground and it might conjure up a Poltergeist and swallow the hole house up in the future.

[stuvecorp]

I have done all three.

[stuvecorp]

Hourly rate, you never know what's under there, could be straight dirt or an old Indian burial ground and it might conjure up a Poltergeist and swallow the hole house up in the future.

BC Ron, do you think thats what happened to your 190? It got possessed?

[RockSet N' Grade]

If you have been doing it awhile and are working in familiar territory, bid the job. If you in an unfamiliar area, work it by the hour.......the safest way to go is hourly. When you bid, it is not just the per foot or sq ft price but all the "safety net" verbage in your contract that will either make you or break you.....

[AWJ Services]

Here it is charged by the foot.
Not the right way too do it but that is what the Contractors expect too pay.

[Gravel Rat]

I'am with Ron on you never know whats under the ground. You could be digging along and its coming out slicker than **** and you hit the rock of Gilbralter.

I do agree if you are in a subdivision or a area that you know that has easy digging material then you can probably bid the job.

[ksss]

Here it is by the square foot. We don't see a lot of houses here that are slab on grade, most are either full basement foundation or crawl space. The issue with by the hour is the contractor really does not know what his costs are unless the excavator and contractor are really tight. The square foot price makes it easy the contractor to bid and know what his costs are. As far as unforseen issues with rock or water, the guys that I do work for acknowledge that the square foot price is the price for a no issues dig. Anything other than that will cost more money.

[Gravel Rat]

Usually the excavation contractor that cleared the land will be doing the house site so digging the basement if they can get a basement. Most cases the foundation is stepped with no real useable basement. Some jobs it can take a full 8 hour day to dig the foundation and some extremes 2-3 days. It is a average 2000-2500 square foot house but the way the property is it can be lots of benching. If blasting is required then you can add a couple day delay to the project. A geotech engineer may have to come to the site so more delays.

Most contractors here usually expect atleast 1.5 days for a house foundation. The engineers (brain surgeons) that can't make up their mind love drawing out a project unnessarly long.

On edit

If you do find indian artifacts on your property and the local indian band find out you might aswell hand over the deed to your property to them because the project is stopped untill they so a site survey and study on your property to see if it was one of their ancesteral sites. If it is you are done like last nights dinner.

[Scag48]

KSSS nailed it. If you're working for someone who needs a hard number, the square footage route is the way to go, assuming everything goes well and you don't find any rock. With this method, as well as a hard bid, there should always be a clause in the contract stating that the bid does not include any encounters you may find. By the hour is the safest way, obviously, and if the end customer can afford whatever the price ends up being, go for it. I've done bid and hourly, I've never bid square footage but I can see it's advantages for certain customers.

[ksss]

KSSS nailed it. If you're working for someone who needs a hard number, the square footage route is the way to go, assuming everything goes well and you don't find any rock. With this method, as well as a hard bid, there should always be a clause in the contract stating that the bid does not include any encounters you may find. By the hour is the safest way, obviously, and if the end customer can afford whatever the price ends up being, go for it. I've done bid and hourly, I've never bid square footage but I can see it's advantages for certain customers.


If you work by the square foot as most everyone out here does for most residential and everything is bid that is commercial it puts the onus on you to be as productive as you can be. Any advantage you can give yourself pays you back. When your by the hour, the pressure is not there to over perform. Granted you want to give value to the customer, but you don't get rewarded for over performance except from maybe experienced job foreman. Overperformance on square footage job, makes you more money.

I try to never work my 465 by the hour. It over produces itself. Only on large hourly jobs do I use that machine. Any hourly job less than a day in length goes to the 440. It is productive, fast but I can make money with it. If mobility is not an issue the 465 will move almost twice as much material in the same time. The short of it is if you work by the square foot consistantly I think it makes you a sharper dirt tactician. I try to work as smart as I can, matching the machines to the job as well as the operator to the job. That is why productivity is a big thing for me. Fuel costing what it does working smarter is being taken to another level.

[tbi]

Bid it by the job. Put exclusions in the contract along with rock clause pricing. Your then covered and the customer has a firm price in place depending on what is found. Everyone should be comfortable then.

[bobcat_ron]

BC Ron, do you think thats what happened to your 190? It got possessed?


Maybe, but I'm pretty sure the Bobcat factory building is sitting on an Indian burial ground.

[ksss]

Maybe, but I'm pretty sure the Bobcat factory building is sitting on an Indian burial ground.

You are probably more right than you know. Have you ever been to Gwinner, ND? They still do Buffalo jumps every Summer for an Eagle Scout badge.