Dozer work... anyone care to bid?

[SiteSolutions]

I'm trying to organize a soccer field for my kids' school. I say "organize" because so far it has been more about finding people to hire to do the work than me actually doing much of anything. It's semi-personal, because I went to school there K-12, and my folks have worked there for 40 years. It's a private school and they are on a tight budget.

So anyway, the field has a 1' foot crown in the middle, and what we want is to have steady fall all the way across it. That is, instead of falling both ways from the middle, fall all one way from the east side to the west side, where there is an open ditch. We could bring up the east side two feet by bringing in 70+ loads of dirt, but the top soil on the site is so thick that we are planning to just cut down the west side and middle and push the spoils to the east side. I am guessing this will mean about an 8" cut at the west side through the middle and a 16" fill at the edge of the east side.

The field is about 70 yds x 125 yds. I am thinking this can be done with a dozer. A big dozer with a good operator could probably do it in one long day? Two days? A finish dozer may take two days or??

Anybody with dozer experience, please chime in. I just got the first quote back from a big local contractor, and it was a real deal killer... like 7 or 8 times what I have in the budget. I am now looking at either talking a buddy into doing it cheap (he's got a good size contracting co, and his kids also go to the school) or renting a dozer and doing it myself. I can get my hands on a finish dozer, probably nothing bigger than a D4 sized machine. I won't make a bunch of money on it, but it is more important to get the job done. (They have given me a bunch of other jobs on other parts of the school where the budget is a little more reasonable and the work has been / will be profitable.)

So, any opinions on this job?

[bearmtnmartin]

It seems like a 450 or 550 would get that done in a long day or a day and a half. Its a 210 foot push going to the short side, so not too bad. So $110/hr X 15 hrs = $1650 plus $150 lowbed sounds close? What kind of prices are you getting?

[SiteSolutions]

The first company came in at about 15,000. ;) :confused:

I was thinking I could do it for about 2,000 - 2,500 but I'm not really a dozer operator and I could see problems if things didn't go just right.

My buddy just told me he'll do it for 2,000 and that includes using GPS so it will be within a tenth, and I don't have to have it staked.:clapping:

I must not have used good english explaining it to the first guy. :laugh:

[Scag48]

Dang, I'd give it to your buddy for $2K. That's a bargain if he's using GPS, the time and energy involved with getting the model set up to run the GPS he'll almost be losing money on that deal.

[Gravel Rat]

Do you have any pictures ?

If the ground isn't too hard a large road grader could do that job. You get a machine like a 14G Cat it can move allot of material.

The first company charging 15 grand must be off their rocker.

[SiteSolutions]

Yeah, my buddy is going to do it, no contest. The engineering is already paid for, so I just gotta give the numbers to my buddy and let er rip.

[punt66]

People around here wouldnt touch that at 2k. That would be a 10k job all day here.

[SiteSolutions]

People around here wouldnt touch that at 2k. That would be a 10k job all day here.

It is probably nothing more than 20 hours of dozer work. If you can get $500/hr for a single D6, more power to ya!

And yes, my buddy is taking a small hit but the school will hook him up when he wants to send his boys to the summer camp.

[punt66]

It is probably nothing more than 20 hours of dozer work. If you can get $500/hr for a single D6, more power to ya!

And yes, my buddy is taking a small hit but the school will hook him up when he wants to send his boys to the summer camp.

Thats the rate up here. Its a different market. Its a $600 lowbed bill just to get it there. It needs to be surveyed, staked, permits, insurance, bonded, etc, etc.

[SiteSolutions]

Yeah, I could see myself trying to charge a lot more than 2,000 for a similar job, but this is a mile from both bidders' yards, the first bidder already agreed to blade the grass off for me for a reasonable rate, the entire site is under construction so all the permits, engineering, silt fence is already in place. The engineering is already paid for; I was going to have it staked out for the first contractor; my buddy already has the GPS on his dozer and has been using computers for grading for ten years so it isn't a big deal to him... I tried to tell him not to worry about making it too precise, just cheap, and he said it was easier to do it with the GPS. He said the stakes would just slow him down, so I will have the already-paid-for engineers come out and check it after he's done instead of staking it before he starts. Plus, as mentioned, his kids go to school here, too, and there's a little back-scratching going on.

I still think 15,000 was nuckin futs. Maybe 4,500, or even 6,000. Maybe. It is the easiest dozer job ever, just push dirt up hill for a few hours. Let the GPS do the work.

[punt66]

It always takes longer then expected. Who is going to rake it out?

[2004F550]

Yea punt66 is right, thats atleast 10,000 here.

[SiteSolutions]

It always takes longer then expected. Who is going to rake it out?

The job is dozer work only. It's all good topsoil, a very thick layer. After the rough grade is on it, the sod farm is coming down to sprig it, which involves tilling up the top 6 inches or so and eventually dragging it with an I-beam. Leaving the rough grade within a tenth of a foot should be overkill.

And, yes, I agree, I always call it "the #1 rule of contracting: sh1t happens" so on jobs where something might happen, I try to account for it. I really think that this can get done in a day if nothing happens and the second day is the cushion. We'll have to see. I think it will work out good for everybody.

[punt66]

Good luck with your project. I hope it all turns out well for you. Let us know how it goes.