I just looked at a job replacing 6x6 timbers that surround a brick walkway. Approx. 360' of timber. The old timbers are starting to rot but most pieces should come out without crumbling. Looks like a fairly east replacement. Have never really done much of this type of work and was wondering how to bid this, should it be by estimated time and material or are there linear foot methods for this? Thanks for any help.
Hello, I would bid it like this, though this is what it would cost me: Timber removal. Would subcontract it out. Will get a bobcat mini-excavator, with the 'thumb' on the bucket for grbbing hold of the ties, and a tandem to dump them in (20 yd capacity) Price for the machine and truck would be $750.00 for the day (if it doesn't take that long, maybe less) and then a fee for the disposal of the ties. Can get rid of a truckload for around $200, so if there is more than one truckload, would cost a little more. When you say 360', is that the length, and if so, how tall is the wall? Need to get a better idea to be of any more help. However, if the job just requires the removal of the ties and disposal of them, I would say around $1500-$2000 as a rough guess, but really don't know without more info on the amount of wall, the location of the wall, and location. If the wall is 360' and 4 ft tall, then that is a lot of wall to remove, and the price will be signifigantly higher. A lot higher......... If any clean up work is then required, then that would be extra, ie. if they want the site graded out, extra top soil/stone brought in, or what not. For now, I will have to say we need more info on the job to really get a feel for the bidding. This is really a shot in the dark so far. steveair
Thanks for the reply. The 6x6's are holding a walkway in place on a flat residental property. Total height is 6". The measurement above is total length of existing timbers that hold the walkway in place. My cost for dumping is $32 per 1000 lbs. I hope this is enough information. No excavation is neccessary. This should be an easy replacement.
Chip, I would change them over to a paver restraint system like Pave-Tech edging http://www.pavetech.com It would be a one time fix that the home owners would like.
SELL THEM SOME KIND OF WALL BLOCK TO USE AS A RETAINER FOR THE WALKWAY, IT'LL NEVER NEED REPLACEMENT AGAIN AND YOU'LL PROBABLY BE ABLE TO GET MORE FOR LABOR.
If the 6x6's are restraining the brick walk, when you pull them out you're going to disturb the brick work, which will then need repair. Depending on what kind of shape the base is in, maybe it'd be better to redo the whole thing. As for material to replace the timbers, that would depend on the site; Do they have timbers as an integral part of their landscape? If so, it might be a good choice to replace with timbers again, so long as they understand that they'll be calling you out again in time to fix again. If they want a permanent solution, the suggestions of retaining wall block or edge restraint are probably best. One will be miles different in cost from the other, but both will do the trick (and leave you with very different looks).
Depending on what part of the country, you will have to watch out that the timbers don't rise in the winter due to water freezing under them. I used 6x4's to restrain a brick sidewalk at home, only to have them lift a few inches out after a heavy freeze. These timbers also had pieces of rebar 4 feet long driven into the soil every 8 feet, yet still lifted. So just be aware of this depending on where you work.
