Cost per foot of fence

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Brute 23":1ocvhddh said:
The down side is right now EVERYONE seems to be getting in the fence building business. I bet there are 20 builders with in 30 miles of me right now. Grant it, some are better quality than others they are still cutting in to the market.

True enough. Things boom this time of the year. Nice weather and pockets full of tax returns keep the part-times busy.
Hot weather and slower times weed them out. I always advise folks. Don't hire someone who ask for money before their completely finished.. especially the ones that want money before they even start
 
callmefence":3817mlse said:
Brute 23":3817mlse said:
The down side is right now EVERYONE seems to be getting in the fence building business. I bet there are 20 builders with in 30 miles of me right now. Grant it, some are better quality than others they are still cutting in to the market.

True enough. Things boom this time of the year. Nice weather and pockets full of tax returns keep the part-times busy.
Hot weather and slower times weed them out. I always advise folks. Don't hire someone who ask for money before their completely finished.. especially the ones that want money before they even start

I'm with you. It's always cheaper to do it one time. I just wonder how many people share that sentament vs how many want it cheap and don't care.
 
callmefence":gnwr668f said:
Brute 23":gnwr668f said:
The down side is right now EVERYONE seems to be getting in the fence building business. I bet there are 20 builders with in 30 miles of me right now. Grant it, some are better quality than others they are still cutting in to the market.

True enough. Things boom this time of the year. Nice weather and pockets full of tax returns keep the part-times busy.
Hot weather and slower times weed them out. I always advise folks. Don't hire someone who ask for money before their completely finished.. especially the ones that want money before they even start

I can agree with that on small local jobs. Book one 9 months out for $300K, and you're gonna want to lock in some material or risk your margins going from black to red. The only way I know to do that is to collect material money up front, or borrow it. I ain't borrowing the cash to risk on someone else, and if I had the cash to float a job like that, I wouldn't even consider it.
 
Brute 23":sz530wf1 said:
callmefence":sz530wf1 said:
Brute 23":sz530wf1 said:
The down side is right now EVERYONE seems to be getting in the fence building business. I bet there are 20 builders with in 30 miles of me right now. Grant it, some are better quality than others they are still cutting in to the market.

True enough. Things boom this time of the year. Nice weather and pockets full of tax returns keep the part-times busy.
Hot weather and slower times weed them out. I always advise folks. Don't hire someone who ask for money before their completely finished.. especially the ones that want money before they even start

I'm with you. It's always cheaper to do it one time. I just wonder how many people share that sentament vs how many want it cheap and don't care.

Less than half see the value in doing it once, in my experience.
 
Farm Fence Solutions":3g5a7wbg said:
callmefence":3g5a7wbg said:
Brute 23":3g5a7wbg said:
The down side is right now EVERYONE seems to be getting in the fence building business. I bet there are 20 builders with in 30 miles of me right now. Grant it, some are better quality than others they are still cutting in to the market.

True enough. Things boom this time of the year. Nice weather and pockets full of tax returns keep the part-times busy.
Hot weather and slower times weed them out. I always advise folks. Don't hire someone who ask for money before their completely finished.. especially the ones that want money before they even start

I can agree with that on small local jobs. Book one 9 months out for $300K, and you're gonna want to lock in some material or risk your margins going from black to red. The only way I know to do that is to collect material money up front, or borrow it. I ain't borrowing the cash to risk on someone else, and if I had the cash to float a job like that, I wouldn't even consider it.

Well 300000 dollars I'd probably want to turn in a invoice every month on work completed. That's exactly what we do on commercial jobs.
But I can't see anyone giving money to someone who's not going to work for 9months. It's easy enough to talk about what happens if material goes up.
And if a customer pays 10grand for materials and they get put up wrong
Their still out the money.. right.
When I tell em I'll build your fence with my money.... you can see it in their face. It makes for a very easy sale and relationship.
 
callmefence":2tbjeuah said:
Farm Fence Solutions":2tbjeuah said:
callmefence":2tbjeuah said:
True enough. Things boom this time of the year. Nice weather and pockets full of tax returns keep the part-times busy.
Hot weather and slower times weed them out. I always advise folks. Don't hire someone who ask for money before their completely finished.. especially the ones that want money before they even start

I can agree with that on small local jobs. Book one 9 months out for $300K, and you're gonna want to lock in some material or risk your margins going from black to red. The only way I know to do that is to collect material money up front, or borrow it. I ain't borrowing the cash to risk on someone else, and if I had the cash to float a job like that, I wouldn't even consider it.

Well 300000 dollars I'd probably want to turn in a invoice every month on work completed. That's exactly what we do on commercial jobs.
But I can't see anyone giving money to someone who's not going to work for 9months. It's easy enough to talk about what happens if material goes up.
And if a customer pays 10grand for materials and they get put up wrong
Their still out the money.. right.
When I tell em I'll build your fence with my money.... you can see it in their face. It makes for a very easy sale and relationship.

That job will take just over a month to complete, and the customer wanted to lock in his price. The material is already sitting in his building. He won't pay any labor until it's complete and he's happy. The job we are on right now is just over a mile, and no deposit collected. It'll only take three days to complete, so no big deal. I've got half a dozen jobs that are done, and we haven't even mailed the bill yet, but they are all locals and good customers. Big contracts are a diffrent story, and anyone with a pile of cash big enough to high fence a thousand acres is smart enough to hedge a little cash against steel right now. A penny saved, is a penny earned. That part of it is just business. The insuring a quality job part comes from high praise and solid recomendations from past customers of ours that are friends or family of our new customers.
 
callmefence":2gevbupf said:
Farm Fence Solutions":2gevbupf said:
callmefence":2gevbupf said:
True enough. Things boom this time of the year. Nice weather and pockets full of tax returns keep the part-times busy.
Hot weather and slower times weed them out. I always advise folks. Don't hire someone who ask for money before their completely finished.. especially the ones that want money before they even start

I can agree with that on small local jobs. Book one 9 months out for $300K, and you're gonna want to lock in some material or risk your margins going from black to red. The only way I know to do that is to collect material money up front, or borrow it. I ain't borrowing the cash to risk on someone else, and if I had the cash to float a job like that, I wouldn't even consider it.

Well 300000 dollars I'd probably want to turn in a invoice every month on work completed. That's exactly what we do on commercial jobs.
But I can't see anyone giving money to someone who's not going to work for 9months. It's easy enough to talk about what happens if material goes up.
And if a customer pays 10grand for materials and they get put up wrong
Their still out the money.. right.
When I tell em I'll build your fence with my money.... you can see it in their face. It makes for a very easy sale and relationship.

Do you guys do any government jobs? We did a lot of railings for different government projects and lead time for getting paid was 3 to 6 months out.
 
True Grit Farms":3ajh7hyc said:
callmefence":3ajh7hyc said:
Farm Fence Solutions":3ajh7hyc said:
I can agree with that on small local jobs. Book one 9 months out for $300K, and you're gonna want to lock in some material or risk your margins going from black to red. The only way I know to do that is to collect material money up front, or borrow it. I ain't borrowing the cash to risk on someone else, and if I had the cash to float a job like that, I wouldn't even consider it.

Well 300000 dollars I'd probably want to turn in a invoice every month on work completed. That's exactly what we do on commercial jobs.
But I can't see anyone giving money to someone who's not going to work for 9months. It's easy enough to talk about what happens if material goes up.
And if a customer pays 10grand for materials and they get put up wrong
Their still out the money.. right.
When I tell em I'll build your fence with my money.... you can see it in their face. It makes for a very easy sale and relationship.

Do you guys do any government jobs? We did a lot of railings for different government projects and lead time for getting paid was 3 to 6 months out.
We do a few. Usually 30-60 days, but I've never worked for the feds.
 
True Grit Farms":27elj3zx said:
callmefence":27elj3zx said:
Farm Fence Solutions":27elj3zx said:
I can agree with that on small local jobs. Book one 9 months out for $300K, and you're gonna want to lock in some material or risk your margins going from black to red. The only way I know to do that is to collect material money up front, or borrow it. I ain't borrowing the cash to risk on someone else, and if I had the cash to float a job like that, I wouldn't even consider it.

Well 300000 dollars I'd probably want to turn in a invoice every month on work completed. That's exactly what we do on commercial jobs.
But I can't see anyone giving money to someone who's not going to work for 9months. It's easy enough to talk about what happens if material goes up.
And if a customer pays 10grand for materials and they get put up wrong
Their still out the money.. right.
When I tell em I'll build your fence with my money.... you can see it in their face. It makes for a very easy sale and relationship.

Do you guys do any government jobs? We did a lot of railings for different government projects and lead time for getting paid was 3 to 6 months out.

Quite a few actually. Nrcs, tdoc, VA , lots on Fort Hood army reservation. Admittedly on most of these I work on a subcontractor basis under a larger contractor. Typically you turn in at end of month, but it runs a month behind. So 60 days to get paid.

The longest it ever took me to get paid was a Walmart garden center. Took 6 months.
These days I mostly focus on my " little local jobs"
 
Any of you contactors own or ever owned a dozer to do fence clearing? When I called to get a fence built dozer was 4-6 weeks out fence builders 8-12 weeks out. Seems there is some money to be made if you could do both.
 
Lucky":2zgh9frt said:
Any of you contactors own or ever owned a dozer to do fence clearing? When I called to get a fence built dozer was 4-6 weeks out fence builders 8-12 weeks out. Seems there is some money to be made if you could do both.

JD 450 track loader. For cedar I think it's better than a dozer. But mostly it's what I got. I usually charge 1.00 a foot .
 
Lucky":1lpuwkmx said:
Any of you contactors own or ever owned a dozer to do fence clearing? When I called to get a fence built dozer was 4-6 weeks out fence builders 8-12 weeks out. Seems there is some money to be made if you could do both.

We take a 277B CAT skid steer with us to every job. Like Fence says, sometimes a loader is better than a dozer.... We can get most everyting 10" and smaller with it, and do a little road/bridge building when we need to. If there was an available labor force, I wouldn't mind to have a clearing crew, but it sounds like a bit of a headache for our small operation.
 
:hat: Biggest reason we started clearing ourselves is dozer operators seem to have real trouble cutting a straight line through the brush while staying on the right property.
Then there was the guy I found asleep in his truck. The dozer and hour meter still running....I says well at least you where honest....you said you were good at dozin. :hat:
 
Lucky":2jcbgzg0 said:
Any of you contactors own or ever owned a dozer to do fence clearing? When I called to get a fence built dozer was 4-6 weeks out fence builders 8-12 weeks out. Seems there is some money to be made if you could do both.

We work together with a brushing company that has a skid steer with a foresty mulcher. The mulcher pretty much eats through anything and does it fast. Impressive machine.

We used to do our own brushing with a tractor, bush hog, and chain saws. It didnt work out well. Like dad says, were fence builders, thats how we make our money, not clearing brush. I much prefer showing up to a job with a mulched down 20ft path. Poison ivy is not my friend.
 
$1.00 is right in line with cost around here for fence row. I have a dozer and a skid steer and they each have there place on fence clearing. I'm not a fan of mulchers. Everything looks really good at first but 6 months later the old problem starts to come back.
 
The last thing I want in East Texas is a bunch of mulch carpet on the ground that just retains moisture. Got enough soggy areas without that stinky soured mulch everywhere.
 
Lucky":tkv70gwn said:
$1.00 is right in line with cost around here for fence row. I have a dozer and a skid steer and they each have there place on fence clearing. I'm not a fan of mulchers. Everything looks really good at first but 6 months later the old problem starts to come back.

I can't stand them.

I've done jobs that have been mulched.
You couldn't even walk through the sticks. I feel down more in one day than my entire life combined. ..and I fall down quite a bit.

They mulched a power line row across my home place. The dam sticks are still there 10 years later.
 
Ground with heavy brush thats been mulched can definitely be slick. Not fun on a slope.

We have invasive Himalayan blackberries here. The vines get huge and can leave a big mess behind.

But the mulcher is still better than hacking at it with a chainsaw.

A dozer would make a better fence line, but then customer would still be left with brush piles. Some of the places we fence there just aint no room for brush piles and a cleared fence line.
 

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