where io work a new guy just started after having to sell his bobcat and truck folding up his business as there is a lot of people now in the game and he couldnt make a dollar after costs , so just be carefull with your hard earned dollars , do lots of homework

RUSS & SANDY

"A family that fishes together stays together"

cheers russ - yeah when i first start looking at such a venture a couple of years ago the industry was going great guns - seemed to be heaps of work around! Now its a different story.... hence trying to talk to as much people as i can who are in this line or work. 

this new guy - did he mention if he was only operating a bobcat or was he running an excavator aswell?

 but we got good friends in Broome who own Bob cat & small digger, they just can't keep up with the work, father and son compo plus they do reticulation.  Their main work is putting in swimming pools.  The last time I spoke to them they are the only ones with bobcat/digger in Broome.  Maybe the go is country town. Might pay to do some digging (sorry for the pun) around good size country town.

SPEWIE LEWIE (not for much longer)

Cockburn Power Boat Member

speak to spess mate he is on the sight and should be able to help you out

proud user of xzoga rods

Wayne

Have been doing soakwells and drainage for over 20years. Last 5 have been great however it is drying up at the moment for the blow ins who started doing work during the boom. (No offence to you at all, there are just alot of guys who come in, do crap work whilst money is good and then dissappear ) . There are also alot of guys with mini excavators etc around now and are a dime a dozen to get.

There are alot of guys who are doing the same stuff and rates have plunged for your standard work and unless you are specialising in large tanks (above 1200x1200 which your machine cannot move), commercial property and have a reputation as doing quality work, then its difficult to make money. I use a guy for all of my digging etc as it doesnt warrant me to stuff around with the outlay for purchase of machinery, maintenance costs , storage issues ,time expended etc when you look at their hourly rate. 

Unless you have the work lined up and contacts in the industry then I would be very very careful about getting into such a venture.   

Cheers

Michael

(West Coast Drainage)  

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your detailed replies and PMs!  

Robert – that’s interesting what your mate has said.  I have heard similar things in towns like exmouth – eg, not being able to get contractors in.  Perhaps I could combined an exxy fishing trip and work into one;)

Michael - it's good to hear from someone with such experience.  It's interesting that you use someone else to do your digging - can I ask what he charges?  I've heard the going rate for excavators (eg, 1.6 tonne) is $75-80 p/hr with a minimum of 4hrs - would this be correct?

In regards to having work lined up - I don't have immediate work lined up though I still get weekly enquiries through previous advertising mediums. I used to do brick paving etc, and put in soakwells manually though I went from this to roof plumbing as I found digging the soakwell holes manually was too time consuming and not very efficient.  From the advertising I setup prior to switching to roof plumbing I still get 2-3 enquiries a week for soakwell installations - hence my reason for re-considering the excavation / drainage side of things.

What about installing pool backwash systems / septic tanks / water tanks etc – have you had much experience with this?

Cheers

Wayne

Have installed way too many septic leach drain systems over the years, but not many lately as most is sewer work / conversions. Back wash systems etc are all part of the service, mainly hook up into existing soakwell systems. Dont do rainwater tanks but was looking at it. 

 The guy I use is a per job rate and half of what others charge due to quantity of work and working together for a long time . another plus is that I just get the tanks delivered and he installs without me needing to be onsite and he has a good touch, meaning he can feel when he is touching a pipe (gas / water /power/sewer etc) before he breaks it. 

Make sure you get PL insurance !!!  Hit a Telstra fibre optic cable and you will be selling your machine to pay for the repairs !!  

i do concrette and work is steady ,but it is slowing down

Hi Guys,

I'm the GM of a home building company in Perth and we use Bobcats for our sitecleans generally instead of bins. The cost is about double what most builders would pay for bins and since the name and shame campaign added 'dob in a dumper' a lot less neighbours rubbish is filling the bins which will also add to their price advantage over general site cleans. (We find we get minimal dumping on an open building site with a pile of rubble compared to bins). We have been reviewing our siteclean policy recently and may swich to bins also on some sites where there are advantages.

For our stormwater generally we install 2 x 1200x1200 soakwells to the front of the property including pipework etc and open connections to the DP's the plumbers charge us a flat $2000+GST. Not sure if that'll help you work back to your Hrly rate.

Work wise, most builders are hurting in the $350k+ range of homes. First home buyers are still booming but are dropping margins due to faster completion times (supplier prices are not dropping - just thought i'd squash that absurd rumour). FHB builders generally use bins for all rubbish so only get a bobcat in for a blade and final clean and paving prep.

The industry should remain fairly consistant for the rest of this year with possible recovery in 2010 but it's too early to say what will happen globally and how that will affect our local market.

If anyone was thinking of starting a new venture in construction this year i'd warn against it. Wait 12 months and reassess it then.