Stone Retaining Wall Sq Ft Cost?

landmark

I completed a job putting in 18-24" fieldstone retaining wall for a hillside addition. The length of the run was 130'L X 11 feet high. It required moving the stones with a skid steer through the woods and placing them on the compacted hillside so they fit together and looked appealing from the road(they are heavy!) lots of man hours and wear on my equipment. I could only use a smaller machine due to the customer not wanting to make a road through his woods any larger. The stones were carried about 100 yds from a pile in the ditch and then placed where needed. Does anyone have a per squre foot cost that they have used in the past for this type of work. It was very labor intesive but turned out nice. I agreed to do it by the hour plus materials because he was unsure of how much he wanted to do so a firm bid was not practical. I don't need cost of stone only labor, I'm just wondering for my own comparison, I have already been paid for my work and material.
thanks

RobertCDF

If you feel you made the right amount of money for this job and your time in it. Then be happy and figure your own SQ FT price from your pay and size then use it next time you need to bid something similar.

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Robert Shaw
Colorado Springs Custom Decks
Colorado Custom Decks
Custom Composite Decks

Always Greener

If you made what you wanted then you did good. If not then you need to work on what it will take to make a profit on your next bid. Don’t forget your not doing this for practice so make some money..

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www.alwaysgreenerlawn.com

Quote

Anytime I am faced with pricing something unknown like a boulder wall, I quote a labor rate for my forman and laborers. I tell the customer straight up, if you want a manufactured wall I can give you a square foot price. If you want boulders or fieldstone it depends on where they are coming from (bought in pallets or found on property)and the difficulty in making a properly stacked wall with them. The variables are too great for me to risk a square foot price sometimes.

If you think it would take a week with three workers to build your wall, estimate your labor rate and machinery for the week, and tell the customer that since this is a natural wall, it is not an exact quote. Oh yeah and always give yourself a buffer of time. You can always tell a customer "Great news, we finished early" rather than "uhh sorry, it looks like it will be a couple more days, can you pay me the extra thousand."

On a side, does anyone else get a little pissed off when customers try to press you to be exact on quotes for jobs that are not so cut and dry?