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Hello, this is our house  (prius since replaced with a 4x4).One thing that came up on the home inspection before we bought it, is that the 20 year old retaining wall is bulging, and that the 20 year old buried pipe drainage system has heaved, is cracked in places, and hydrostatic pressure pushes water into the basement in most of the corners. At present, it's not a tremendous amount of water, but clearly the whole thing needs to be re-done. So, none of this shocks us. Because of the proximity of the retaining wall to the house, the first excavator we've spoken to believes it would be easiest to deal with both problems at the same time, which also makes sense to us. We are looking at having the wall replaced with stepped concrete block or stone, which is cheaper and also more to my wife's liking. The person we got a quote from is someone I have a fairly extensive relationship with as far as having all sorts of other work done, and I believe that all other things being equal, we will probably go with this person. But, it's a large amount of money ($15K). I am going to be soliciting more quotes locally, but I wanted to just post the estimate I got here to see what the forum thinks. Note that we are in VT and some things do tend to be a bit more expensive here than some other places, at least as far as materials go; dragging poo poo up into the mountains takes gas (we're at 1500'+).  I'm going to say that the dimensions of the house are something like 35x45'. Rocky, uneven terrain, severely sloped. Cabbages and Kings fucked around with this message at 19:12 on May 14, 2019 |
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May 14, 2019 16:02
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 16:32 |
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Your estimate shows Q's but no units. Kinda hard to sanity check if we don't know the scope. For example, cubic feet and cubic yards are different by a factor of 27.
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May 17, 2019 19:08
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I'd also ask about the 44 hrs of CAT 315 (the excavator) but only 12 hours of other labor? Maybe that $125/hr includes a helper too? That's a pretty big excavator, and I'd be surprised if it needs 56 hrs in total, but they could also be charging for every working day it's on site, which isn't unreasonable since it can't be used on another job or they are still paying to rent it. It never hurts to ask about an estimate and (good) contractors shouldn't get their feelings hurt about you asking. It also helps you make sure you are comparing apples to apples when you get different quotes.
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May 18, 2019 01:05
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Echoing the above - I would ask if they could break down the heavy equipment rental cost vs the operator labor - heavy equipment like excavators and dump trucks rent by the day or by the week. Sure he is charging you operator costs hourly but they should be able to show you a more descriptive breakdown.
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May 19, 2019 05:32
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All those numbers look right on the money. If you trust the contractor and he’s not going to change order you to death it’s a good quote.
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May 28, 2019 11:03
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