This 2 part series includes Paver Patio pricing, base material pricing & demolition . We show the work and at the end of this 2 part series (next Vid) we show how to price this out.
A little flashback to the old DirtMonkey 4-5 years ago. Definitely appreciate the educational pricing content. Watching your videos over the years have helped me be confident doing projects on the side so much that I’m finally taking the leap next spring. Steel Toe U definitely isn’t as good as it was before. No content on retaining walls, demolition, excavation etc. Thank you for being a great teacher
@@Dirtmonkey the content you’re putting out right now is awesome! Tons of little tips and tricks on how to. I’m excited to see more of the estimating and pricing included as well. I personally would like to see estimating on Boulder wall and landscape rock settings that you do. I know you don’t do much demolition anymore, but it would also be nice to listen to you talk about and explain some of the factors to look for or think about when doing any type of demolition. And as always, just keep being The Dirt Monkey🤙🏾
I'm one state over in Wisconsin. I would have charged $300,000.00 and been done in a couple days. Easy money. I have seen the videos you were referencing. 😂
Ive learned so much from both of your channels its not even funny. Thanks for the insane knowledge and great videos. I look up to both of you guys keep up the videos!!!!!
I love videos like this when you show how to build and price a project. Keep on including info on how you price stuff. It's helpful to us guys starting out in the industry.
So glad you're doing this type of video. I often wondered how you billed for your projects. The funny thing is that I just hired a contractor to do work at my house that watches your videos which actually made me feel better about hiring him. He even mentioned that he saw you at a recent industry event. I hope you realize how your videos help not only other contractors but homeowners hiring contractors. Hopefully, my contractor employs some of your workmanship on my project. Shoutout to Dalton (my contractor) if you read this.
That 300,000 job in 3 weeks sounds like another you tuber who constantly talks about how much a job is. It's like no body cares just do the job and get an with it. Appreciate your honesty as always Stan
Yes please add more job estimating, it helps me learn to better my estimates. Also my dad David loved the video you made for him on my wifes phone, ty so much again for doing that!
Love this style of videos Stan ! Singlehandedly running a 2 year old business at the age of 21 years old this helps me a lot to keep up with my local competitors pricing and put more money in Profits. Thankyou.
Yes sir, we little guys need all the help we can get. Everyone seems so tight lipped about pricing and how to do things. That and I've watched all your old how to videos 3 or 4 times each now.
@@Dirtmonkey I agree with @greenswood Brush Hogging. I learned a lot about pricing and how to install, from your older videos, and enjoy them very much. This educational style of videos are great.
@@Dirtmonkey if it's even half as educational as the older videos, it'll still be 200 times better than the mass majority of the others. I fully understand why some of it shouldn't be shared, but you even share some of that. I've literally based my pricing around your old videos, obviously adjusted to my business, and it's help me grow considerably as well. Now I just need to work on the filming and being on camera aspect of things to share what I've learned as well. We're all one huge team and sharing the knowledge certainly won't hinder your ability to grow. Even on a local scale, working together with other businesses in the same fields. Just as you've said countless times in your videos.
I would love to see more bidding breakdowns in your videos, it very helpful to see how different areas of the country prices fluctuate. Great video and love the content.
cool video. another thing you could talk about is a custom patio like this perhaps, or they pick out a patio package or preset design from the store and pricing on that
I am a young contractor just getting up and running this year.. Definitely more pricing guides in your videos! I have watched every single video of yours for the past year or so! I even incorporated some of your techniques in my projects. Great stuff man! With winter coming, maybe a vidoe on some ice and snow control estimating? Ive got tons of questions on that! And seasonal vs monthly vs per event contracts.. Another question, I've looked into past videos about your website, did you sell it out or is it no longer maintained? I noticed you saying you had info on there too! But couldn't find much?
@@Dirtmonkey Sweet! Looking forward to it! I think RU-vid is a great source of information for younger people like me starting out. So it's definitely nice to have gurus like you that take the time to make these videos pretty consistently. Every bit helps!
Thanks bunches Stan! I love how you treat people with kindness and respect and maintain a level of excellence that reaches worksheets the bar of excellence. May you and yours continue to be abundantly blessed with all that's good
Thank you very much boss-man for keeping it real and helping people like myself and others 🙌 👏 much appreciated. Keep up the great work and content it has been such a blessing.
ive been doing various construction work for my stone wall projects for the last 10-15 years or so. my first stone project was done in summer of 07, rebuilding a dry stack stone wall that had some hydraulic pressure pushing out the upper layers int he center. since then ive learned a few things about building and soil compaction, and i learned really early on that whatever i am compacting has to be slightly damp to compact, but not too wet to by mushy and just turn into soup. just the other day i had my contractor friend ive been working with for all these years over to mix and pour a whole pallet of concrete. used a nice barrel mixer, and we did that whole pallet in about 2 hours haha.
@@Dirtmonkey haha, we sure do try to! one year we had to pull out a previous stone stairway we had built. it had begun to slump due to a previously unknown drain pipe that was draining into nowhere next to the foundation. so, we ended up, or i, ended up digging out along the foundation, by hand, under the next section of foundation (at ground level) to get a drainage pipe through to the lawn, and then out another 100-200 feet to an area that woudlnt be driven on etc. and was beyond the lawn. i used my tractors backhoe to dig the majority of the trench, but i did the last 25 feet by hand down about 2 feet or so. then we had to grind down an outcrop so we could fit the pipe into a certain spot where otherwise it woudl be blocking the outdoor entrance to the basement. (lots of hits in Vermont lol) so, after i used a diamond flattening bit for my angle grinder, we where able to get the pipe in, then cover it with fabric and fill in the trench. it was mid summer too haha. hot but fun work. i had some piles of slate, stone we are using for the building project of the stone walls... i decided to hand sort every piece using an 8x11 inch crate as a minimum size reference, so i had two main piles. a +crate size, and a minus-crate size. but i had to move about 50 yards worth of stone, half by hand, and the rest with my tractor bucket. then, i decided to hand sift the small dirt and gravels to remove it from my main pile, and built a 2x2 foot frame using maple boards, and a 3/4 mesh expanded metal screen. it fit on my bucket perfectly, so i shoveled by hand over the screen and let the larger stuff flow into a plastic tub that i coudl sort through later. then i just took the filtered stuff that fell through the screen to a different pile i may process again later for good dirt haha. a lot of the work im doing solo, but the stacking, and mixing and pouring of the main project i have a crew helping me, but i do the prep work and material handling side of the stone, concrete, and re bar between sessions. its a bit of a functional art, so its taken a long time, with weather and materials delays. and my contractor guy has many other jobs too, as his main income so we schedule for his convenience. lots fo fun work, and we have more to do. i would love to show you my progress some time, if you have a facebook for your channel as well.
That sounds like the life of a landscaper. The work we do is intensly hard under brutal conditions. A true landscaper has war stories just like yours.👊👍
4K would be an awesome price. I just had a guy out (In Massachusetts) who wanted 8K 10 rework a 15 year old patio (odd shape but about 150-200 sq ft total) to accommodate an above ground pool. I'm going to watch a bunch of youtube videos like this and try it myself for that price!
Honestly, as a homeowner, I understand you have costs for equipment and basic labor. Those I want a fair price, and I am not looking for penny pinching just honest. But I admire the art of what you are doing and willing to pay big artist prices for a job done right and beautifully. Which is what I think is the flaw of so much of the construction trades, they price like it is paint by number, but the real world wants reasonable replica of The Mona Lisa.
I like all your vids but these are the ones I like most. The hows, whys and - how do you come to that by way of thinking. Def looking forward to more of these.
There is an entire industry behind the psychology of marketing a company. It was something I got to delve into in college, even though I studied criminal Psychology. Some refer to it as the "Steve Jobs Effect". Suffice to say that much of your local pricing originated from a lot more than a spreadsheet, material and labor costs. But it would take a rather long video to explain what it is much less HOW to do it. I can say, you are on the right track.
You nailed it. Pricing is beyond the estimate and competetive rates. Its understanding why people buy and how to justify your nnumbers from that perspective.
Question #1. Why such a big price difference between commercial/residential? Okay that is the only question that I have for this video. It was great seeing you last week at GIE and I enjoyed talking to those new subscribers/fans with you. We were even talking about other areas of landscaping and business after you left.
Those are the competetive rates between commercial and residential. Those big commercial contractors kept beating each other up on pricing until the margins were next to nothing.
@@Dirtmonkey I will call you on the next big clean out. I did a small clean out today that was only 4 hrs. Just remove 3 couches, wood and stuff. the house is on the market. Nothing major or RU-vid worthy. I told the main guy that I work for who is a property investor about you and your request. He was excited. I talked you up and told him I will vouch for this guy and there is nothing to worry about. I will let you know when they get a good clean out. You never know what they are going to buy at the auctions. lol And on your video we have to do the unthinkable. We have to open the fridge on video. lol You know what I am talking about.
Hey STAN! We met at GIE my names Mister. 7 years ago you did a video on PRICING retaining walls, I would like to request an UPDATED video on pricing retaining walls just like you did with this one about Paver Patios. Thanks! - Mister's Lawn Care & Landscaping LLC
Stan I agree you can charge by Sq ft as a guideline but you know as well as I do if you have done it long enough there is always those extras and expenses on every job I always add extra day for cleanup of site. And I usually ask the customer if looking for the cheapest price and I tell them I can guarantee that my bid won’t be after all said and done it’s not free work
You should consider a larger compactor (minimum 7000lb compaction force/per icpi standards) for your soil and aggregate compaction and the 5000lb for the pavers. You have taught me so much through the years I am just trying to re-pay a bit.
We got that to. We just never know whats going on under ground around here. Some places are pure clay- others are sugar sand. Sometimes its blackish soil. Never know what to expect.
bikephil: You beat me to that..... Same here in central NC. I got a load of "premium topsoil", which consisted of fist sized clods of red crap. I was not amused....
Great vid. Love these kinds of vids. They provide us home owners a great insight into what hired projects "should" cost, especially with more custom elements like you discussed (deeper base, custom cuts, etc).
@@Dirtmonkey not saying those aren't good machines and I've ran some of them, but I feel scag is built better and more comfortable. Have you ever tried one?
Beautiful patio.. but dang that sounds expensive 😕 😆. I desperately need a new patio. I just can't even decide what I want so I procrastinate 😩 and spend the money on something else.. this year I trimmed my ginormous tress so they didn't fall on anyone's head...
Some landscaping will increase the value of your property enough to compensate for the cost of the project. BUT thats a fine line. Meaning- sometime it works that way- other times no.
I was questioning your knowledge when I seen your labour's not wetting the soil while compacting but then you mentioned it lol, now I'm just questioning if you caught them before you put your gravel ?
It is actually understandable for residential property to be more expensive than commercial. The area you are covering is normally much greater in commercial jobs while the cost of the jobs doesn't increase proportionately to the size of the job. You can afford to charge less per sqf than on residential. A lot of the costs involved are logistics rather than labour. Especially when you take the fact that more time is wasted in transportation when you are changing job sites on a weekly basis.
Stan Did you ever think of putting all your paver patio together in a downloadable file or a dvd for a guy that wants to learn or for a boss to show a new guy for a price ?
One trick Ive done in the past is to email the competition from a pseudonym email and phony address looking for various quotes. Of course, if you're tight with your competition you can just ask them what they charge but it's just as easy to be a random tire kicker.
So a 20x20 paver patio would be $10k at $25 a square foot. Yet on Long Island it’s probably over $30k on a advertised special. Yes materials overhead and labor are more but profit margins are astronomically high on pavers. One of the reasons there are so many DIYers .
At the end of the day, do you ever just look at a job bid/quote and say "that's just way too high for a job like this, we can't charge that!!" and do you "adjust?
Hey hey hey stan, how have been things been, you sure have Ben very busy, so how was the GIE, and how was Vegas, i am dyin to know. i had a great day at school, i go all the energy up and enlightened so many people. Usually Monday is sad n gloomy, but i think my positive attitude may have played a roll n changing it. And today we made something called apple pork chops, they actually weren’t that bad, and tomorrow he said were gonna make some empanadas, never had them but i have herd their good. Oh stan, i got my snowblower parts in, we got a new auger belt and a new drive belt, we have a pretty old MTDX yard machines snow blower. It’s got. 24 inch intake and it needed new belts, tthe old ones had started to dry rot, and so now we just have to get oil, I’m still debating whether or not to get synthetic or jut regular old oil,. I also need to get paint to paint over the rust, and then i need to get some ceramic guard, i might get McGuire ceramic coating, i am hoping the now wont stick as bad when i apply it. I’m gonna recommend it to my neighbor who ha a snow plow and that he should ceramic coat his plow so the snow doesn’t stick to it as much. But yeah stan, that’s pretty much everything. That’s happened so far, or goner for NJ just declared a state of emergency as well fr this upcoming Nor’easter that we’re getting, it goes in effect at 8:00pm EST but i do not know how long it will last. My only thing, i wish it were 30 degrease colder and the ground were frozen, then we would be talking about a nice snowstorm, but sadly this one will just be rain.oh and stan, i tried that commercial blower in the yard today, we own about five acres, but three is what we manage along with paths into the woods. Well i have great news, it accomplish 3/4 of that, it could have lasted longer but i had lots of leaves and they were building up so i had to turbo a few times, i started just after 3:30 and didn’t finish till 6:00pm. I thought that aunt bad for the amount of ground and leaves i covered and blowed. Now if it doesn’t rain tomorrrow when. I get home from school, i am gonna hit the front yard up and clean it up and then i will be done. But stan, you have a great night, god bless and go get em, your pal and friend Alexander costa
@@Dirtmonkey pray we get thirty feet of snow lol, yees actually i think we will get a good snowed winter, they say when their is a warm October, their is a cold and snowy winter that follows
What type of drain pipe do you use? Do you charge a mobilization fee for each machine and a de-mobe fee as well? And what about cleaning up machines after a big project is that looped in too
the scale of the jobs. A small landscaping or retaining wall project for us was around $100,000 or so. Thats very typical on larger commercial projects. Then we switched to residential and that same $100,000 is a massive residential project.
Great content as always. With inflation and such, what are you seeing nowadays for residential paver projects per square foot in the St. Paul area? (Front yard, easy access, already excavated and did the concrete sidewalk removal is complete) A contractor asked for $45 sq/ft and my eyes about popped after having watched videos like these from you.
@@carlindurfee7566 I asked because I had gotten a little sidetracked due to some medical issues that cropped up and had started the project myself. Thankfully it was a relatively easy fix (antibiotics). Didn't hear back from the OP, but with being on the mend, I finished the project last fall, about a week before our first snowfall here in MN. Had my dad and brother help with the finishing touches. Dad did the radial cuts on the curves with the soldier course while I made cuts on the pavers to finish off the interior where needed. Brother was an all around gopher. All in all, it turned out beautifully and ended up costing half of what the initial estimate was. We had a massive tree that we we had already taken down in the garden area of the project and thought there was only a root ball to take out in order to clear the space of all root/organic matter. Turned out, the trunk of the tree was still in the ground, buried about 5 feet deep, despite having been ground down. The quote before discovering that the root ball wasn't at the surface was $25K. The total bill would have easily been $30k having to take out the trunk below grade and take out the root ball, which was easily 6-7' below grade. Whenever I take on a DIY project, part of the calculation is to do rental vs. buying. Some things you have to rent and other things it's worth buying. All in all, I'd say the project got done at about $15K, far below the initial estimate, much less with the stump removal below grade, and, I now have extra tools to use for further projects! 🥳🥳🥳
Hey stan ive been following the channel for a while now and notice you compact the sand now and in previous videos you made clear not to touch the sand once it has been screeded , what changed? , just curious
