day help and Jersey

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tonyou812

tonyou812

Senior Member
Location
North New Jersey
Has anyone ever used day labor dudes, I mean amigos. The fellas you see hanging out on rt 46 or Morristown?

I had a job today that involved about an 80 foot trench and I thought It would be a piece of cake but it wound up kicking my a$$. I just got home. It made me wonder how great it would be to have some help once in a while.

What is the going rate for someone to dig a trench? Hourly rate times time. I was just kidding about the amigos. Im sure there are plenty of high school/college kids looking for some fun summer work. What would be a reasonalble rate of pay for a trench say 50 by 18"?
 
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westelectric

Senior Member
Location
westchester county, NY
New York, not far from the city, they want anywhere from 80-150 a day. Depends on what they are going to be doing, how late in the morning it is. They seem to hold out for more money until they see that the contractors are not showing up too often then they lower there price. Bill them out at whatever you bill out your helper for the day. It's a shame that there arent too many young kids that will do this for a hundred bucks. 50ft x 18in trench will probably take 2 guys 4 to 6 hours neat and clean, cut the grass and put it back like they were never there. Trench only shovel width. Unfortunetly I have to use this type of labor alot.
 
tonyou812

tonyou812

Senior Member
Location
North New Jersey
it was 80 feet and i did it in ok time but it wasnt very pretty. Lots of rocks and the grass was long and it was like clay more than dirt.Next time I think im gonna put the dirt on tarps. and just roll it into the trench. Oh and the other thing is I wont walk on it making hard to shovel up again.
 
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westelectric

Senior Member
Location
westchester county, NY
Depending on how long its going to sit on the tarp may be a problem. Will probably kill the grass under it. Seriously, some of these guys will dig the trench and backfill and the ho wont be able to tell where the trench was. All this while you're sitting back sipping on lemonade.
 
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satcom

Senior Member
tonyou812 said:
Has anyone ever used day labor dudes, I mean amigos. The fellas you see hanging out on rt 46 or Morristown?

I had a job today that involved about an 80 foot trench and I thought It would be a piece of cake but it wound up kicking my a$$. I just got home. It made me wonder how great it would be to have some help once in a while.

What is the going rate for someone to dig a trench? Hourly rate times time. I was just kidding about the amigos. Im sure there are plenty of high school/college kids looking for some fun summer work. What would be a reasonalble rate of pay for a trench say 50 by 18"?
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Find a good local landscape contractor, that is fully insured and you can look at some of the work they did, just do the same as any GC would do, mark-up his price 50 to 100%
 
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s.sparkomatic.r09

Member
I don?t use guys like that for my day jobs???But I just picked up some of em for some real-estate that I bought for next to nothing. I got some guys from the parking lot, heck we filled up two big dumpsters a day until the whole building was down to the studs. I worked right along next to em because I didn?t trust em at first. I picked em up the first day, they showed up for the rest of the days. I bought lunch, break, and smokes. Paid cash to them 120.00 a day.

I have respect for those guys really hard working. Most have families, and go to church. The tired, poor and the outcast????outcast, I think they cast themselves out to get a better life. I wouldn?t rip em off or anything. Kinda sad that they don?t have more means????.NMP

I would not use them at my day jobs because that is noticeable and then somebody could say "hey you pay those guys nothing" "how about I don't pay you nothing?"
 
LLSolutions

LLSolutions

Senior Member
Location
Long Island, NY
Machine

Machine

A Nice vermeer goes for about $120 a day on Long Island, and you don't break any state or federal laws, plus ditch witches don't sue contractors.
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
jrannis said:
We always considered digging trenches "our work". I would not consider giving it away to day laborers.
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I have always considered digging as 'anyones job but mine'.

Happily almost all our excavation is 'by others'. :cool:
 
ultramegabob

ultramegabob

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
If its a long trench in an open area, I just rent a trencher. Most of the time, I can return it and get a half day rate. If there is something about the trench that makes it not practicle to rent a trencher (length, tight area, or on a hill) I know a couple of young guys (American citizens) that do odd jobs that I have called for trenching when I am pressed for time on a job. I dont pay them by the hour, I ask them what they want for digging the trench. Its funny how much longer it takes for someone to dig a trench when they are getting paid by the hour, lol.....
 
peter d

peter d

Senior Member
Location
New England
iwire said:
I have always considered digging as 'anyones job but mine'.

Happily almost all our excavation is 'by others'. :cool:
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The pretty much describes how we do things in this area (southern New England). We have enough things to do with our electrical work already to be bothered with digging trenches. And as Bob said all of the site work will be done by the excavating or site contractor and included in their bid.

I realize it's different elsewhere but that's how it goes around here.
 
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Mr.Sparkle

Mr.Sparkle

Senior Member
Location
Jersey Shore
Hehehe Tony even though I reside near the shore I did a job a few years ago in Mahwah that required some trenching.....the joke was "Mahwah, that must be Indian for rock." I'm pretty lucky down here, mostly sandy soil, I usually can push ground rods in about 7 feet by hand.
 
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jrannis

jrannis

Senior Member
Location
Fort Lauderdale/ Miami
iwire said:
I have always considered digging as 'anyones job but mine'.

Happily almost all our excavation is 'by others'. :cool:
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Seems like by the time you lay it out and then have to clean it out you may as well do it yourself.
We have electricians with "equipment operator" stamped on their journeyman's ticket which works out well for a machine. As a back-up we have apprentices with picks and shovels.
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
jrannis said:
Seems like by the time you lay it out and then have to clean it out you may as well do it yourself.
We have electricians with "equipment operator" stamped on their journeyman's ticket which works out well for a machine. As a back-up we have apprentices with picks and shovels.
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If I lived there I am sure I would agree, here where I am it is simply not how it's done. Of course there is a limit, we don't call someone in to dig 10' for a 3/4" PVC. The OP said the trench was 50' x 18" we would sub that out. The digging here could make that an all day deal.


As much as I like driving machinery it makes no sense to me to to have electricians doing labors work. Just not a good use of talent and training. Basically if we can not efficiently hand dig it we will sub it out.

Landscapers are good choices for small jobs.
 
jrannis

jrannis

Senior Member
Location
Fort Lauderdale/ Miami
This is an area where we could learn from plumbers, again.
They always seem to dig their own ditches and have better control of their work.
We have coral rock here that would give New England granite a serious run for its money.
 
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