Kinda OT: Labor for fencing?

I"ve got 2 or 3 boys that work for me in hay. They say they"ve built fence before. I normally pay $8 an hour(usually round up by half hour) for hay help and they"ve always been satisfied. They usually make $9 to $10 an hour. I"ve got maybe a mile or mile and half of old, grown up fence line that needs to be trimmed and rebuilt, mostly new wire and posts, in the hills. Rough fencing, real rough. Question is do I pay by the hour or do I come up with a price per ft? If I price by the ft what would be a fair rate? I"m providing everything, they"re just the labor. Any input is appreciated.

I've only heard of by foot pricing for fence if they provide the wire and post. I'd come up with a per hour wage as long as they are good workers.

Rick

$10 per hour per man.

Allan

It is real hard to figure what fence building will cost--depends on what you plan to use for materials, soil conditions, brush to remove and a whole lot of other things.

Where I live there are areas that are very rocky and other areas that have no rocks at all. When I was a kid, I dug many post holes for railroad ties that took me more than half a day for one proper hole. They were deep and carefully backfilled and those posts are still there, about as good as when I set them. Later my Dad got a rotary post hole digger for the 3 point on the Ford. That allowed very fast digging of holes for split cedar posts in some areas, but the digger would not work at all if there were any large rocks. In some areas, the only way to get a fence to be reliable was to fill a steel barrel with rocks and tie a fence post to the barrel.

When I have built fence the last 30 years or so, I have mostly used heavy steel T posts, installed with a hand operated steel driver. In the Spring of the year, the T posts go in very easily unless the location is pure rock. I have always thought that Spring was the best time to set posts, although I have got vehicles stuck. I still put in railroad tie corner posts by digging a large hole and still occasionally need to use a barrel of rocks. Spring is also the best time to clear out brush, before the leaves come, so you can see what you are cutting.

A fence can be quite expensive to build. I think that a 4 strand barb wire fence on T posts is about the least expensive fence that should hold in cattle. But at least in my currently VERY dry area, I would wait until Spring to set posts, since I don"t like to work any harder than I have to.

Something else to consider: liability. I don"t hire much work to be done on my property because I am concerned with the possibility of being sued if a worker got hurt using my equipment. You might want to consider getting bids from fence companies to rebuild the fence using THEIR equipment. Legitimate companies should be licensed, insured and bonded.

I hate to think of the number of miles of barb wire fence I have built in my lifetime! Good luck!

Guess I should have mentioned that it's a 5 strand barb wire, with wood and steel t-post. Probably %75 of the work will be done by hand as it's inaccessible for a tractor or any other equipment. My Polaris Ranger will get to some of it.

One thing to keep in mind. If you pay by the hour then the kids could just slack off and drag it out. If you pay by the job then it is a set rate for you and them.
I know of a painting company that dragged out a job until they were told, "You are done, leave, dont come back" It was an hourly rate setup.

Do you paint for a living?

You R a funny guy.
No, I only paint for myself, my house only.
I dont like painting.

A friend of my wife had this happen to her with a painting crew.

Minimum $10 per hour per man. Those boys have already demonstrated their ability and willingness to work, and apparently you are satisfied with the work they do, so pay 'em enough to make 'em want to come back when you need 'em again.

I just got a quote for having some five wire barb built. It was $2.85 per foot. Post 12 ft apart, every other post a 4 inch creosoted wood post the others steel Tee post. Every Twenty rods a brace set of six inches creosoted post with a steel brace. Corners all six inch creosoted post. This is on a clear fence path.

So I would figure out how long the fence you want built is. Then subtract the cost of materials. Then add back in what you think the rough terrain will add to the labor. Take that figure and talk to the boys and agree on a set price. That way if they really want to hustle than they are making more per hour. At the same time if it is hotter than the blazes and they want to take it easier then your not out because of the slower production.

I would tear out the old fence with a loader or hire a crawler to do it. You can make a much better fence if the way is clear even if it is steep.

I've paid a couple local kids $10 per hour. It's a lot harder work than mickey d's.

I think if it was my fence, I'd figure out an estimate on the labor hours I think would be involved, then times that by $20.00 (for 2 men).

Then I would approach them to come up with their estimate of the hours they think would be involved,... then see if we could agree on a labor price based somewhere between the 2 estimates. (Who knows, their estimated hours of labor might even be lower than your's. )

I hook the old fence on the back of my tractor the pulled back on itself thus it only pulls one post at a time. It's all stretch out so just roll it up to dispose of it. Then use a brush hog to clean the fence line. Now it's all ready for the fence to go in with very little work.
Walt
PS I paid my help $10 an hour worked out fine if you have good workers. Make sure that you have the best tools a good post hole digger hand or powered. A good fence stretcher I use the 3 ft metal type with rachet to tighten it.

I agree with RustyFarmall; since you know they're good workers but don't really know how big the job is, pay by the hour and keep an eye on them. Goal is a fair deal for both parties.

I guess my biggest concern is that a couple of them carry block for maons during the day. I know after they work all day carring block they'll be beat. Theyre wanting o Orkney in the evenings. Guess I'll try it by the hour and see how it goes.

id pay by the job, and pay well, fencing in rough terrain is very time consuming and hard on people, they will almost be forced to take rest breaks to ease sore muscles, paying by the hour you'll be loosing, we fenced 100 acres with 11 foot tall elk fence last year, [ herd of around 100 was eatin all the cow food lol] it took more than twice as long as was figured due to terrain, and we were cheating, for this job we set the pipe poles 4 feet in the ground using a cat 235 ecxavator, but not everybody has a quarter million dollar fence post pounder still it was very time consuming and difficult 15 foot pieces of 3 inch pipe aint light