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Side Walks

2K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  phillyplowking1 
#1 ·
I am bidding on side walks at a strip mall in my town and this going to be my first year doing side walks so I have no clue on what to bid them at.

They are about 1800 feet long and about 8 fet wide.

I figured about 25 fifty pound bags of calcium, but as far as how much to shovel them I am at a loss.

The depth I bid at is

1" to 3"
3" to 5"
5" to 8"

Any responce would be appreiciated.

Thank You
Rick
 
#2 ·
Sorry cant help you on pricing.
Sidewalks, You said thay are about 8'ft wide, Depending on if thay are all 'open' or not I'd simply hop the curb & plow with truck & 8ft blade angled. If you have curves & it's tight, I would concider getting a old Jeep & sticking a plow on that. You could easily plow 6-8ft sidewalks with that. If salting is required I would purchase a tailgate salter for the Jeep. Yeah, you will have to get out & shovel arround the doors if required.

Everyone who plows stip-malls with pillars sould look into a Jeep w/ plow. Many of you have & do. Small vehical, decent plow. get the white stuff into the parking lot where the loader can take care of the rest.
 
#3 ·
heard a story about a place that wanted their sidewalks done by the contractor who was plowing their lots. they called him in and "told" him how much they were going to pay him, how long it would take and how much calcium chloride it was going to take...

40 hours and 1 pallet of calcium chloride

The contractor told him OK,, but I am going to have to try it for a storm or two to see if I can do it within your numbers...

First storm it took 5 or 6 more hours than the company spec'd, and half as much more calcium then they spec'd.

2nd storm they got closer but the company was still hot to get the contractor within their set budget numbers... finally the contractor got the work into the companies desired number range of 40 hours and 1 pallet of calcium


Once the company was satisfied that the contractor was able to do the work within their budgeted figures they stopped supervising the work every storm...

Once the company stopped supervising the sidewalk work, the contractor brought in a piece of equipment with a plow and a 250 gallon liquid deicer tank on the back... Did all the walks in 45 minutes and applied deicer.

The company was very upset that the contractor didn't tell them that it could be done this way, and so much faster... The contractor told the company... well you treated me like I was stupid and that you knew more than me. I am a professional in my field and expect to be treated as such.

The long and short of this is... you know the measurements of the walks. As a pro, you should be able to determine the best method and production equipment to do the job. Don't let the customer dictate how to do the job.
 
#6 ·
first off be sure the mall wants you to use calcium. calcium does horrible things to concrete over time. with the temperatures your dealing with in your area you may not have a choice. in warmer situtations i would use salt for it is much cheaper. you could also spray your salt with a liquid magic, etc... i dont have much experience on the pre-treaters but im sure there are a few guys on here that could give you some info. for our sidewalks we use a john deere 1145 with 54" power angle blade that does great. we even mounted a myers mini truck spreader on the rear and its an awesome sidewalk machine. i also use a yamaha 4-wheeler with a plow and curtis salt spreader mounted on it. as far as pricing goes you have to know what equipment your going to be working with to give an accurate bid based on time spent doing the job.
 
#7 ·
Yeah John, it was a good one!

The guy I heard it from told it very well.... much better than I did.

:nod:
 
#8 ·
I have an old cj5 i use for sidewalks its nice to have the heat compared to using a quad or sometin simmilar.
 
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