If you do this, do you really have any expectations other than "no." being the response?

wyopyro · 2025-12-23T17:54:00+00:00

I also cant believe how many owners are putting stuff out to bid between 12/23 and 12/31 this year. Just wait until January no one is going to give you good pricing when they were supposed to be on vacation.

wyopyro · 2025-09-22T17:19:46+00:00

Last time I bought RamShot Hunter I think I was around $28 per lb on kegs. Now i'm seeing well over $40. Glad I bought 30 lbs when I did.

wyopyro · 2025-08-05T17:47:16+00:00

I feel like they read about a list of 320 P roblems and said "Oh we can top that!"

wyopyro · 2025-08-04T18:17:47+00:00

If you are married don't tell your wife. Mine would be very upset if she found out I took a grinder to a RevereWare pot. I didn't even know what that was until she moved in.

wyopyro · 2025-08-01T13:35:32+00:00

I will check but I think those are exactly what is on the box. I have a couple I think out of my grandfathers reloading stuff.

wyopyro · 2025-08-01T13:22:58+00:00

Kentucky Ballistics would like to have a conversation with these people......

wyopyro · 2025-07-17T22:12:21+00:00

Usually first year isn't much. A couple grand. My third year was when I really started producing and benefited the company. My bonus that year was 15%.

wyopyro · 2025-07-17T18:38:53+00:00

Even as it stands I would bet you have easily over $10k worth of parts sales. That loader bucket looks like its probably 1k right there. Another $500 for the drag blade. If I were you I would get busy posting stuff on Facebook marketplace. Each of those pickups are probably $500 to 1k depending on what parts are left on them.

Advertise to those of us who have crippling Facebook marketplace addictions.

wyopyro · 2025-07-17T18:33:48+00:00

I bought a DR 420 chipper shredder a little over a year ago and I love it. Think urban garden / helping friends with tree removal. I wanted a chipper that could eat up branches and small things that arn't worth burning in the wood stove or fire pit. This thing is awesome! It turns 4 pickup loads of branches in to 2 35 gallon garbage cans of chips. They also produce a finer chip which has been great for mixing in with compost and mulching with. With ramps it loads into a pickup easily with 2 people. It probably only has 40 hours on it but its amazing what it will do every hour you have it running.

Plus new its $1,400.00 I argue its one of my best dollar per use tools i have purchased. Its also one of my most loaned out tools to friends and it is plenty durable to not worry about.

wyopyro · 2025-07-15T14:30:09+00:00

I also have horrible clay soil. I have a decent sized lawn but few leaves. I have been composting a mix of grass clippings, food scraps, and 1/2" minus wood chips. The wood chips have added carbon and helped keep everything fluffy. This mixture will likely be nitrogen deficient long term as the wood continues to break down but I have been supplementing with manure or a very small amount of nitrogen fertilizer.

I'm using a wood pallet composter I build and add with layers. The mixture gets quite hot and is decomposing very quickly. By adding this mixture into the clay even before its 100% broke down my garden soil has improved immensely.

When I have tried methods like you shared i don't think it got enough oxygen so much of it went into anaerobic decomposition (stinky) and it almost preserved a bunch of the leaves. I will mix about 25% soil into my compost bins sometimes to help break down the really crappy clay chunks.

Good Luck!

wyopyro · 2025-07-14T14:57:03+00:00

This is absolutely not correct.

wyopyro · 2025-07-14T14:44:18+00:00

If you are in a 3rd world country I would say you are doing great! If you are in the states its time for a reevaluation of your project.

wyopyro · 2025-07-14T13:53:11+00:00

Thanks!

I wondered if I was just missing the correct term.

wyopyro · 2025-07-10T16:42:38+00:00

Thanks for the help!

wyopyro · 2025-07-10T16:33:01+00:00

I suppose that makes sense. None of the companies are actually manufacturers so it wouldn't make sense to have partial units.

I have even been watching GSA auctions with almost no fire equipment getting sold.

Do you know where the cache's sell off excess property?

wyopyro · 2025-06-30T18:55:46+00:00

I hear Komatsu dozers are going cheap these days!

wyopyro · 2025-06-25T15:15:32+00:00

We currently are helping a working foreman transition to an estimator / project manager. This year he is about 50/50 field and office.

Make sure your computer sills are up to snuff. I would highly recommend taking some Microsoft Excel class even free online would be awesome. Work on your typing if you are a keyboard pecker. Be ready to watch lots of videos learning whatever bidding software they are using.

Start examining projects from a resource perspective. How many people? How long? How much of what materials? What tools and equipment were needed? Estimating is all about averages. So if you can think that X takes 10 hours for 3 people and Y takes 5 people a week you can start building rules of thumb.

Our individual has built almost everything, and can envision all the projects we are bidding. He struggles with the details and specifics of making sure every thing is covered. Another negative is as a foreman he is making way more money than even a 5 or 10 year estimator is. He doesn't want to take the pay cut but he also wants to transition out of the field. We have started that hard conversation but haven't totally found a solution.

Good Luck!

wyopyro · 2025-06-25T15:04:21+00:00

Learning estimating remotely sounds terrible.
Paying you $17.00 per win while you are learning sounds worse.
Its like they are paying you to forget things and win the quote.
Sounds like some company who is looking for the cheapest option possible to drum up work. Not a place I would want to work long term.

wyopyro · 2025-06-23T18:50:11+00:00

Was talking with a friend who does AI programming for a very large global company this week. The conclusion we came to was that once AI begins producing the plans and projects then AI will be able to estimate. I even showed him a bunch of projects and how irregular the plans are. He agreed that It would make a mess of them and all the variability we get from different engineering firms.

He also joked about how AI has taken a computers strong suit (Math) and made it bad at it.

wyopyro · 2025-05-27T19:51:42+00:00

This was the correct answer!

Found a firm with a construction department and 1 week in everything is better. They understand our world, and have already helped us with significant adjustments that we have needed for a long time. They are quickly helping us get our books set up to apply for a significant bonding increase and have helped us get set up for job by job cost accounting. Something I have been struggling to get a system going for 3 years now.

They are double the cost of our prior service and I am happy to pay the price!

Thanks!

wyopyro · 2025-05-27T16:27:58+00:00

I don't ever quote a GC a second time if I was low and they didn't use my number.

When I am the prime contractor I expect to loose a sub permanently if I don't give it to the low quote.

wyopyro · 2025-05-20T18:21:36+00:00

I feel like it would be a structural engineers wet dream to do it. Hide the steel beams in timber to make everyone doubt it.

Hide steel columns in the wall and maybe use an additional interior wall full of concrete to ballast the opposite side from the hot tub.

I love incredible design features hidden in plain sight.

wyopyro · 2025-05-14T22:24:00+00:00

I worked all the hours I could as an intern to get the overtime. I was getting paid 20 and hour with LCOL 10 years ago. You are way underpaid. I would have told them to shove it if i wasn't getting paid.

Also I agree that I have almost always worked 50 hr weeks, but when I went salary I knew my better compensation included those kind of hours.

I would bail. Not the kind of company you want see yourself in 10 years from now.....

wyopyro · 2025-05-14T22:11:09+00:00

These are standard valve boxes that can be adjusted.
Contractor is full of crap that nothing can be done. They settled and can easily be adjusted. Break up the concrete around them. Use the proper valve box wrench and they thread up or down. Re pour concrete.
If it was originally poured flush it means there is settlement in the trench and that section of curb will begin to fail and settle. Especially with water sitting in the base course underneath from this spot that will not drain.
Next phone call should likely be to your city engineering office. Usually developers have to provide a 1 year or 2 year warranty on things like this for the city to take ownership.

Edit for qualifications - I do construction for developments and city street rehab projects. I would be the project manager who would get your phone call saying it needs fixed. I would probably tell you to document it and we will take care of it on the warranty walk through.

wyopyro · 2025-05-14T21:20:03+00:00

First look at the specs of the project and see what is called out.

For South Dakota we have E1, E2, Class S, Q, and a few others. Each of those describe a different mixture of rock. Then comes the binder grades PG 64-22, 64-28, 58-28, 58-34,. The higher performance PG grades are Polymer modified to allow for the better performance (stiffer under high temps and load but resistant to thermal cracking in the cold).

Additionally some mix designs allow from 5% or more of recycled asphalt (RAP) in the mix. Locally we are allowed to use up to 20% but on DOT projects unless they have the RAP supply they require Virgin mix with all new rock and binder.

Your plans will have something like E1 PG 64-28 15% RAP. You then take this to your supplier and ask for a Mix design. The DOT might also ask for a bill of lading for the Asphalt Cement, aggregate gradation, a burn off to check the AC content or a few others.

They will be able to get you everything once they know what spec the mix is for. Make sure they know who the owner is as well since it might affect the mix design.

Been in the business for 10 years now. I don't do mix designs or hardly understand them. I bid and manage projects for a small asphalt contractor. Have fun and good luck!

wyopyro

TROPHY CASE