my dad can lay pipe better than your dad.
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my dad can lay pipe better than your dad.
ill agree with you on Choate not doing great work, but only with residential jobs...they just do cookie cutter jobs and each crew does about three or so eight zone houses a day. Commercial jobs are a totally different story. they do top notch wok on commercial jobs and that's why my dad works in commercial.
where is willowbend mall? my dad might have done it. in addition to him being commercial superintendent which intels overseeing all the foreman's crews, he has three of his own crews that only do jobs for the Sinacolas(rich, extremely picky Italians and they get whatever they want) and a select other group of people. i know he did the shops of legacy and a few other high profile malls. What is your dads name?
The reason i said landscape architect is because the landscape artist usually does the sprinkler design as well.
i am currently on a co-op with a company called Parker Hannifin so i am not working for my dad/step-mom. But they do jobs all over and mainly focus out in forney by where they live. she also rakes in some good dough by doing back flow testing since it is required every year. 20 a day during the summer at a minimum of $50 is some damn good money in my opinion. The other day she was *****ing cause she only made $800 profit for flagging, dropping off the crew, installing the controller, and doing a walk through with the customer. I wouldn't *****, but then i guess when your used to that profit number being somewhere around 2000 i guess you have a point.
you didn't come across rude...i was just giving you a hard time....
i don't know what old timers were thinking when they installed a sprinkler...i couldn't sweat a whole one in...but I'm sure they cost an arm and a leg...
are you gonna try and replace the diaphragm first? I'm sure you can find them at John Deer Landscapes or Whickham or even longhorn i suppose.
as far as controllers go, i don't care too much for weathermatic, but I'm partial to rainbird stuff. IMO their ESP-MC series is the top of the line commercial controller and the ESP-LX+ is the best "residential" controller on the market. Every Commercial sprinkler installed by Choate gets a ESP-MC regardless of size
and again...if you have any further questions, let me know... :flipoff2:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Violentv8toy
why are you watching either my dad or your dad lay pipe? :rainbow:
Hey, I just did a repair job on a 5.5 million dollar house the other day and it had 11 zones I think and it was using the Rainbird ESP LX 12 zone controller (i think 12 zones). I don't like Rainbird at all, I don't like their nozzles much. Of course on my system at the house we divided our lot into 17 zones. Everything is perfected for sun and shade spots, and weathermatic gave us a $3,000 controller, the old SL42, 6 months ago it was the best, now its obsolete. Read up on that weathermatic controller, I would lay down any amount of money that once you used this controller you'd love it. my dad specs it on every job now. His name is John Wingfield Sr, and his company is Cornerstone Irrigation. (self employeed, and hes the only employee). Alot less hassle that way. This new SL1600 SmartLine controller is perfect for commercial jobs as well, weathermatic brought in 1000 irrigation contracts and asked them all "what do you want to see in a controller."
BAM, its amazing, and can install in one second. It depends on what I'm doing that day. I mean I can pull in $2000 a day landscaping with one of my guys helping me, but thats not an everyday thing. But $1000 definately isnt unheard of for sprinkler work. I charged the customer 250 for the controller, (the guys at john deere landscaping gave me 60 bux off so I got it for 160 ttl). SO theres 90 I made and didnt do anything. And then a 100 installation charge and zone config. That took me an hour. SO theres 190 in a little over an hour. Then digging up this valve if need be will definately be a costly job.
Willowbend mall is at Hebron (Park BLVD) and Tollway up in Plano.
And Stonebriar is on 121 and Tollway in Frisco. My dad also does all the McDonalds, and well pretty much designs about everything now. His license is #851, if that tells you how long he's been in the business.
Oh no one really carries Hall O Matic stuff except for Hall Sprinkler anymore. They used to be located off of Forest and Greenville, but they now moved to Seagoville and Mesquite. I' not driving to either place, so if the rubber seal is bad, they're just gonna get a whole new valve.
This is controller can also test the mA to each valve so you can see when wires or solenoids are going bad. This system is 30 years old, and the controller also has a valve locator, where it sends pulses to the solenoid and u can hear a valve buried 2 feet underground completely covered up. No more searching the yard and using the coat hanger or poking screw driving method to find valve boxes. Work at 6am tomorrow, im out.
Steven, do you live in CS or Dallas area?
Sprinklers are boring can we talk about something more entertaining like Frick's spelling?
My dad is an Oil and Gas accountant and he used to count pipe, my step-mom is an accountant too, and I'd like to hit her with a lead pipe.
Tell me about the Sinacolas, Wolverton. That is the company in Frisco that called me about a job. I'm not really interested in working for them since they are in dallas, but all the info I could find on them was on TXDOT's site. Do they do heavy/highway as well as residential?
Do you see what happens, Larry? Do you see what happens when you **** a stanger in the ass?
Wingfield you act as if mesquite is a long way from north dallas...also you know that depending on who you are depends on the discount you get from JDL? Im not sure what level you are and you might check into getting it raised for better discounts.
The Sinacolas(formerly known as Sinacola & Son but the dad died so not its just Sinacola) just do commercial construction i believe. i can ask my dad though he would know...he is their personal sprinkler ***** so to speak, and thats a good thing... He said he was at a walk through with them and the superintendant of the job was telling them they were gonna have to repair the concrete where some trucks had driven on it and broken it. My dad said the owner stood up and said [italianmafiavoiceon]I aint fawkin fixin no fawkin concrete. I told that mother fawker to stay off the fawkin concrete...ect...ect[/italianmafiavoiceoff] this is in the middle of a final walkthrough meeting mind you.
my dad had just finished putting in a sprinkler at their headquarters over off of the tollway and 121. Not even a month afterwards they brought one of their trackhoes in and started digging a pond. ripped through all the sprinkler and Putt Choate told my dad to replace it all for free once they were done. Putt makes plenty of money but the sinacolas are such a big client that he wanted them happy.
They are quite the large company...own something like a mile or so of realestate on the tollway from 121 down in frisco.
I know they do some heavy highway, cause they are on the contractor list for TXDOT, and I saw some article about them doing all the work on some tollway or something. Mario Sinacola & sons?Quote:
Originally Posted by StevenAg03
Oh and I think you have to have a potty mouth to be in construction, cause in the 6 months I've been here, I've heard way worse things said at meetings etc.
Just got done talking to pops...he says that the Sinacolas are mainly an excavating and concrete company, but they do a lot of large scale commercial projects, IE the Shops of Legacy. Ans you are right, Sinacola does do highway, they arecurrently building the new 121 highway right now. He was asking what type of job you were looking into, he may have some contacts there i dont know...
Wingfield, after speaking with him he said that most of his jobs are from your dad with the others being from Tom something or other. He did do Stonebriar and says that your dads stuff is great cause it works in the field. He also said that he would prefer to work on your dads jobs for this reason.
As far as liscens go, the company my dad used to subcontract for before he went to choate was DFW sprinkler Liscens # in the teens and my great uncle is liscens #20....so your dad aint got **** on people i know... :flipoff2:
Also on the weathermatic stuff...he said that he doesnt prefer it over rainbird because of availability. However, he feels that before long, they will be at the forefront of commercial irrigation controlers for the reasons you mentioned above, remote controling, onboard valve locater, the weatherstations ability to adjust daily watering cycles based on evaperation rate, humidity, and wind, and the ability to shutdown a station if it is flowing too much water at a given time. he told me that the weathermatic rep brought him into ask him about what he wanted to see on a weathermatic controller.
almost forgot...if yopu have any questions regarding sprinklers let me know.. :flipoff2:
Haha, I think we both know pretty much everything, so we might as well call it even on this. But thanks for the compliment on my dad, he knows his stuff. My dad pretty much designs everything thats worth anything in North Texas, and misc high-end jobs all over the country. He just works downstairs in the dining room-converted to one person office pullin in 6 figures as he sits there in his underwear playing connect the dots on autocad. his job is so easy its disgusting.
ANYONE CAN DO HIS JOB, but the part that makes him valuable is his insane customer service, and HIS PLANS ACTUALLY WORK IN THE FIELD, unlike all these other dime a dozen hot shots out there charging a buttload for shotty work. I don't mind, cause their half ass work gives me work to do.:)
As I see your dad has been in for a while too, i just asked my dad and his first license number was #238, but he didnt do some paper work and had to redo his licensing down the road. But your dad definately has him beat by a long shot.
That weathermatic SL1600 with smartline weather station will take over the industry, shoot I put another one of those things this morning, thats 150 bucks right there I made in an hour.
Hey, where did you say you lived right now?
And so begins the courtship :rainbow: :flipoff2:Quote:
Originally Posted by jwingfield2k
jerry eat a dick...
the liscens numbers were for the owner of DFW Irrigation that we used to work for and my great uncle...i live in Fort Worthless....
sounds like yall got alot in common. Why don't yall do lunch and talk about it?
good call! :gigem:Quote:
Originally Posted by Violentv8toy
might try this out, maybe someone there will know or care about the heated rainbird/weathermatic debate!
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/water/
That, and my uncle has a pocketknife, but of course you guys already knew that.
;)
Just good to talk to another guy whos bankin' the big bucks. Too bad it's about a million degrees outside today, my rates make the heat worth it though. :gigem:
aight since you like talking about money so much, care to elucidate on the nuances of sprinkler repairman and/or Christian ethics that allow you to charge $250 for a part that cost you $160?
its about supply and demand...you can do it yourself if you wanna save money. there ar a couple ways to do it...you can go to Home Depot and get a system designed by rainbird with everything there in the stor for you to buy. only problem is its a ****ty system, ****ty heads, ****ty valves, ****ty controler, scheduel 40 pipe, and they will tell you to put the double check right by the water spicket in the front yard. The problem with scheduel 40 is its not needed after the doublecheck and it restricts flow. the other way is to design it yourself(but if you dont know what your doing it will still suck) and then go to a sprinkler house such as john deere landscapes, longhorn, or whickham and buy the parts. only thing is you wont get service if a irrigator walks in(they will leave you and go to them...there are signs posted inside that say this...after all the home owner isnt where they make their money) and you will pay nearly double what an irrigator pays. youll be hard pressed to buy all the parts for a sprinkler at around 200 a zone. my dad charges 250 and thats cheap. FYI if you ever get a bid on a sprinkler and there is tax tacked on at the end, tell them to go jump in a lake, agricultural services are non-taxable and they probably dont have a tax liscens.
you ask what christan morals allow someone to do this? same ones that allow mechanics to charge you $50/hour to fix something, if you were to go and try to buy that "$160" controller, it would be way more then that....
There's no tax on any service
He went to the store specifically to buy that part for that person who was paying him to do that job. If his bill itemized materials I would be pissed if he put $250 when it only cost $160
an itemized bill wouldn't say 160 - controller, 90 - installation....or maybe it will but if you don't want to pay it, then it can be removed and you can look for someone else to do it
or maybe he is getting paid by a third party...in which case they probably paid for a complete system....the way my dad does it is his bill says $250/zone and everything is included for that price
I could be wrong, but this looks to me like ****ing a stranger in the @ssQuote:
Originally Posted by jwingfield2k
do be jealous cause your not smart enough to get into irrigation :flipoff2: ...its all like that...when i said my step-mom makes 800 profit in a day...i mean on a bad day...thats with givin the head messcan an extra hundred or hundred fifty...
not jealous, I just think there's a right way and a wrong way to do things
wait a second...they got a messkin making a hundred fitty in a day?
I'm gonna have to talk to brandon...
:D
he makes more then 150...then guys fresh out of the river make 75 and they dont know jack except how to operate a few different shovels...
i sold books last summer and one day i made 1200 before 8pm. Who gives a fawk.
i've been meaning to ask...where do you put the gas in those things?Quote:
Originally Posted by StevenAg03
Eric, contractors get discounts. At the nursery down the street where I buy all my plant material, I get atleast 40% off what the normal consumer would pay. Its called buying wholesale. Theres no way for a contractor to make money unless he buys the parts for cheaper than the consumer, puts a little markup on then, and then charges for labor.
I try to stay away from installing systems, you can definately lose moeny on those, (weather, lazy labor, mechanical stuff).
Also, its dumb to itemize everything in a bill. You bid stuff by the job. You tell the customer you will get one objective done and heres the price.
Example: Say a mechanic quotes someone $500 for a repair job, and his costs are $150 parts. All the sudden he finds a new place he can get parts, or finds some on sale. Is he going to lower the price of his bill to the customer.
On all mulch jobs I tell the customer, "Ok I'll mulch all these beds for $400.00"
Whatever it takes I get em mulched and get my check. ALot of the times theres left over mulch, its already paid for, and I take the extra supplies back home and stack it all on pallets in my backyard. Now next time I have a mulch job, I use material thats already been paid for, and still charge the customer for the mulch (can't give it to them for free.)
Never bid stuff by materials, always bid it by the job. Now I'm finally good enough to not bid incorrectly and lose my shirt on a bunch of things. But 90% of the time I come out perfectly even or with a little extra.
I've done somewhere around $3,000.00 in mulch jobs since spring, alot of it has been extra thats left over from another job. A 2.2 cubic foot of mulch costs me $2.20 and I charge the customer $8.00 for the mulch and installation. Figure out the profit on being able to accurately estimate that much mulch and risk your butt on big jobs and come out on top. There is a high price to pay for risky work. Just gotta be good at it.
Sorry that I've figured out the way business works. And I can tell you this. The last time I worked for someone besides myself was when I was 16 years old. Never again will I have someone tell me what time to be at work and when I can home, and how much I make. I value my mind and my ability much more than someone that wants to meet a bottom-line. Congrats to you Steven for knowing the ropes.
Eric you need to catch up!!!! I charge alot higher profit percentage than they do (but in a different line of business). That's the only way you'll ever have any bling-bling!!
If they are willing to pay you the amount that you are asking, then what is wrong with it? you are getting what you want and they are getting what they want..
Eric---- are you back in town????
More generic interpretations of the business world please.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snatch Adams
supply and demand, guns and butter, equal opportunity employer, sales quota, HR department, jerry is gay, point of diminishing returns
Yeah!!!!!
TINSTAFL!Quote:
Originally Posted by robertf03
Also Eric, you have to take into account the countless hours I have spent setting up my business, investing in myself, and if not that, atleast running to the supply houses to get parts and get money for atleast that. It's not rocket science.
if you charged the customer for the job, then congratulations, you increased your profit margin. You said that you paid $160 for the controller and charged the customer $250.
That is my only issue. If you "charged them" by including that cost in your all-inclusive, out-the-door pricing, then that's fine.
Also, I'm glad that you know how the world works at the ripe old age of what, 20?
now figure out how to build a truck and take your home improvement bs to homeimprovementsforgayfirsttimehomeowners.com forum.
:flipoff2:
ps yeah jordan I'm back (you honked at me the other day)! :beer: ?
ps yeah jordan I'm back (you honked at me the other day)! :beer: ?[/QUOTE]
I honk at everybody, I must of saw your sexy legs and honked. ;) .... lets go have a :beer: . I am leaving tonight for dallas, but will be back weds. evening.
woohoo TAMOR meeting Wed!
f'n A, hey Jordan I am in town too, am I not cool enough to hang out...fawker :)
YEAH!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by BMFScout
I know..... ;)
i'm am currently drunk in dallas in a hotel bar, but will be back tomorrow and I will be up for anything!!!!
Pollo a las nueve?