Commercial
Bushwackers Overcomes Subcontractor Problems
How many times have you been frustrated by unprofessional subs? They over-commit their crew so they’re late to the job and cause delays. They under-perform the work so you don’t end up getting the level of quality you expect or that was promised to you. They don’t communicate with you, leave you hanging, and just plain don’t do what they say they’re going to do…..they’re unreliable.
A key ingredient to a successful project is a dependable subcontractor.
That’s what we’re all about. But don’t just take our word for it, read about our capabilities and see for yourself how we overcome the three biggest problems you face.
Land Clearing Services
In this business, there’s a formula to delivering results and avoiding under-performance: experience + variety = expertise. Exposure to a large variety of field conditions is necessary to know first hand what skill and equipment is the most effective and efficient in getting the results clients demand.
Over the course of 37 years and thousands of projects, we’ve made a point to do just that. We’ve worked it all, from flat land to steep and craggy sites; from multi-acre expanses of overgrown scrub trees & grasses to concentrated areas of manzanita, blackberries and other unwanted foliage. We’ve even tackled conditions that can only be improved by hand work, like massive boulder outcroppings and muddy creek beds.
This effort has allowed us to identify the type of crew and equipment that is best suited to providing clearing services in our region. We’ve also seen improvements in equipment over time and understand how using newer equipment can be a benefit. To find out more about our equipment, scroll down to the “Equipment” section below.
Finally, our experience also tells us not to assume anything – we gather information from you up front about site conditions and your goals for the project to help us understand the scope of your job. We always look at the property ahead of time so no incorrect assumptions are made. And, we discuss possible limitations or unforeseen conditions so as to avoid surprises.
Our solution to over-commitment issues is through our crew. There are four keys to success in this area:
1 – Train the crew members.
2 – Maintain a large crew so various tasks can be done simultaneously.
3 – Focus the crew on one job at a time to minimize distractions and maximize efficiency.
4 – Keep a Foreman on the jobsite at all times.
TRAINING: While many crew members have experience when we hire them, we can’t afford to make the assumption that they are trained to our standards. All crew members are trained on specific tasks and equipment by the Foreman, who is a 12-year veteran in the business. Training is hands-on, in-the-trenches, monitored work, so you can be assured that even the newest crew member is exposed to real-life situations with the proper direction from the Foreman. Skills are trained in progression from the simplest categories (weed-eating and brush transfer) to the most challenging (tree trimming). Only when a crew member has mastered one level may he proceed to the next.
In addition to training our crew on skill and equipment, we focus on professionalism and safety practices. One way we monitor the crew’s performance in this area by requesting client feedback on subjects like being on time, courteous attitude and clean-up effort. We use this input for continued training and improvement. As for safety, crew members are required to wear all Personal Protective Equipment, commonly referred to as PPE. Before starting each day, the crew will look over all equipment to ensure it can be safely operated, and they walk the site to look for potential hazards.
CREW SIZE: Having an experienced crew gives us enough people to assign a variety of skills and tasks to, which means they can be done simultaneously. This also means there are enough people to use the equipment to its fullest potential – it won’t be sitting idle because there’s no one available to run it or to supervise it.
SINGLE JOB FOCUS: Perhaps nothing is more frustrating than delays to your project that are caused by the work crew’s distraction from someone else’s project. We know you’ve got other subcontractors ready to start their work after ours is done, so we’re sensitive to your schedule. We avoid delays by focusing on one job at a time so all the skill, equipment, energy and attention is available to that job.
Most jobs demand several different skills and types of equipment, especially those with varied terrain. By having all crew members and equipment available to the job, we can tackle several tasks at once, leverage maximum efficiency and momentum, and keep outside distractions to a minimum. This strategy produces results more quickly than approaching the job one task at a time and keeps the work from dragging out.
FOREMAN ON THE JOB AT ALL TIMES: Over time, we have experienced first hand why this is so important to success. In the interest of quality and efficiency, the Foreman needs to be available to supervise all activities, answer questions of the crew and the client, assist with the work, continue the crew’s training process, and resolve any unforeseen challenges that could arise. In addition, the Foreman reviews the status of the work daily with the Owner, and by actually being there he’s able to give an accurate account of the progress. Whether or not the Client chooses to communicate with the Foreman or the Owner about the work, the project status will always be represented accurately.
A big factor in reliability is having the right equipment to perform the work. Using equipment that is not appropriately matched to the task will either be impractical, inefficient, impossible, unsafe or will give you unsatisfactory results. We have made a commitment to invest in equipment that has proven over 37 years of first-hand experience to be the most effective and efficient in getting the results our clients demand. In addition, we maintain that equipment daily for peak performance and safety. Listed below are the various types of equipment we have.
1 – Masticators
2 – Field Mower
3 – Track Mounted chippers with hydraulic winch
4 – Track Mounted Whole-tree Chipper with infeed conveyor
5 – Excavators with tree shear, grapple, and mulching head
6 – Track Mounted high volume Stump Grinder
MASTICATOR: This piece of equipment is designed to mow and shred brush, such as blackberries, Manzanita, scrub trees and Toyon. It is a cost-effective way to process large expanses of land and is suited to flat and gently sloping conditions. It cannot operate in steeper conditions or rocky soil. The processed material left by the masticator is larger and shredded in appearance versus a finer-chipped mulch product.
FIELD MOWER: This equipment provides an efficient and cost effective way to cut down large expanses of various grasses that are typically found in fields and meadows.
TRACK-MOUNTED CHIPPERS: This machine processes brush and tree limbs and trunks up to 20″ diameter into chipped mulch material. The track-mounting aspect has several advantages over a conventional truck-towed unit.
The track-mounted feature allows the chipper to operate in steep areas that are logistically impractical or physically impossible for a truck-towed unit. Our chipper is operated by remote control, which allows the unit to simply “follow” the crew as they move along, eliminating the logistics and resulting inefficiencies that are involved with a truck-towed unit. Consequently, the crew can cover a lot more ground in any given period of time.
Since the tracks on this unit are rubber-clad, it can cross concrete and asphalt without damaging the surface, and won’t leave gauge marks in your land like wheels can. Our track-mounted chipper also includes a winch that allows material to be “towed” up steep hillsides and into the feed bin, a feat that would be impossible for a conventional chipper.
TRACK-MOUNTED CHIPPER WITH INFEED CONVEYOR: We invested in this equipment, and have done so because it broadens the scope of service we can provide to you. In addition to providing you the same benefits as the track-mounted chipper described above, this piece includes an infeed conveyor that is only fed with an excavator with a large claw-like Fix-mounted grapple to grab random material and tree trunks up to 20″ in diameter and feed it into the processing bin.
This keeps the crew from compromising their safety when working in steep or craggy areas or when processing challenging materials such as larger, denser masses of brush and tree trunks that are too heavy for men to lift into the machine.
This chipper is operated by remote control that allows independent operation of the unit, which is important in areas where precise navigation is necessary – terrain that is extremely steep, heavily treed, somewhat muddy or have an abundance of cliffs and craggy rocks.
EXCAVATORS:
Our excavators are setup with fixed rotating grapples to feed chippers, shear brush and trees up to 12″ in diameter, and mastication.
TRACK-MOUNTED STUMP GRINDER:
The Hurricane TRX Stump Cutter is a versatile high volume stump cutter. This innovative unique machine gives you an unmatched combination of cutting power, maneuverability, and productivity. Many unique proprietary design features make it the perfect choice for high volume residential and light clearing applications. See our Stump Grinder.
HAND-HELD EQUIPMENT: There are a variety of tasks which should be done by hand because larger equipment is not an appropriate match, is not agile enough to work around specific conditions or is simply “overkill.” Hand-held equipment, like chainsaws and weed-eaters, allows us the precision and control we need to address these types of tasks, which include eliminating tall weeds on a hillside, falling trees, trimming tree branches, removing vegetation around the base of trees and among boulders and removing brush overgrown in wet areas.
ANCILLIARY EQUIPMENT: In the occasional event that equipment in addition to our own inventory is necessary to complete the work, we will make arrangements with one of our business alliances to provide the equipment and related service. Whether the alliance works through us or directly with you, we will coordinate the work effort with them to help ensure the desired overall result. Such situations would include dangerous tree removal and smaller stump grinding projects.
The goal for this 5-acre Placer County foothill property was to create a more marketable home site for our Investor client. Heavy vegetation blocked views and masked the gently sloping terrain, making it impossible to see the site’s natural beauty and ideal building conditions. The brush was so thick in some areas that it completely concealed several dramatic boulder outcroppings. Poison oak overwhelmed much of the land, growing up 20 feet into the trees. Overly-dense tree growth hid view corridors and made it difficult to visualize possibilities for home placement. Masses of blackberries disguised a picturesque creek bed.
These conditions demanded a variety of skill and equipment to deliver a setting that would have curb-appeal. Hand removal was required for the poison oak and dense brush thickets. Mastication took care of the blackberries. One of our tree experts trimmed and thinned out about 20% of the trees on the site. Our remote-control track-mounted chipper efficiently processed most of the vegetation into lush mulch, while the Mountain Goat chipper was a perfect match for the larger trees and gangly brush.
The results were stunning – a property that would appear to have no redeeming qualities at first glance became a park-like retreat that proved to attract potential spec builders and homeowners alike.
Before and After