Interesting Job - Pittsburgh Brewery

[Hedgemaster]

I did my first non-residential job Saturday. It's not an "account", it was just a one-time thing, but it was almost worth doing for free due to the "cool factor". That said, I think I'll hold onto the $100 I made in an 80 minutes. I got to go inside the gates at the now defunct Iron City brewery. (They've moved operations outside of Pittsburgh) The place looks like the setting for a post-apocalyptic movie now, with portions of the building torn down and a massive hole in the side of one of the buildings with an enormous pile of rubble next to it. One of my regular mowing clients works in the movie industry and he called the other day to see if I could help out. They are filming a TV movie down the street from the brewery and plan on using the Iron City brewery lot for staff parking. There were a lot of weeds growing everywhere and they needed them buzzed so people could park and not have to walk through the mess. No mowing involved - all trimmer work. It was definitely one of the most interesting jobs I've done. Aside from the historic nature of the buildings themselves, I found myself peeking inside to see the machinery that was once used to produce the famous Pittsburgh beer. There was all sorts of old equipment, parts, signs, and other interesting "junk" strewn about the place. Who knows, maybe I'll eventually get to do some "greens work" that appears in a movie, and get nominated for "best hedges in a drama". Lot cleanup... Before After Before After Before After Misc shots: Entering brewery... My truck. (No, not the beer truck) View between the buildings... I was expecting Robocop to come clunking out at any moment... Some of you may have been in the brewery, but have you ever gone in through a ginormous hole? LOL Some machinery viewed through a door that probably should be locked... I must say, it was pretty cool.

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[element009]

Lawn care business tips

That's awesome. The pics of the brewery make me want to watch The Deer Hunter

[Hedgemaster]

Heh. Would you believe I've never seen the Deer Hunter?
I think I was ten when that came out.

I wish I had more time to "explore" while I was there. From what I understand, there's still a little bit of equipment inside, and the tractor trailers outside are probably there to move some of it.

The worst part of this job was my left forearm being "sandblasted" by all the fine, stone particles/debris as I buzzed along the pavement. That and I used about a weeks worth of string in an hour. LOL

[element009]

LOL, it's a good movie man. I wasn't even a thought in my parent's mind when it came out....but DeNiro and Christopher Walken are awesome in it. A lot of it is based in western PA

[Steve]

Very fascinating!

How did you go about estimating this job? How did the actual time you estimated compare with your estimated time?

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by Steve

Very fascinating!

How did you go about estimating this job? How did the actual time you estimated compare with your estimated time?

LOL! That's the beautiful thing - I didn't even have to give an estimate!

My client calls me and asks if I'm interested in a "side-job" - explains what needs done... He says "Yeah, you can probably crank it out in an hour and charge them seventy five, eighty, a hundred bucks... they just need it done quick, and the regular lawn service is too busy".

I met him at the site to see what I was getting myself into (on the phone he said the weeds were "really high") and after seeing that it wasn't all that bad, I said I could do it. He said "Great", asked me to fill out a form with my employer ID #, so they could issue a check.
When I asked who I needed to talk to about a quote, he said, "I'm just going to tell them you want $100 - that work for you?"

Yes. Yes it does. (Heck, I probably would have told them $65)
"It's not my money", he said with a chuckle.


As a matter of fact, the check was here when I came home today.
I cut on Saturday and got my check on Wednesday - all the way from a Beverly Hills bank/Burbank production company.

My first Hollywood money.



Oh, and as for the time estimate, I estimated 2 hours just to be safe with my schedule for that day. It was a tough one to judge, as I've never done trimming of an area as extensive as that.
I worked for 80 minutes, but could have done it in an hour - as usual, I did more than was asked of me.

[Ducke]

So what movie were they shooting ??

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by Ducke

So what movie were they shooting ??

I dunno I didn't ask. He mentioned it was a "TV movie".

That freak show Tom Cruise is in town for filming too, but that's something different.

[Ducke]

We get a lot of star up here filming as well.
Tom Sellick is one who filmed a lot up here.
The James something series were he plays a sheriff.

Harrison Ford filmed Red October here He came into the hardware store were I worked at the time.

I know an electrician that works excursively for the movie biz.
Now that i have heard your story I am going to look him up and give him some cards.

[Steve]

Oh, and as for the time estimate, I estimated 2 hours just to be safe with my schedule for that day. It was a tough one to judge, as I've never done trimming of an area as extensive as that.
I worked for 80 minutes, but could have done it in an hour - as usual, I did more than was asked of me.

Was there anything you would have done differently, looking back at it now?