# Finally back from Baltimore.....WOW!



## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

We decided to hit Baltimore instead of D.C. One guy that went with me, his Aunt lived in Baltimore and lined us up with a private home owner association which was absolutely buried in snow. I met up with Collin and his crew from ColumbiaLand Landscaping. All I can say is holy snow! Roads were piled up 20ft, 4 lane roads were down to 1, maybe 1 1/2 lanes, it was nuts. We started doing alley ways...what a PITA! Several times we were stuck in 4ft of snow, I dont know how Collin maneuvered his F550 through some of the alley's. We managed to open up all the alley ways in about 5-6 hours then waited for the city to call. At first they said we will call you if we need you :laughing: I said we didn't drive 8+ hours to be on stand by! When the lady asked where we were from she said hold on, 2 minutes later we were issued our own purchase order and headed out. We started out relocating a gigantic snow pile so they could move in a snow melting machine. We knocked that out in less that 2 hours and from there started on the now dreaded "ZONE-6" good God!!!!!!!! We were met with nothing but impassible roads, cars parked everywhere and TONS of snow. Zone 6 is in a less desirable area of Baltimore to say the least. The first night there I was offered an 8 ball of something,lol. All in all the whole area was a disaster area. We plugged away on city streets averaging 18-24 hr days and finally we were sent home Friday afternoon....they ran out of money,lol. But all in all it was a great trip! Even after dealing with the pita public (pushing snow on sidewalks) The last night was the best! great, thankful neighbor's who bought us pizza (except for the one lady who was pissed snow rolled off a pile onto her sidewalk) she was an absolute B!TCH. we rolled the window up on her as she was screaming at us...that pissed her off even more :laughing: she called us every name in the book as I rolled the window up telling her to shut the **** up. 
Long trip, gallons of fuel, very hectic, tons of snow and no where to put it, long hours, meet new people and contacts, dealt with all kinds of people....but would do it all over again next week. Plenty of pics to come, we have to unpack and up load all the pics.


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## PTSolutions (Dec 8, 2007)

glad to hear all went relatively well! sounds like you made the better decision to go to Baltimore as some who went to DC couldnt find much work. looking forward to the pics!


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

ProTouchGrounds;1007330 said:


> glad to hear all went relatively well! sounds like you made the better decision to go to Baltimore as some who went to DC couldnt find much work. looking forward to the pics!


If we went down a day or two earlier we would have made a small fortune just in driveways! I guess 100 dollar bills were everywhere for tiny drive ways a day before we got there.


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## PTSolutions (Dec 8, 2007)

mustve been quite the different scene, HarleyChvy was saying that no one wanted to pay when he went down to DC


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## iceyman (Mar 1, 2007)

ProTouchGrounds;1007366 said:


> mustve been quite the different scene, HarleyChvy was saying that no one wanted to pay when he went down to DC


ya gotta line up some kinda work before you go... to guarantee yourself work


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## mullis56 (Jul 12, 2005)

So did you make any $$$?


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## PTSolutions (Dec 8, 2007)

obviously your not going to jump into it blindly. he did say he was in contact with several contractors in the area but even the residents wouldnt pay $50 to clear their drives loaded with 30" of snow.


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## cubanb343 (Dec 13, 2007)

That 8 ball coulda came in handy workin 18-24 hrs at a time, hahaha- 

For sure, everyone here is looking forward to seeing the pictures!


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## big acres (Nov 8, 2007)

Sounds like a great adventure story to be able to tell for years to come...

I am more interested in hearing how much MONEY you made!

Did you cover your travel costs, lodging, food, etc... and still come back with a pile of money???

Let us know!


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

big acres;1007455 said:


> Sounds like a great adventure story to be able to tell for years to come...
> 
> I am more interested in hearing how much MONEY you made!
> 
> ...


Put it this way, I covered all expenses, and after paying all the help it was still very, very well worth the trip!  Pics coming as soon as my wife can down load them, I must have 200 pics.


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## cmo18 (Mar 10, 2008)

Congrats man...gotta take risk in business to make money. Glad it worked out


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## Dstosh (Dec 30, 2003)

Brian Young;1007484 said:


> Put it this way, I covered all expenses, and after paying all the help it was still very, very well worth the trip!  Pics coming as soon as my wife can down load them, I must have 200 pics.


Enough to buy the F-800 That we talked about?


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## ColumbiaLand (Sep 1, 2008)

Yes it was crazy, I don't even know how the F550 made it through some places, Funny thing is we drove by this road in our assigned area that was not even touched all week and the last day we were there I got to the end of a one lane road with no where to turn around and had to plow through it to get out of the area. It was about 33" deep of pure powder, I actually went right through it, but my cat skid did a lot of work that week and climbed right up the snow banks with the tracks on and the 10' pusher worked well a few times. I also have a ton of good pictures that I will upload next week. For now here are a couple pics from my phone...


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## ColumbiaLand (Sep 1, 2008)

Dstosh;1007579 said:


> Enough to buy the F-800 That we talked about?


Don't Worry We made out okpayuppayup


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## Indy (Sep 23, 2007)

Pic's or ban.......that's the rules


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## PTSolutions (Dec 8, 2007)

^at least they were smart enough to post in the commercial forum and not the pics forum, that buys them some time.


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## ColumbiaLand (Sep 1, 2008)

enough with the smart [email protected]@ comments


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## PTSolutions (Dec 8, 2007)

> enough with the smart [email protected]@ comments


easy for you to say. you got to go on a fun roadtrip, plow tons of snow, play with equipment and make a ton of money. what did we do?? sit here on plowsite waiting for you to come back and tell us about it. we like to live dangerously, oh wait i meant vicariously...


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## big acres (Nov 8, 2007)

Brian Young;1007484 said:


> Put it this way, I covered all expenses, and after paying all the help it was still very, very well worth the trip!  Pics coming as soon as my wife can down load them, I must have 200 pics.


That's fabulous... but real numbers are much more exciting?!!!!!


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## Indy (Sep 23, 2007)

ColumbiaLand;1007646 said:


> enough with the smart [email protected]@ comments


....................................


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Here are a few pics, some of our stuff and some of ColumbiaLand's stuff


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

More pics....


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

And more pics...


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

More pics.... Some of these roads haven't been touched since the first snow fall!


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

I'll say it again, all you guys who want big storms have never been through one!


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

More pics...had to deal with a few pits people but as you can see there was no where to put the snow, and I dont think they had any salt left!


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Collin and his crew had to leave due to a big storm heading their way so we called another guy and he brought another skid with blower which was awesome!


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

The last few pics are from a small area where no plows,salt trucks or anything have been through. One guy said he hasn't been able to go to work in 10 days. They were cool, they bought us pizza, coffee pop (soda). The pics from on top of the pile are probably 20+ft in the air.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

grandview;1007886 said:


> I'll say it again, all you guys who want big storms have never been through one!


You said it! I dont even know what to say about the way they handled the situation. I guess they did the best they could but we asked for salt trucks several times but no response. All I can say is we worked well with they guys from NYC and couldn't have asked for better group of guys. It was nice to work with guys who knew what to do. We were pretty much left on our own all week. You could write a book on how they could have or should have done but again, we knocked sh!t out for them. There is still about a weeks worth of work to do but I guess they ran out of $$$$$ so they sent us home Friday 130 pm.


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## deere615 (Jun 1, 2007)

Awesome pictures man what a great experience! They got a little more snow there then we did in pittsburgh! I am guessing the condo association paid you guys and everything else the city paid you? When you planned it from the begining did you just make calls to the city and property management companies?


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## ColumbiaLand (Sep 1, 2008)

Its was a heck of a time down there with brian, If they called now I would def go again for the right amount of money. Ive never done anything like that for sure!


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## IMAGE (Oct 21, 2007)

What equipment did you have there? And how many hours did each piece bill out?


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## WIPensFan (Jan 31, 2009)

Imagine how much more efficient those skids would have been with big snow buckets. Those standard buckets are a joke for snow removal. That place looked like a disaster area, glad it worked out for you guys.payup


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

IMAGE;1007969 said:


> What equipment did you have there? And how many hours did each piece bill out?


We had 2 skid steers, my F250, Collin's F550 and another F350 all with V blades and another skid steer from Wed thru Fri with a blower. Still adding up hours. The other guys had to leave early but me and the guy who went with me had well over 100 as of Thursday night into Friday morning.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

WIPensFan;1007981 said:


> Imagine how much more efficient those skids would have been with big snow buckets. Those standard buckets are a joke for snow removal. That place looked like a disaster area, glad it worked out for you guys.payup


Well we just bought this skid steer 3 weeks ago or so and really haven't had time to look into different buckets We move tons (literally) of snow even with the standard buckets in a very short time. Joke or no joke they still got the job done.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

deere615;1007953 said:


> Awesome pictures man what a great experience! They got a little more snow there then we did in pittsburgh! I am guessing the condo association paid you guys and everything else the city paid you? When you planned it from the begining did you just make calls to the city and property management companies?


It was a real pita. I am now a vendor for the city lol, you had to go through all kinds of paperwork, insurance etc. tons of prep work, thank God for my Wife!!!!! This was all put together in a matter of 2 days.


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## WIPensFan (Jan 31, 2009)

Brian Young;1008002 said:


> Well we just bought this skid steer 3 weeks ago or so and really haven't had time to look into different buckets We move tons (literally) of snow even with the standard buckets in a very short time. Joke or no joke they still got the job done.


I understand, you worked with what you had. Once you get a snow bucket or use one, you'll understand how many less trips and dumps you would have made. Probably fit 3-4 regular bucket loads into a snow bucket.


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## buckwheat_la (Oct 11, 2009)

hey brian, you were posting the blues about buying that skid in previous posts, i am glad you finally found some work for it


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## 91AK250 (Nov 28, 2007)

thats crazy, the fact you have nowhere to put the snow would be a huge PITA. great pics keep them coming!


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## Michigansnowkin (Sep 28, 2009)

Sweet pictures there. keep it coming!


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## PTSolutions (Dec 8, 2007)

awesome work guys, im sure some residents of Baltimore will be talking about you and others who lent a hand for years to come, CHEERS!


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## cubanb343 (Dec 13, 2007)

Awesome pics dude, I think Erie only got an inch or two while you were gone


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## toptech72 (Oct 7, 2008)

Well i hope you enjoyed Baltimore while you were here. Dont know if you got to talk to any of the more experienced local contractors. If you did you know for the most part we wont do work for the state or towns. There is just so much more money to be made off of the commercial and residential work if you know where to find it. We did lend a hand with DC and Harford- Cecil and Baltimore Counties but that was just to give some of the subs extra time.This was the first time that instead of having to pick up whole routes we could just pick a road or two that was between our normal stops. I must say the local governments were happy with what ever help we were willling to offer. I will agree that there are ALOT of people here that have plows or equipment and no f ing idea how to use it. We will have work for the next week just cleaning up after other contractors. We have had shovel crews out trying dig out mail boxes and fire hydrants that are somewhere under the piles of snow that got dumped on them. I have been dealing with H.O.As that have always told me our bids were way to high in the past. So i think its funny to have to go in after the cheaper contractors that they hired and have to clean up thier mess. But i guess when a management co or H.O.A only wants you to plow after the storm is over and not plow with the storm they get what they deserve. Now i really hope we get atleast 1 more 18+ inch storm this year. And i still know that when we bid these contracts in April i will be told that we are to high. They will never understand that they can pay us to do it and do it right or they can pay the cheaper company to f it up and then pay us to fix it in the end. I have a contract infront of me know that is for an apartment complex that wants a per push price with a 4 inch trigger. The first paragraph ask for a per push price and the second paragraph explains that we are only allowed to bill for 1 push per "event". With the definition of "event" as : any snowfall from start to finish. A snowfall is consider to be "finished" when there is a period of atleast 8 hours with no new snow accumalation. As i sit and read this crap i wonder what idiot thought of this sh*t and if they have ever driven a plow truck or even ever had to shovel their own damn sidewalk before.


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## buckwheat_la (Oct 11, 2009)

toptech72;1008088 said:


> Well i hope you enjoyed Baltimore while you were here. Dont know if you got to talk to any of the more experienced local contractors. If you did you know for the most part we wont do work for the state or towns. There is just so much more money to be made off of the commercial and residential work if you know where to find it. We did lend a hand with DC and Harford- Cecil and Baltimore Counties but that was just to give some of the subs extra time.This was the first time that instead of having to pick up whole routes we could just pick a road or two that was between our normal stops. I must say the local governments were happy with what ever help we were willling to offer. I will agree that there are ALOT of people here that have plows or equipment and no f ing idea how to use it. We will have work for the next week just cleaning up after other contractors. We have had shovel crews out trying dig out mail boxes and fire hydrants that are somewhere under the piles of snow that got dumped on them. I have been dealing with H.O.As that have always told me our bids were way to high in the past. So i think its funny to have to go in after the cheaper contractors that they hired and have to clean up thier mess. But i guess when a management co or H.O.A only wants you to plow after the storm is over and not plow with the storm they get what they deserve. Now i really hope we get atleast 1 more 18+ inch storm this year. And i still know that when we bid these contracts in April i will be told that we are to high. They will never understand that they can pay us to do it and do it right or they can pay the cheaper company to f it up and then pay us to fix it in the end. I have a contract infront of me know that is for an apartment complex that wants a per push price with a 4 inch trigger. The first paragraph ask for a per push price and the second paragraph explains that we are only allowed to bill for 1 push per "event". With the definition of "event" as : any snowfall from start to finish. A snowfall is consider to be "finished" when there is a period of atleast 8 hours with no new snow accumalation. As i sit and read this crap i wonder what idiot thought of this sh*t and if they have ever driven a plow truck or even ever had to shovel their own damn sidewalk before.


lmfao, SOOOOOOOO, you had one event (36+inches of snow) and they want it done for the same price as 4 inches, lol, with a 4 inch trigger????? you should phone the guy up and see what brand of glue he sniffs, and if he wants to share. The truely sad part about it is he is serious, but then wonders why the company that lowballed it leaves him high and dry when you get the serious snow.


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## Lux Lawn (Jan 5, 2004)

Brian Young;1008006 said:


> It was a real pita. I am now a vendor for the city lol, you had to go through all kinds of paperwork, insurance etc. tons of prep work, thank God for my Wife!!!!! This was all put together in a matter of 2 days.


I bet it was a real pain, but worth it in the long run. It looks like it was a lot of work, those streets...man there is absolutely no place to put the snow & dealing with the public after a storm like that when everyone is already pissed off has got to be even worse. Glad to see that it all worked out for you.


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## Mick76 (Aug 2, 2009)

grandview;1007886 said:


> I'll say it again, all you guys who want big storms have never been through one!


You've got that right Grandview!... Give me the easy 4 inchers anyday!


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## LwnmwrMan22 (Jan 20, 2005)

When you guys were trying to plow the streets / alleys, would people come out and TRY to move their cars once an area was cleared out? Or would they just leave the cars and then go back later?


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## creativedesigns (Sep 24, 2007)

ProTouchGrounds;1007444 said:


> but even the residents wouldnt pay $50 to clear their drives loaded with 30" of snow.


WHATT??? LOL I guess those homeowners are very cheap or don't have $50 in their bank account. 

Im glad everything worked out for u Brian! wesport


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## FisherVMan (Jan 5, 2010)

Glad it all worked out for you down there Brian, and congrats on making some decent $$$$$$$$$
What a cool trip, and dont spend it all in one place!


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## PTSolutions (Dec 8, 2007)

> WHATT??? LOL I guess those homeowners are very cheap or don't have $50 in their bank account.


yep, here i found it in brian original thread announcing his plans to go down there:



> Just got off the phone with harleychvy, he's packing up, and heading back to Maine, they had 3 plow trucks down there and said people wouldn't pay 50 .00 to plow driveways, said it didn't look that bad down there. the side streets got plowed one time and thats the way the city is gonna leave it.
> I was gonna go down with a couple of skidsteers, But i appreciate him giving out the info down there,lotta guys i know would have not said anything, thanks HARLEY........





> jjs,
> that is who told me as well...
> anyone not willing to pay 50 bucks to plow 40 inches off of your driveway is a idiot...
> 
> We really wanted to push the Roof shoveling... but screaw them, i hope they get burried with another 3 feet.


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## Lux Lawn (Jan 5, 2004)

Originally Posted by grandview 
I'll say it again, all you guys who want big storms have never been through one!



Mick76;1008245 said:


> You've got that right Grandview!... Give me the easy 4 inchers anyday!


You got that right. Those days of spending 15 or so straight hours in the truck really suck. You know whatever you do you can't keep up with the snow, and the most of the customers do not understand it covers back over 15 minutes after its plowed . So yes I will take the smaller storms any day.


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## smoore45 (Oct 27, 2007)

Very cool stuff. Glad that everything worked out for you and your crew. The pics are great!!! :salute:


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## Indy (Sep 23, 2007)

Brian Young;1007932 said:


> You said it! I dont even know what to say about the way they handled the situation. I guess they did the best they could but we asked for salt trucks several times but no response. All I can say is we worked well with they guys from NYC and couldn't have asked for better group of guys. It was nice to work with guys who knew what to do. We were pretty much left on our own all week. You could write a book on how they could have or should have done but again, we knocked sh!t out for them. There is still about a weeks worth of work to do but I guess they ran out of $$$$$ so they sent us home Friday 130 pm.


That's pretty impressive guys........great work.:salute:


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## Jello1 (Jan 17, 2008)

Awesome pics guys. I bet you're all happy to be back in your own beds after many long days.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

I have more pics but they are pretty much the same type stuff and at night so they are kind of hard to see. Again it was a tough trip but I would do it all over again in a heart beat.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

cubanb343;1008076 said:


> Awesome pics dude, I think Erie only got an inch or two while you were gone


Thankfully my guys held down the fort pretty well. Our dump, well, took a dump twice! but got it repaired and all was good to go. My Wife even did the rounds checks every night. At some points it was a bit unnerving but was quickly handled.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Jello1;1008473 said:


> Awesome pics guys. I bet you're all happy to be back in your own beds after many long days.


IDK, My Wife hooked us up with some sweet hotels but yes, glad to be back for sure!


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## Lawn Rover (Aug 16, 2009)

Congrats and great job. No doubt something to be proud of. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to your reply in the other thread. I would also be interested in how your wife handled her end of the workload, what it entailed and how much red tape she needed to get through. Thanks again!


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## KBTConst (Oct 25, 2009)

Glad to hear everything went good for you guys. You will have lots of memories for yrs to come and you will remember more and more about your trip in the next few days. please just keep us posted when you do. great pics.


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## salopez (Apr 11, 2004)

Brian where in Balt were you? my guys do the Mondowin mall of Liberty road and The Village of cross keys off Falls Rd....then got recruited to do 95 school all over! 

the whole thing was pretty crazy.


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## Harleychvy (Nov 24, 2008)

Brian, I'm glad it worked out better for you then it did me. Looks like you hit the jackpot where you went. There was alot more snow from the looks of it where you were then there was where we went, Waldorf area into Rockville is where we were.

You had the upper hand on me, you had equipment. All we had were 3 plow trucks.I couldn't touch public roads either, my insurance said if they got any wind of it they'd drop me faster then i could blink.

Congrats again.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Harleychvy;1009392 said:


> Brian, I'm glad it worked out better for you then it did me. Looks like you hit the jackpot where you went. There was alot more snow from the looks of it where you were then there was where we went, Waldorf area into Rockville is where we were.
> 
> You had the upper hand on me, you had equipment. All we had were 3 plow trucks.I couldn't touch public roads either, my insurance said if they got any wind of it they'd drop me faster then i could blink.
> 
> Congrats again.


It was a last minute deal to switch. The guy who went with me had a cousin who lives in Baltimore and thats how things got rolling. We were already in contact with the city so I knew we had some work coming. Our trucks did ok at best but it was pretty much loader work all week. The V blades worked much better than a straight blade would have done. As far as insurance, yeah well they can kiss my ars! I pay them way too much for them to tell me where I can go and what I can do with my equipment. No major problems...we had a flat or going flat tire on the truck but was fixed before it went totally flat, the skid steer needed a new seat belt so we replaced that down there (there was a NewHolland dealer 3.7 miles away) which took almost an hour to get to,lol. Found a few leaks on the skid which were the same ones I told them about when I bought it. I got all the parts but the dealer was too busy to replace them so we just kept an eye on the fluid levels til' we got home and thats about it, everything else went smooth.


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## snoway63 (Dec 29, 2009)

Excellent job, just wish i could have made the trip


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## Brant'sLawnCare (Jun 29, 2007)

You guys musta been a hero! And it looks like you made some nice $$$$$


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## chevskeezy85 (Nov 24, 2009)

looks like you guys are going to get dumped on again! A buddy of mine and i were considering heading out there but didnt, due to the fact we were supposed to get snow here. No snow here for awhile so were seriously thinking about heading out there for the thurs-sat storm. Not sure yet, coming from nebraska is a long drive.


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## naturalimage (Jan 13, 2004)

I was you neighbor down there we had one lady call the police and they actually came out


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

naturalimage;1010750 said:


> I was you neighbor down there we had one lady call the police and they actually came out


LOL, we called the "storm central" asked for the police and we were forgotten about I guess. A guy got in our face about.....you guessed it, "you buried my sidewalk" ! Well your welcome for clearing your 1/2 lane road so you can actually drive safely. Funny thing is even when the sidewalks were clear, guess where everyone walked.


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## gamberbull13 (Dec 16, 2009)

I live next to b-more and we def got pounded in this storm glad it all worked out for you guys. The biggest pita was tryin to get places got it took forever,thankfully i charge drive time  There was def alotof money made here this past month and hopefully more to come. We also made some really good coin shovellin roofs, all it took was the first collapse to get that ball rollin. Oh and the firehouse next due to mine collapsed and burned out, once that hit the news it was a free for all. The county code for snow loasds was only 35 lbs. per square foot. Some we were scared to walk on ha. Oh and the state did have a lockdown on salt and wouldnt let the countys or citys have any, much less any of us private we still cant get any. We still cant buy shovels anywhere close had to order em online and have em shipped. We were out doin driveways for 5-600 a pop and people were payin after the storm, even townhouse driveways were 200 a pop and the skid just drove around, cause you couldnt tow it anywhere.


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## ColumbiaLand (Sep 1, 2008)

Brian got any more pictures. I do I will get them up this week.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

ColumbiaLand;1027789 said:


> Brian got any more pictures. I do I will get them up this week.


Bringing back last years Baltimore trip....oh the memories,lol. Hey Collin still have more pics?


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