In a message dated 8/4/01 10:47:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
ve9aa@nbnet.nb.ca writes:
> Can anyone give me a good estimate of what it might cost to install
> 100'-150' feet of Rohn 45G or 55G tower, complete
> with guy wires, brackets,concrete etc.?
>
Okay, I'll take a run at it. I've worked as a professional tower jock on
over 150 amateur installations and dozens of commercial sites. The jobs are
generally within 10% of my original estimate so I've got confidence in my
numbers.
BUDGETARY ESTIMATE FOR ERECTION OF 100' OF ROHN 45G
Labor only - you can get hardware prices anywhere.
Material costs not included.
Civil work: Dig holes with backhoe or equivalent, put in rebar, pour
concrete. One crewperson required.
Time: 8 hours
Guy wire assembly: Allow 30 to 45 minutes PER guy wire. By the time you roll
the guys out, measure them, put Preforms/insulators/etc., it'll take that
long.
100' tower has 9 sets of guys. Two crewpersons required.
Time required: 5-6 hours
Erect tower: If everything is ready to go and you're pretty good, you can
stack 100' in a day. I'd budget this at 1-1/2 days. If you've never done it
before, add another 1/2 day.
Minimum 3 crewpersons required - one on the tower and two to pull up
sections.
Option: Hire a crane. It'll still take the same amount of time since you have
to assembly everything but you can do it on the ground instead of in the air.
Mast, antenna(s), rotator, cables, etc. installation:
Time required: Most of a day. Minimum 3 crewpersons.
The crane option is useful here. Since the crane is already on-site, just
have him pick up the mast and antennas; it's faster, easier and safer than
pulling everything up by hand.
As far as the COST of this - use whatever numbers you want. If you get
all your buddies to come over and help; the cost is zero but the time
increases due to crew inexperience.
For one tower guy to ramrod the whole thing with the station owner
providing the ground crew, you're looking at anything from $20 an hour on up
to $85 an hour or so. This IS a case of you get what you pay for. For an
experienced, insured and bonded tower guy, it'll be in the $40 per hour and
up range. For an additional paid crewperson, double the cost.
For this example where one professional is hired, his cost is $60 per
hour and he does everything except assemble the antennas, the time is about 4
days so the labor would be around $2000.
LOTS of guys say they're tower pros after they've worked on a couple of
towers. The truth is that SOME of them are actually competent and they're
worth every penny they charge.
Something you get that probably didn't occur to you is the fact that the
job gets done faster when you've got a pro running the show. Instead of
taking a month of weekends (or longer!), you can get the whole thing done is
4 days more or less.
Anything you can do yourself is obviously going to save you money; do the
civil work, assemble antennas, etc.
Cheers & GL! Steve K7LXC
Tower Tech
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