Two parts to a Patriot Brushworks quote: the fixed costs we carry on every project, and the variable costs that depend on what your property throws at our machines.
These costs are baked into every job we take, regardless of difficulty. We don't itemize them on your quote — they're already covered by the price.
Three things move the variable price — how fast the machine can move, how fast parts wear out, and whether your property demands equipment beyond our standard rig. Here's how each tier breaks down.
The baseline tier. The machine works at design pace, parts wear at expected rates, and we cover the rest with our standard rig.
0.5–1.5 acres per day, depending on what's on the ground. Predictable, fast, clean.
The machine works harder, runs longer per acre, and parts wear faster. Mixed brush, larger saplings, rolling ground, some rocky soil, or tight access all add real time and accelerated wear that we have to recover.
0.25–0.75 acres per day. The jump from Easy to Moderate is mostly time on the machine, plus the start of meaningful tooth wear.
The cost climb here is real, and it's not us padding the bill. Tough work hits three areas hard: production rate, parts replacement, and equipment beyond what our standard rig can handle.
A tough acre takes 3–5× longer than an easy acre. A one-day job at Easy can become a 4–5 day job at Tough. Operator works slower for safety, makes more passes, and stops more often to clear debris and check the machine.
Tough properties are where New England's geological history shows up — heavy ledge, glacial till, fieldstone everywhere, and often old stone walls hidden in the brush.
At 2,000+ RPM, a carbide tooth ($135+) shatters on impact with a rock. On a heavily rocky day we can lose 15–25 teeth — $2,000–3,500 in teeth alone, before fuel or labor. A worst-case rotor strike on a buried boulder can take the rotor itself out of service (repair $5,000–10,000).
Old stone walls hidden in brush add another layer. We can't run the mulcher across a stone wall — it damages both the wall and the machine. Vegetation right against the wall has to be cleared by hand or with chainsaw to expose the stone without dislodging it. Slower work, more labor, and a real risk of loose stones falling once the brush is removed.
For modest slopes — 10–15 foot embankments — we use our mini excavator to reach the work safely. Fully capable rig, but the smaller mulching head limits us to smaller-diameter trees compared to the larger compact track loader.
0.1–0.4 acres per day. Sometimes less.
For steep or higher-risk work beyond what our mini excavator can safely handle, we either decline the job or rent specialty equipment for it — daily rental runs $2,000–3,500.
We don't carry a slope-rider insurance policy. We'd rather say "this isn't the right job for us" than take risks with our crew. If the volume of this kind of work grows, we'd buy the right machine for it. We're not there yet.