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Tumblehome and Prussik Ltd 'Adventure with Purpose' |
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Construction - Design - Inspection - Maintenance - Training info@tpsafety.com 0044(0)7710124553 |
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Ropes Course - Prices
Occasionally we have a customer that wants an adventure construction purely for their own pleasure. We have built the odd tree house and installed zip wires for customers who just wanted something for their children to play on. (Not them of course!) But most of us are involved, one way or another, in making money! There are three links below to information about the main aspects of YOUR money.
Why is there such a range of prices between the different companies?
How much do Adventure Constructions Cost?
A simple business model to get a return on your investment
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Why is there such a range of prices between the different companies? Different construction companies charge very different prices. Two members of our team used to buy ropes courses. This means we have had a good look at the prices and construction methods of most of the other providers!! A basic Jacob's Ladder can vary in price between £4,500 and £10,000 and unless you know the detail it's hard to see why. By using the example of a guy wire ground anchor we explain why there is this range.
£4500 If you pay £4500 for your Jacobs Ladder it is highly likely that the construction company will have had delivered an extra pole, generally the thinnest, which they will cut up into small 1.5 meter sections. They will then either insert a eyebolt, or worse just wrap galvanised wire around the piece and bury it. The wire will have a eye swaged onto the end and this will become one of the ground anchors. They probably won't re-treat the cut ends. And what wrong that? Well, initially nothing provided it's done properly, most telegraph poles are guyed in this manner. But there is an old adage in engineering that states - 'Build to Inspect' So 3-5 years down the road how do you inspect the anchor. It's made of wood - and once you put wood into the ground it will eventually rot - no matter what the tannelising companies say! Plus galvanised wire has been used which will rust underground. Its worth mentioning that this is also how they make the belay anchors which your customers climbing line is attached to!!! You will be told that it conforms to current legislation, it won't, and it will come with a fancy certificate saying it has a 'lifetime guarantee on workmanship' If you have it inspected by a reputable company, after say 3-5 years, they will point out that to effectively test your anchors you will need to dig one of them up to inspect the timber - so you might as well do the job properly and install some new anchors - meaning that your 'cost of ownership' has just gone up by several thousand pounds!
£10,000 If you pay £10,000 for your Jacobs Ladder it is highly likely that the construction company will have dug a 1.5 M square hole, into which they will have suspended a galvanised steel eye. They will then fill the hole with a sulphate resistant concrete. And when it comes to inspect it you can look at the eye. If after 15 years or so there is a problem a stainless steel 20mm 'through-bolt' can be drilled into the concrete which will give another 15 years service! Concrete and galvanised steel eyes cost more than sawn up bits of pole! The construction will conform to current legislation, and will give you many years of trouble free operation and peace of mind when you customers are climbing all over it. Companies that charge £10,000 generally have an business premise to rent and maintain, have a full time office staff, have a full time construction staff, place full page adverts in 'outdoor' magazines and maintain expansive 'jingling' websites all of which has to be paid for by someone - meaning you!
£7000
If you apply the same principal to all of the materials used in the construction of a Jacob's Ladder, i.e. only using the best and take away the large overheads you will wind up with a price of approximately £7000 - see below
NB!!!! There are of course companies that charge £10,000 but use £4500 methods. The simple way round this is to ask for a build inspection schedule and ask the contractor to show you what they are doing when they do it. Any reputable contractor will be more than happy to show you exactly what they are doing at any stage of the build. |
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How much do Adventure Constructions Cost? Just as no two customers are the same, adventure construction prices will always be different. A meter length of galvanised wire is approximately £1.50p without our margin. The difference in prices comes when the customer wants us to install the length of wire at the end of the boggy field just on the other side of that small river in December - obviously the local soil type is clay and it's hissing down with heavy rain!!! If asked to install a Jacob's Ladder close to a metalled road, with not too many complications, we would charge £7000 plus VAT Please call us for more information regarding the prices of our other adventure constructions. We are certainly not the cheapest and not the most expensive. We have been forced, by budget constrictions of former employers, to buy at the cheaper end of the market and have painfully discovered the true and full meaning of 'cost of ownership'! Thousands of pounds had to be spent to rectify problems which would not have occurred has 2 or 3 thousand more had been spent in the first place - not to mention the office time, hassle and annoyance involved. And at the end of the day we all know that 'you get what you pay for'! |
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A simple business model to get a return on your investment Let us assume that you don't have £7000 'lying' around to spend. If you approach a bank they will ask you to give them in the region of £9,000 back, over a 2 year period meaning that you have to find £4500 per year. Let us assume that you can get a £3 per person net profit. Simply put £4500 divided by 3 equals 1500 divided by 220 (working days in year) equals 6.8 customers per day. If you can get £100 per week net profit back on your Jacob's Ladder your laughing! With the right 'corporate' group you'll do this in 1 session! The bottom line is that that if your doing your marketing correctly you should fully own your Jacob's ladder in 2 years and we would expect one of our Ladder's to last at least ten without any major maintenance! There are government grants, lottery money and other cash schemes about to be used to the advantage of your business which means that you may be able to get someone else to pay for it. Come to us with your plan - pay a small deposit - and book a build date 18 months later - this gives you plenty of time to fund raise, plunder cash schemes, do your marketing and get planning permission. Six months before the build date pay the rest of the deposit knowing that you have a good plan in place which will give you a decent return on your money.
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A price range for each of our advertised products is given on the products page. There is a range because, like modern cars, there is a wide choice of options plus the build will depend on the access, ground type and location of the construction. Some of the options are: Ground Cover: Well placed ground cover will give you many years of trouble free service. Gravel place on a foundation of type 1 stone is the best and unsurprisingly the most expensive. Wood chippings are ascetically pleasing but require constant renewal. Above Ground Pole Placement: Recent changes in the tannelising process mean that ground placement poles will not last as long as they used to. We can install poles in purpose built 'boots' which are bolted to concrete foundations.
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