Brooksville Wood Stake Customers Ask – got wood?

got stakes?

The summer of 2008 has been a wet one for Hernando County Surveyors and Contractors in need of a good reliable wood source. Right now everyone understands you take what business comes your way -if it’s new business it is even better. A local sawmill in Brooksville has continually informed their customers they cut outside and can’t work during the rainy weather, we just don’t feel that is fair to do to your regular customers, survey stakes are not a seasonal business to us or to land surveyors, when they need their stakes they need their stakes.  Stakemill also keeps a good inventory level on hand, some of the little guys cut as needed, we were their also.  We want to remind everyone Stakemill is also a small business, but one that realizes to keep your customers you have to predict what inventory levels to keep on hand.  Over the last 20 plus years we have learned more production ways to produce and ways that do not produce.  In other posts we list the number of stake companines that have come and gone - well over a dozen, and that’s just in the central part of Florida.

Stakemill is located in a commercial metal warehouse that allows us to work regardless of the weather, every location we have ever been in and every stake business we have purchased also was located in a commercial complex.

We can show you a few facilities that have no walls and are exposed to the elements and we can also show you numerous customers Stakemill supplies wood to that is within close proximity of these open wall saw mills.

Call us today – 727-538-0886

Stakemill delivers Survey Stakes to Ft Myers, Naples, Bonita Springs and Pt Charlotte customers

JUNE 2008 - The Recent closing of Gulf Coast Survey Supply leaves Ft Myers customers out in the cold once again.  From late 2003, mid 2004 and again in late 2007 Ft Myers supplied surveyors and contractors received different quality stakes from Gulf Coast during those time periods.  Those time periods also overlap when two other large stake producers went bust and most recently when thier fourth and final supplier was unable to provide for them due to poor performance.  We can’t empahise enough to land surveyors, road builders and contractors that need wood stakes, be sure to check out your suppliers in house manufacturing abilities. 

STAKEMILL DELIVERS TO FT MYERS AREA EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY – delivery charges apply

Stakemill adds more Ft Myers, Naples, Bonita Springs & Pt Charlotte customers (Jan 2008 Blog by Stakemill)

Once more Ft Myers surveyors are in need of a reliable stake supplier.  The Ft Myers supplier has left surveyors in the surrounding areas in 2003 when Delray pulled out and then a second time in 2004 when Component Systems pulled out.  This Ft Myers supplier has actually hurt it’s customers by never fully understanding they were never more than a reseller with no adequate supplier.  They most likely never even toured the facilities operations that supplied them with their wood stakes giving them the knowledge of what was involved in stake production.

We welcome these new customers and want to reiterate the fact the Ft Myers supplier has told the surveyors they formerly delivered.  With todays fuel prices, cost of delivery vehicles, fuel economy of said trucks and human resources to deliver the stakes, it will actually cost us more to service the area.  We will do everything we can to deliver to the Ft Myers area at competitive prices with a quality wood survey stake as we have for the last 20 years.

See our complete line of survey lath, 1×2 stakes and hubs, iron rods, concrete monuments and field supplies at Stakemill.com.

Delivering Survey Stakes in Florida

It has been 30 years since Stakemill started in Largo Florida to supply land surveyors with a quality stake. Quite a bit has changed since then, no one pulls a chain any more, data collectors have WiFi and Bluetooth, surveyors are just as accurate as when they were done with just a level, of course you can survey much faster now.  One thing that still remains the same is that Stakemill has maintained more of its core customer base than most other stake companies claiming to be the oldest or one of the longest established.  One hard hitting fact of 2008 is the diesel prices reaching over $4.40 a gallon, just five years ago they were under a buck fifty.  Lumber is a commodity and diesel fuel is needed to log the lumber, truck the lumber to the mill and truck it both to our production facility and back out to our customer.  What does this mean to the surveyor and contractor?  Be sure to use a centraly located producer of wood stakes, we can reach more major markets in two to three hours than any other producer that claims to have been established as long as Stakemill has.

We have mentioned this before, and seen it recently hit the Ft Myers market and are also seeing it start to take place in a market just north of us.  What is it you ask?  The drive time it takes to get to customers from the mill cannot exceed more than half the work day, truck drivers by law can only be on the road for a select amount of hours per day, so how can a supplier near the pan handle cater to customers below the Skyway bridge or near Orlando?  They simply cannot do this efficiently and without passing the costs onto the customer.  We maintain a fleet of newer diesel trucks that unfortunately only get single digit fuel economy and have adhered to a very effective delivery schedule around the state of Florida.  For those outside of our delivery area or those in need we can arrange lift gate service with UPS or FedEx delivery services for additional costs.  We have also implemented most markets to having two different days a week for delivery service, but we do ask customers take an amount that will hold them for at least a 2 week time period.

Will the delivery truck of the future be a small electric vehicle?  Only time will tell, but Stakemill plans on being your preferred supplier of today and of tomorrow.

Stakemill offers quality stakes every time

Utilizing actual stake production equipment on all of our production lines and not home made machines, Stakemill continues to make the same high quality stakes as we did years ago by keeping our production line equipment up to date.  Stakemill regulary updates to newer saws identical to the ones we have been using for the last 20 years, these professionaly made saws assure us of continued production and satisfied customers.  We even control a production line overseas that uses the machines we housed in both our Largo and Ocala facilities.  Those saws teamed up with an abundant wood source and competitive labor have allowed us to continue cutting all the stakes we need in house along with bringing in a superior grade stake and hub cut from hard woods.  One fact we are proud of is that we have acquired more stake production companies over the last 20 years than currently exist today in the local area today, a feat we love to brag about. 

Seen above are the saws Stakemill purchased just outside the Gainesville area in 2006 when a stake company that recently changed hands failed to make ends meet, a sight all to familar to us.  We have seen more compaines come and go over the last 20 years, ealry 2008 has left Ft Myers surveyors looking for wood stakes again, Stakemill will be there for them again.  We expect 2009 to leave another stake companies equipment going to the auction block.  Stakemill is expecting to buy new equipment in 2009, stake comany owners, please contact Sean Scully at 727-538-0886 ext 101 to discuss your surplus equipment or company for sale.

Survey Stakes and Lath in Florida

HOW DO YOUR STAKES MEASURE UP?

We have asked that question for years, longer than most of the current owners of stakes companies have been in business even though they will tell you they are the longest running stake company.  Stakemill has been located in Pinellas County since it first started cutting wood stakes in 1978, I have been sitting in the same office for 20 years and I am not even 40 years old yet.  We have acquired more stake companies in Florida than any one else, simply putting us at the front of this industry.  We are not located in the woods, nor do we have mobile homes located on our facility and we do not have Port-a-Potties, rather commercial facilities with paved parking lots.  Being in the same city since the late 80’s, more and more surveyors, contractors, government agencies and lumber yards have turned to us as their only supplier for quality wood stakes.  Our prices have stayed the same for almost the last 3 years, before that time we were able to keep our prices the same for almost a 10 year period.  We have new customers tell us on a regular basis the other stake companies are just too expensive and do not offer a quality stake.  That is how we have kept the same customers for over 20 years.

Wood Survey Stakes

Not all wood stakes are created equal – you have different species of wood, from light weight soft woods to heavy, dense grain hard woods.  You also have different finishes from band saw course cuts to fine carbide tip blade cuts and even surfacing of the wood to yield an ultra smooth writable finish.  We utilize different finishes for different stakes along with hard woods compared to standard Southern Yellow Pine in different applications.

Stakemill has been located in Pinellas County Florida since 1978 and has been utilizing the same high quality production methods to produce wood survey lath and stakes.  Other stake companies have come and gone and we have either acquired their equipment or seen it once again set up and shut down.  In the last 30 years not one stake company has lasted in the same city or the same ownership, why you ask – simple economics.  If the business changes hands in ownership, all you are doing is incurring debt and in-experience.  If you produce a low quality product, you will not keep your customer base.  Sell for too little money and the doors simply cannot stay open.  Stakemill still has numerous customers from around the state that have been buying from us on a regular basis for over 25 years.