250 bushes

[AllSeasonsAllReasons]

Here is the deal guy's. I just got done measuring a Pick&Save store here....It's Huge!!! The problem is they want all the bushes taken care of to....All 250 of them ranging from small to large... I am a one man operation with a part time guy if needed! Do you guys think it would be better to sub them out or go for it?? If so what would you charge for them? Thanks Alot again you guy's are great to have around!! I hope someday i can answer some questions on here!!

[Runner]

How big are the bushes? Just little ones? What kind are they? Is there bed work involved then, too?

[AllSeasonsAllReasons]

180 small bushes 20 medium 50 large No bed work just trimming and clean up! Tru green does the rest!!

[GREG R]

I think you will get alot of differt views on this
question. We do a few large apt complex, one of
the smaller ones has 280 bushs (99% were knee high, yews)
we did them last year for $655.00. It took two guys
8.5 hrs (total of 16 mhrs) I do believe this is low
for my part of the world but its a very good account
and I did not want the corp office surfing for bids.
Thats $2.33 per bush, bidded another complex at $2.45
per bush and didn't get the bid (1545 bushs). So
keep reading this post for some more Good Information.




[Edited by GREG R on 02-20-2001 at 03:48 PM]

[1MajorTom]

Something to consider first. Do you have an easily accessed place to dump the trimmings?

If so, I say bid for it, and hope you get it.

One of our customers is a very wealthy lady that lives in a mansion. She has been trying to sell the house for a few years now, and she had potential buyers coming to look at the house and she wanted her shrubs/hedges trimmed. A little over 150 of them, and we charged her $4.00 a bush.
Some were bigger than others, but some were real small, so it all equaled out.
My husband did the job on a Sunday, and it took him roughly around 8 hours. Decent money for a Sunday.

One thing that made the job easy, was that he was able to dump all the trimmings right on her property. That's why I mentioned it would be good if you can dump somewhere easy without alot of hassles. Saves tons of time.

After the job was done, our customer (kinda snobby) didn't seem too impressed, and we were kinda ticked. A week later,
when we were there cutting the grass, she tells us how when the potential buyers came to look at the house, the first thing they commented on was how nice all the shrubs and hedges looked.

So I say, if you have a spare Sunday, go for it. Use your helper that day for all the clean-up. Bid the hedges/shrubs out at 4 to 5 bucks a shrub.
How many times a year do they want them trimmed? Once or twice? Ends up being decent money I think.

Also, it will help if you have a good pair of hedge trimmers. We have Commercial Stihl ones, and they do a good job.





[Edited by 1MajorTom on 02-20-2001 at 04:01 PM]

[Mowman]

FIRST LET ME SAY I HOPE YOU HAVE A DAMN GOOD HEDGE CLIPPER. SECOND I HOPE YOU HAVE FOREARMS OF STEEL. WOW THAT'S A LOT OF TRIMMING. ME, BY MYSELF I CAN TRIM & SHAPE ABOUT 15-20 WAIST HIGH BUSHES AN HOUR. WHERE YOU REALLY LOSE TIME IS IN THE CLEAN-UP PART OF THE JOB. THIS YEAR I'M GOING TO HIRE SOMEONE TO HELP WITH THAT. ON A JOB OF THIS GREAT SIZE I WOULD CHARGE HALF OF MY NORMAL RATE. I GET $5.00 PER SHRUB. SO A JOB OF THIS SIZE I WOULD BID IT FOR $625.00. FIGURE IT WOULD TAKE ME APPROX. 12 HOURS TO TRIM, THAT'S $52.00 PER HOUR. THAT'S PRETTY GOOD MONEY. PAY A SCHOOL BOY OR GIRL TO HELP WITH THE CLEAN-UP OR IF YOU HAVE KIDS OF YOUR OWN PAY THEM SOMETHING TO HELP, OR MAYBE BUY THEM A PLAYSTATION OR SOME OTHER TOY THEY HAVE BEEN EYEING. AND LAST I WOULD TRY AND GET THE MOWING PART OF THIS BUSINESS ALSO. CUT THEM A DEAL ON THE BUSHES IF THEY GIVE YOU THE MOWING AND THE BUSHES. HEY, GET IT ANY WAY YOU CAN.
GOOD LUCK,
Mowman

[mowerman90]

Mowman
Why do you always post in nothing but caps? It's very hard to read.

Concerninbg the bushes. Down here I get $35 -$40 per hour for trimming and cleanup per man.

[Skookum]

I usually figure a rate at 5.00 per shrub from small to medium size. When they get about chest high and as far as I can reach across them without moving then it is 10.00 per shrub. When they get to my head it is 15.00.

Killer about doing so many shrubs so long, is it really gets you in your back. I did a row of about thirty really short shrubs one time without ever standing up straight until I reached the end of the row. I thought I was never going to be able to standup. I cannot imagine trimming 8 hours straight! I always do my trimmings sparadically, one small account today, front of another one next week, back the next day or so, and so on.

Cleanup depends on shrub types trimmed and location of shrubs. Many times most clippings can be blown around under the shrub or just left alone to diminish almost right away.

Biggest tip for trimming, in my opinion. Trim the shrub, then shake your hand while running your hand through the branches. Then trim again. This will get the sprouts and branches that would have popped up a few days after you trimmed, thus making it look like you missed them and did a bad job. Some guys use a rake, I just use my hands.

[Russ]

i get $3.50 per plant to shape or dead head up to 5'. My largest trim is 580 plants and it is worth it (part of a total package). Over 5' trimming I charge out the wallet. I dont like to do em but I will.

[Russ]

P.S. my trimmer get about 3 men per gallon!

[bob]

When someone posts in caps., I don't even read it. As for the shrub, I also have a large commercial property that takes 2 of us 6 hours to trim the shrubs. I do trhe trimming and a helper rakes up. I just bill them $50 per man hour.

[double e]

I have 5 big commercial accounts I get subbed out to take care of the bushes. My best one is 12 buildings- with nothing but small Yews (about 20-25 per building)- I get $1300.00 per trimm- last year it took 2 men 12 hrs. Thats $50 per hr.

The other building I do have a variety of bushes. Though not that many- they range from $375 to $800.

I have a ECHO split shaft weedwacker that turns into a trimmer. THE BEST!- you can trim a 10 foot bush with no ladder. I also use a Garden cart to stand on to get an extra 2-3 feet. (green Garden carts at most nurseries- heavy duty)

[AllSeasonsAllReasons]

Would it be fair to say maybe 4 or five minutes per plant then multiply it by the number of plants. break that down to an hours multiply the hours times my rate like 50 an hour to get the bid price witch would be about 1000.00 dollars! That just sounds to high to me!! What do you think

[TOSLC]

I usually try to figure up how much time it takes me then multiply my hourly rate.

For example - I figure 10 minutes for a small shrub.
I figure 15 minutes for a medium shrub.
I figure 20 minutes for a large shrub.

A large shrub to me is one you can reach all the way across without a ladder, or stretching to far.

This may seem a little slow compared to other posts, but this includes clean up time. Then I just a add a few hours for dumping.

A tip that I use often is to get an old sheet, or piece of plastic to put around the shrub while trimming. Once done just pick up the sheet and dump into the truck, or pile that can be cleaned up later.

[Mowman]

mowerman,
sorry for using caps. i sometime forget that it is locked on. i'll try and do things alittle different. thought some of the guys wouldn't need their byefocals to read my posts. well hey sorry for any incovience.
mowman

[kutnkru]

I would tend agree with looking over how long it has taken you in the past, and try to come up with a time schedule so that you can eyeball (not to be confused with the bi-thing the others have mentioned - LOL) future accounts and be able to determine if its something you can take on or need to use sub-contracting for.

I like to figure:
15 minutes for small specimens
25 minutes for medium specimens
40 minutes for large specimens

These figures also include the clean-up for each and found for us it tends to average itself out.

Hope this helps.
Kris

[Runner]

If you take this job, it'll be a good excuse and REASON to do yourself a favor, and get the Stihl extended hedge trimmer. I have one and now I seldomly even touch my other hedgesaws-only in real tight places. With this, you won't even hardly have to bend over, just bend the knees a little. Also, did someone say something about running a rake over newly trimmed shrubs?

[4 Saisons]

Runner is right about the extended stilh hedge trimmer, works very great even on the small bush, you will be less tired at the end of the days and don't need to rub your back.

average between 5-10 mins sounds good to me. Depends of your skill and the cleaning task. I have few tarp, with a cut from the side to the center, use in flowerbeds or little stone coverage. if there is grass under the shrubs, i'll clean 75% and then mow the grass with a bag in this area.

Denis