What do you guys include as part of spring cleanups?

[JLC]

Just wondering what everyone does for spring cleanups. We just pick up any leaves that wind up the yards over the winter and pick up twigs and branches that fall out of the trees. Are you guys also power sweeping sand out of yards, dethatching, aerating, etc... Just wondering if I need to be doing more.

Thanks

[BRL]

Whatever the customer wants to pay for to have cleaned up ;) Aerating & dethatching are not cleaning up yards IMO, but if you can sell them as part of a "spring package" & charge accordingly, then by all means go for it!

[kutnkru]

Spring Clean-Up, Aeration, and Power Raking are in fact seperate services and should be treated as such. Each has a specific function and should not be grouped in association with the others when giving estimates. Bid them all seperately, and use them correctly for a healthier, more beautiful, longer lasting lawn. Otherwise you are calling an apple, a pear, and a plum the same.

Spring Clean Up is the edging of beds, walks, curbs, and driveways.

Removing the debris that is smothering the turf from the previous winter.

Clearing the leaves from the shrubbery in the beds.

Perform the inital mowing.

Good Luck this season!
Kris

[joshua]

kris, i just did my 1st clean-up. and i cut the yard at 2.5 inches cleaned all the beds, and weeded the beds, walks don't get weeds, i did it solo and it took me 1.5 hours. do you think $30 is good.

[double e]

Josh-
Did you cut the yard last season-
If you did- charge what you cut it for, then add labor for clean-up

I'm thinking on the lines of 50-60 bucks. Hard to tell by size ofyard not given.

Make it worth your while

[GreenQuest Lawn]

I dont know what you are happy making per hr but $20.00 per hr is way too low. Subtract all costs and you could make double at Burger King! My price would be 67.50

[lawn and stump]

We use a tine rake in front of a 52" scag hydro.
Rake or backpack out the beds then run over lawn with the tine rake, looks like you spent all day hand raking. charge
about $50 per man hr to cover tines. they get fatiged and break after about 40 hrs

[lawnboy11]

Thatch w/JRCO or encore depending on location/etc.
Blow all leaves/debris out of beds onto lawn and clean up
Mow (usually done while thatching w/JRCO)
Edge, trim, do beds

A week or two later...
Lime, seed,peat moss or penn mulch, fertilzer, crabgrass control.

A lot easier to do it that way solo.

Around here ALL spring clean ups include all of the above, but for say a 60'*80' property (typical size lot) there's about 2k square feet of turf and I can do everything above solo in about 1.5-2.0 hours tops. I charge more for aeration, etc.

[Greenkeepers]

Our "Cleanup" service is just that a cleanup of the property from debris left during the winter. Our cleanup doesn't include a cut unless the customers want a seasonal contract. Aeration and dethatching are written up on a separate estimate as well. Don't allow the customer to think that they are going to get something for nothing..

[Hunter Landscape]

here in sc i "winter cleanup" a lot of my customer's lawns every 14-21 days. this way there is some money coming in and the customer's property looks better throughout the winter. of course, if there was snow on the ground i don't know what i would do. i guess i would plow it!!!

[kutnkru]

What size was the lawn?? How long did it take for the clean up without the mowing time??

Let me know and I will tell you what I would have charged.:)
Kris

[joshua]

Originally posted by kutnkru
What size was the lawn?? How long did it take for the clean up without the mowing time??

Let me know and I will tell you what I would have charged.:)
Kris

ok,kris it took me about a hour and 10 mins to clean out all the gardens and 20 mins to cut it. about 12 swipes with my 52" lazer, (horizontal) little island gardens almost half of the lawn in different places.

[Earthscapes]

i would have charged $65-75 for that, depending on what i did with the debris.

[Randy Scott]

joshua, are you the same joshua that said you would never think of killing yourself for $18 an hour in the post titled "$18 a man hour. Are you kidding me". Now in this post you just did a spring cleanup and mowing and weeding for $20 dollars an hour. That is not too far off isn't it. No wonder it is hard to make money in this business when people charge that low. Get with the program!

[eslawns]

I do whatever the client wants me to do. I just tell them how much until after I know what they want done. If you're clear before you start the work about what you'll do and what it will cost, you should be OK. BTW, this is exactly why I itemize quotes.


Joshua:

If you took a 52" Lazer off a trailer and only made $30, you probably lost money. If you make $20, and spend $15 to do it, how much did you make? $5, right? Wrong. You didn't account for the time you spent selling the job, keeping your books, training, purchasing equipment, or anything else you must do that doesn't earn money.

I'm not ragging you, but you should get someone to help with this or you'll end up with a zero in your net income box.


[Edited by eslawns on 03-16-2001 at 01:34 AM]

[kutnkru]

Joshua. I would have charged them $25 for the cut if it was not more than 3m/sf. I would have added an additional $35 for the Spring Clean-Up. My bill would have been for $60 plus applicable taxes.

I would not perform any services for less than $53 this spring. Send me an e-mail and we can discuss if you would like :)

Good Luck this season!
Kris

[Strawbridge Lawn]

My spring cleanup consists of blowing out all beds and picking up all debris, edging, trimming, cut and bag
2.5")
My mulch service includes bed prep, weeding and flower/shrub trimming, mulch delivery and spread.
I like to do this with the Spring cleanup, but charge for the services eparately.
I am solo, so this is avergaes out to about 6 hours and typically average 40-45$ an hour.

[joshua]

ok, you guys are right. i wasn't thinking.

[Chopper Lover]

Joshua...

You didn't make a big profit, but you did better than break even. It's cool... You live and you learn. At least you didn't get burned in the deal.

Mark

[joshua]

Originally posted by Chopper Lover
Joshua...

You didn't make a big profit, but you did better than break even. It's cool... You live and you learn. At least you didn't get burned in the deal.

Mark

no i didn't bill them yet. it will go out at the end of march, this is my 1st year in spring clean-ups, so as you guys could tell a on the wrong page.

[Hunter Landscape]

a "landscaping mentor" of mine told me to try to make $1 per minute. this is not always feasable but it does give me an attainable goal to shoot for