Help on what to charge?

[FiremanDud]

I just did a cleanup of a house on about a half acre maybe less. I rented a billy goat lawn vac for about 50 for the day. I started at 10 and ended at 3. It took me about 25-30 bags(35 gallon) full of oak leaves and about 6 bundles of limbs and sticks. We never discussed price but she said she trust me on my price. Anyone done this before and if so for how much or ballpark price. The lawn vac worked great but it was a pain in the a#@ baging the leaves.

[tiedeman]

Now when you say bags, was that what you ended up after the lawn vac?

[dKoester]

We charge by the bag, then add a price for any major sticks or branches. 4 dollars a bag. Our system does not take long.

[medimac]

We charge by the hour for leaf removal using commercial equipment. I'm not sure what the going rate is in FL but we shoot for 75/hour for a two man crew. Don't forget to include time for any dump runs or fees.

[TURF DOCTOR]

$275 you ought to know your cost.

[sheshovel]

about $225 + your rental fee and +p/up and delivery of the equipment +price of the bags if you provided them + any dump fees +gas spent

[tiedeman]

I agree, $225 for labor, + $50 for the rental

[out4now]

In this case the old dollar a minute would bring yyou guys in at 300 bucks. 60 minutes times 5 hours but it is not a foolproof formula. Your costs will determine it more than anything.

[topsites]

We charge by the bag, then add a price for any major sticks or branches. 4 dollars a bag. Our system does not take long.

Mine's based on cubic feet of leaves and time involved. As for me, I find bagging is a time consuming task so I use my trailer and load it by the tarp, get it done quicker... But, he had the vac... Who knows, matter of preference.

Either way, 30-35 bags is about a 6x12x2 trailer load, he had to pay 50 for the vac, I have to pay 40 for a dump fee. It took 4-5 hours, it takes me 3-4 hours / trailer load, or close to it.

I was going to say 200 dollars but that's the maximum, the minimum would be 160 for me.

30x4 = 120, 35x4 = 160...

Then, we can use the rule of business that states 3 to 4 times your cost = profit. Your cost is 50 dollars, x3 = 150, x4 = 200.
Keeping in mind this rule is a bit funny, 4 is HIGH and 3 is fair, you really want to be within 3 - to 3.25 of your cost, so 150-175?
160 minimum, really I been charging 200 of late... Got tired of it.

275-300? I dunno, maybe I'm off...
60/hour is nice but it doesn't always pan out, depends on how fast it got done, to me 60/hour is the MOST efficient use of time, and for this you need the equipment. For me, 50/hour is cool.

I guess there's the ballpark, one way or the other.

[FiremanDud]

Yeah I was thinking 200.00 for everything. It sure was some back breaking work. Maybe next time I will ask one of my buddies to help. Hell, let's just go 250.00. Ha

[FiremanDud]

Never done something like this before that's why I posted it in the just starting out section.