first landscaping job

[Mitchell]

I am doing a job for a lady , planting about 5 pallets of St. Augstine in her yard about 3500 sq feet. The yard had to be raked bagged top soil added starter fert. applied,smoothed up, pick up and deliver grass , plant, and clean up. I have 2 helpers who I charge $15 a hour and $30 per hour for me. Making it $ 60 a hour for 3 workers. Total cost of materials is about $750 my labor charge is just under that about$720 making it $1480 for every thing. Am I in the ball park with my pricing? any comments helpful

[paul]

I think you are a little low with you numbers, here just the sod would be $1400, dirt is extra depending on how much you need.

[kris]

sounds like at least $2500

[Avery]

I am with kris. Would not touch it for less than 2k.

[joshua]

i'm sorry but i would of charged around $40 to $50 a hour for myself on this one, plus $15 guy. also, time it toook to go and get the sod, wear and tear on truck, gas for truck, and breakfast and lunch for the crew.

i'm seeing this as being around 2k if not more depending on the ammount of labor involved.

[lawnboy82]

couple of weeks ago we put in 180 sq ft of kentucky blue sod. i billed about 375 for it or so. so that is what? um hmmm... 1/20? of the area or something so you gotta think about it. i get 25 per man hour for my guys minimum, plus i get for materials. if i am driving around getting the sod i am charging for it. everything i do on the job gets charged for. so you just gotta figure in for what you have to do, the markups on materials, and if you are doing work that requires some skill, shouldnt you be charging more for your workers? i mean if they were just moving mulch or something no big deal. however there is a lawn that depends on the quality of work that they do. when i charge for labor, i go up in price as risk increases. doing miscellaneous b.s. mulch, new gardens, stone, etc i dont charge much. cutting grass because of the risk to people and property i charge more, then we get into trees which is what i get the most for. so you have to figure out what your risks are here. what happens if that lawn doesnt come up?

[soups10]

Hey your help is making more than you. Your hourly should be two and a half higher than your avg hourly emp. and yopur markup on supplies should be at least a factor of two. dave