Pine straw estimate

[LawnRunner]

I have a customer that has 7000 sq. ft. of pine straw. Most of the pine straw jobs I have done have only been in the 1000 sq. ft. range. Would like to hear from you guys on how much you would charge. Thanks

[Lawnworks]

A bale should cover 50 square foot.... so you are looking at around 140 bales. And you being in NC, I would bet yall would get $3-4 labor per bale plus the cost of the bale.

[nmurph]

whoa there!!!!!!!!! let me help you a little on this one.........a bale of straw will cover 80-100sf depending on the size of the bale, what is it covering (re-straw...new cover......etc.......) what type of straw.....a more likely price for spreading in your area is $1-2/bale depending on what type of landscaping you are placing it around (around trees, under shrubs, in flower beds, etc....). if you hump it you can lay 100-150 bales/day.

[LawnRunner]

Thanks guys I appreciate the replys. I had quoted her $900.00 and she thought that was too high.

[Lawnworks]

whoa there!!!!!!!!! let me help you a little on this one.........a bale of straw will cover 80-100sf depending on the size of the bale, what is it covering (re-straw...new cover......etc.......) what type of straw.....a more likely price for spreading in your area is $1-2/bale depending on what type of landscaping you are placing it around (around trees, under shrubs, in flower beds, etc....). if you hump it you can lay 100-150 bales/day.

$1 a bale? You would make the same profit watching TV all day. Pine straw is one of the least profitable services. $3 per bale labor is about what it takes to make a profit, and up where is he is the cost of living is more than GA, so he might need to charge more than that.

And I still think a bale covers 50 sq ft. That is the figure I use and it works out. I got that number from my distributor who sells and spreads for a living for the past 10 years.

[nlminc]

I agree, $1.00? That's low. We charge 2.75 - 3.00 over the cost of the bale. I can lay down 25 bales an hour in decent conditions. If you have a lot of shrubs it goes slower. Go with 40 to 50 sq. ft. per bale.

[dave k]

I agree with lawnworks that a bale covers 50 sq. feet at 2 to 3 inches thick per Atlanta Pine Straw, where I buy my straw, those are the bales that have the orange string, the ones that are machine baled and have the wire around them probably do a larger sq. footage, I normally charge 6 bucks delivered and installed.

[nmurph]

if your bales only cover 40-50sf, you need to find a different supplier. if you can get $2.75/bale for spreading, go for it. i'm just telling you what my 10yrs experience in the straw business has been. prices vary by area, the coverage a bale provides should be fairly consistant. are you buying home heapo junk????? they buy the cheapest/nastiest/lowest quality they can find. i buy lots of things from hd/lowboys, just not straw or lawn mowers.

[Rons Rightway Lawncare]

10 years ago I was getting a easy 7 bucks a bale installed. Then in 1999 I moved to Florida and when I came back in 2001 and restarted my business here, I found the area had been flooded with specialty companies that only do pinestraw and these companies sell for 3 to 4 dollars a bail delievered and 1 to 2 dollars a bail for installation. On average you will pay them 5 to 5.70$ per bail installed.


Then when I started giving pinestraw estimates at 7 bucks a bail, all my customers told me no thanks, that they have gotten quotes from these pinestraw services for less. After loosing job after job, I decided to call the pinestraw guys myself and arrange to have them do my pinestraw jobs for me.

They give me a discounted price on the straw, and I upcharge the customer about 50 cents a bail from what they normally would have paid - I charge them 6 bucks a bail - So in the end I don't get my hands dirty and I make 25-50 bucks per job just for making a few phone calls.

[Lawnworks]

if your bales only cover 40-50sf, you need to find a different supplier. if you can get $2.75/bale for spreading, go for it. i'm just telling you what my 10yrs experience in the straw business has been. prices vary by area, the coverage a bale provides should be fairly consistant. are you buying home heapo junk????? they buy the cheapest/nastiest/lowest quality they can find. i buy lots of things from hd/lowboys, just not straw or lawn mowers.


So you are saying buy bigger bales and then charge $1-2 a bale to spread it. Sounds like you are screwing yourself.

[Lawnworks]

10 years ago I was getting a easy 7 bucks a bale installed. Then in 1999 I moved to Florida and when I came back in 2001 and restarted my business here, I found the area had been flooded with specialty companies that only do pinestraw and these companies sell for 3 to 4 dollars a bail delievered and 1 to 2 dollars a bail for installation. On average you will pay them 5 to 5.70$ per bail installed.


Then when I started giving pinestraw estimates at 7 bucks a bail, all my customers told me no thanks, that they have gotten quotes from these pinestraw services for less. After loosing job after job, I decided to call the pinestraw guys myself and arrange to have them do my pinestraw jobs for me.

They give me a discounted price on the straw, and I upcharge the customer about 50 cents a bail from what they normally would have paid - I charge them 6 bucks a bail - So in the end I don't get my hands dirty and I make 25-50 bucks per job just for making a few phone calls.

My supplier will spread our bales for $3.80 a bale and I add $1-2 per bale on top of that. Easy money, although it can hurt the cash flow if you are doing big jobs and have to wait 30 days to get paid.

[DaughtryLC]

whoa there!!!!!!!!! let me help you a little on this one.........a bale of straw will cover 80-100sf depending on the size of the bale, what is it covering (re-straw...new cover......etc.......) what type of straw.....a more likely price for spreading in your area is $1-2/bale depending on what type of landscaping you are placing it around (around trees, under shrubs, in flower beds, etc....). if you hump it you can lay 100-150 bales/day.

$1-2/bale???;)
Long leaf cost us $4.00. $8.00 to put it out 1 bale or 100 bales

[NC Greenscaper]

I pay $4,25 bale and charge $8.00 installed. My bales cover about 50 - 60 sq ft. the way I put it down. I live in Eastern NC.
Gary

[Focal Point Landscapes]

My guy charges $4 per bale installed - I usually upcharge a dollar per bale. If you charge much more than that , your out of the market around here. The cheapest straw I can get is $3.25 if I purchase a 700 bale trailer load. For normal landscaping jobs , I sub it out - not enough margin unless its a very large quantity , imo.

[Rons Rightway Lawncare]

That is what I am saying.... back when I got 7 bucks a bail, I would go buy it at a place in town that sold them for 2.99$ plus tax. I would go pick up 100 bails and pay 316.94$. Then I would drive out to a yard or two and shuck them out that day and use up maybe 25$ in gas, but would invoice the customer 700$. So in one day by myself I would make at least 358$, not to mention that I usually would trim the bushes before laying down the straw so I would make another 100-200$ on top of the straw, so I could go out by myself and make 350-550$ per day. Not bad at all.

Now today, the best price I can get on straw is 3.75$ per bail, and most customers won't pay more than 5.75$ per bail, 6 bucks per bail tops. So if I go out to do 100 bails in one day - using 35$ in fuel - I am making only 165$ to 190$ on the straw, as opposed to around 350$. So I say screw it, I normally just let the pinestraw people do it for me and I upcharge .50 cents or so for making the phone calls, and setting up the job. Sometimes I don't even do that, I just give my customer the pinestraw peoples number and have them call those guys directly, taking me out of the entire pinestraw picture.

This winter since I had not much going on, I had 150 bails delivered here and I went out and put them down for 6 bucks a bail. I didn't make huge profits, but since I work alone and since I had nothing better to do, I went out and installed them.... That was a month ago, and still waiting for to be paid on it.

[cs12bigfoot]

I buy the bales for 5.90 per bale of long leaf red straw and lay it for an additional 6.35. Yeah I have lost jobs because some of the jake-leg landscapers around town will do it cheaper but I make it worth my while to do it and I will still be in business in 10 yrs because I am making a profit. And once I do one job I always get call backs.

[Focal Point Landscapes]

You charge $12.25 per bale ? That is without rival the highest price for pinestraw that I have ever heard of. And you're a jackleg if you charge less than that? or jakeleg?

[cs12bigfoot]

What I mean by jake-leg is the guys that aren't licensed landscape contractors, the ones with just a mower/blower/and an idea. There are other licensed legit companies around here ,other than me, that charge more than I do for straw. It's all about what the market will bare. People in other places pay less for the straw so they get less. We pay more here so it seems like our prices are unreasonably high to people in other markets. Also our prices for straw range from 5.90 to 7.00 a bale. I can put out an average of 10 bales per hour by the time I factor in hauling it from my trailer, load, unload time, laying it, and tucking it. If I average 5.00 per bale profit that is $50 per hour, and that is a cheap labor rate around here.

[PbInvestor]

cs12bigfoot,

where are you located? I am moving there. I am north of Atlanta and I get Pine Straw for $3.25 and lay it for $5.25-$6.00 depending on density of shrubs or hills. My worker and I can lay 35-50 bales per hour depending on those factors. It's kind of a loss leader in that I don't make much on Pinestraw but I do lots of add-on: bed cleanup, shrub trimming, haul away, etc.

The funny thing about Pinestraw is...the thicker you lay it, the faster you go. When I lay it at the rate of 30-35 sq ft per bale I can lay 25-30 hr by myself which is equal to $50+, when I lay it at the rate of 45-50 sq ft I lay about 18-20. So the key is to upsell how much better it looks when much thicker. thicker equals less sq ft per bale and more bale per hour.

I have also found a company that will deliver it right to the job (40 bale min) for $3.25. Make my job so much easier.

[cs12bigfoot]

Well I have studied the average a person can put out and so have numerous other companies and the consensus is that 1 man can put out roughly 10-15 bales per hour consistently over a day if you factor in load/unload time, laying, tucking the straw, and cleanup. If you figure around here you are buying the straw for $6.25 plus your profit margin plus labor which around here is roughly $35 per man hour. So say you have a profit margin of 30% that makes the bales $8.13 per bale. That leaves you with $4.12 per bale (which if you add that to $8.13 you get the $12.25) to pay your guys labor to load the straw or wait on the straw to be loaded at the nursery, unload the straw, ride to the job, lay the straw, cleanup, ride home from the job, get started back after eating lunch (which we all know it takes a while for employees to get back in the groove after breaking), pay insurances, licenses, and all of the other expenses that come along with a business. You cannot tell me I am high, Yeah if I bought straw for 3 or 4 dollars per bale I would be around your prices. Maybe I look to deep into work but I do not work for free. I do quality work. I get call backs. I do get lowballed but once a customer sees the quality work we provide and the cleanup when we are done they keep coming back, and give referrals. Not that it matters but what is everybodys idea on my pricing now.

[gpenny]

Most of my "straw" jobs involve beds that are heavily planted and you literally have to crawl on hands and knees to properly put out the straw. If you "shake" the straw out and tuck and roll the edges (many don't do this) I have calculated that I need to charge 9-13 per bale to even make 30.00/hr. I use long leaf that cost 4.50 bale and ea. is about 30% bigger than standard bales.

[cs12bigfoot]

Thank you. Somebody that actually does not work for free. Thanks gpenny.