"Pro's" that don't know what they're doing

[PlatinumLandCon]

I walked by a commercila property to see a few guys just finishing up a mulch job. I am in no way a pro, but I think I have a high attention to detail. These guys clearly didn't. The mulch was thrown everywhere! Some plants were getting knocked over, the edges were messy (there was a definitive edge in the bed but the mulch was a mess), they left a trail of mulch from the pile to the site (from stuff falling from the wheelbarrow), etc. Not to mention they didn't have uniforms and 1 guy looked like he lives under a bridge. Its too bad its a commercial client that sends a cheque every month no matter what.

sorry for crappy cell phone pics...

[tthomass]

Looks like they got their 'mulch' straight out of a chipper.

[PatriotLandscape]

your sucky camera probally makes the work look better :)

[PlatinumLandCon]

yea...I was just really disappointed with this work quality. this is the first plaza north of my school (I picked up my report card today) and I just don't like seeing this on the edge of a main road.

[huh]

please remember the person that did that job may full well know it was a crappy job, but that is what the property owner demanded/required/was willing to pay for

sometimes you take a job that can make you money even if it means you feel like taking the magnet signs off your truck and doing it in the middle of the night

there are plenty of people doing poor work for too much money, but there are more and more people today that will let you make money if you just do it the halfassed way they want it...or they will gladly watch you "care" and make less or no money

[Lawnworks]

I walked by a commercila property to see a few guys just finishing up a mulch job. I am in no way a pro, but I think I have a high attention to detail. These guys clearly didn't. The mulch was thrown everywhere! Some plants were getting knocked over, the edges were messy (there was a definitive edge in the bed but the mulch was a mess), they left a trail of mulch from the pile to the site (from stuff falling from the wheelbarrow), etc. Not to mention they didn't have uniforms and 1 guy looked like he lives under a bridge. Its too bad its a commercial client that sends a cheque every month no matter what.

sorry for crappy cell phone pics...


I don't really associate uniforms w/ professional work. In my experiences, customers could care less what the employees look like... they care about what their landscape looks like. My guys don't have uniforms, b/c I try to keep the overhead as low as possible, but you would be hard pressed to find a shrub that needed trimming or weed in the beds on our full service properties.

[Mike33]

I agree with the uniform, some do i dont. My uniform along with my crew is blue jean shorts, sleeveless shirt, work boots, and when its the 90's off goes the shirt. Most people dont care give a quality job and priced right thats that last thing they care about. I stay swamped from early spring to late fall if uniforms would give me more business that the last thing i want.
Mike

[Harley-D]

You guys are crazy, i think the job looks good! LOL I should call them to come to my house.

[Primetime-SRQ]

Or heck.. that may have been the owner out there doing it... LOL
Shorts and a sleeve-less shirt here also... And lots of sunscreen.

[Lawnworks]

I agree with the uniform, some do i dont. My uniform along with my crew is blue jean shorts, sleeveless shirt, work boots, and when its the 90's off goes the shirt. Most people dont care give a quality job and priced right thats that last thing they care about. I stay swamped from early spring to late fall if uniforms would give me more business that the last thing i want.
Mike

You are a redneck! jk! I have been wearing these columbia shirts w/ the vents... they are great. My shorts are in pretty poor condition though... they are almost pokadoted blue w/ pipe glue!

[kandklandscape]

agree mulch does look like it just came straight from the chipper. i would go nuts if i seen that on one of our jobs. if something is wrong with a employees work, they go back and fix it for free! do this and you WILL see better work done by your employees. sure they still screw up, but no where near as they used to.

just be easy on them when you tell them if work gets screwed up you will fix it for free. they do not understand work comp, gen liab. and GAS is expensive. well some do, others dont.

this works great for us, except one employee earlier this year, we were always complainging to him about the work he was doing and then one day he quit. i guess he is very sensible to his work i guess?

[AGLA]

Commercial jobs are often won by the guy that finds every hole in the specifications that he can exploit in order to be the lowest bidder. That is why many of you can't win a commercial bid - because you'll use reasonable skill and materials.

The spec's say mulch - you bid for bark mulch that you pay $25 a yard for. He bids $15 and gets it free from the tech school wood shop. In the end, the architect or owner will want bark mulch. The contractor will write up a change order and charge to remove that wood crap, $30 per yard for bark, and $x to put it in. When it is all said and done, your bid will be way below what the actual cost of the low bidder's job is after all the change orders. This is a very, very, common practice.

There was a recent post where someone lost a bid to someone and could not figure out how that contractor could do the work so cheap. Ten to One, he knows exactly where he can bring in crap and then get the Change Order that more than makes up for it.

My guess is that you wll see that job remulched with better material in about a week. You might laugh and think those fools had to do it all over again. What you won't see is the extra money the slick contractor made by doing that.

If you ever write spec's and draw plans, you have got to anticipate this or you will cost somebody a lot of money.

[Grass Cake]

Commercial jobs are often won by the guy that finds every hole in the specifications that he can exploit in order to be the lowest bidder. That is why many of you can't win a commercial bid - because you'll use reasonable skill and materials.

Bingo!
I bid on a city job earlier this year(bi-weekly mowing). The winning bid might be mowing once a month if that. (no edging,clippings everywhere, generally crappy work,NOT what the spec sheet required) . I stopped by the city office to ask if he was still doing the work and they were tickled pink with him!
Cheap>Quality i guess.payup

[lifetree]

your sucky camera probally makes the work look better :)

I was thnking the same thing !!