flaging out for aeration.

[ant]

i get the lawn client to flag out his own system,some contractors do it for them ,i let them do it.
i give them a pack of my pesticide app. flags and they go to it...
1.do you guys use your pesticide flags for this?
2. do you use the ones with the wire staft(seems to go into the soil better)
3. do you send out (via.. mail) the small plastic stakes that some companys sell for aeration?
the reason i am asking is it seems like i am going throu a lot of pest. flags and they are runed when i get them back.
ant

[jnjnlc]

I assume you are talking aobut flagging irrigation. I use old used flags that I have picked up over the past years. The were used by irrigation companies after new installs. I give them to the home owner and pick them up after I aerate.

[Eric ELM]

The cheapest place I have seen to get the wire marking flags is at Lesco. This is what I use.

I know your going to ask me how much, but I got mine several years ago. I do know that at Ace Hardware, they were 19 cents a piece, but if I remember right, these were more like $5.00 a hundred, a nickel a piece and they will last for years. ;)

[jeffyr]

I have the customer mark their own irrigation heads. I just buy a couple hundred pesticide flags and then use them up next spring. People must wonder why so many flags when driving by, but they are only there for a day.
I drop them off the week before I aerateand call the customer the day before I come. I collect them after I aerate.

jeffyr

[KindGardener]

Do you give a discount when the customer puts in the flags for you? Or do you require them to do it (to avoid liability when hitting spray pop-ups?)

[KirbysLawn]

I tell my customers to have the flags up when we arrive. I do not have flags to put up, nor do I plan on putting them out. I have the customers place the flags therefore I'm not responsoible.

Ray

[gene gls]

I just got a bundel of 100 flags from A.M.Lenard for $5.24 plus shipping.

Gene

[Nebraska]

We have reached the point where we do not supply flags for customers. It is too time consuming and it is very inefficient to drive around delivering flags.

We simply tell them to flag their heads by a certain date....if the sprinkler heads are not marked we will charge them $4 per zone to mark them for them in addition to aeration. If they request flags we simply say "We're sorry, unfortunately do not provide them anymore. Hardware stores and home centers carry them for less than $5 for 50; that way you'll have your own set of flags for any future needs." If they insist we will sell them 50 flags for $50 (which includes our time to drive out and deliver them).

[Pecker]

I've had trouble finding the sprinkler heads myself - most of them are hidden by blades of grass. What's the best way to do that?

[lawncare3]

I go to a sprinkler supply store and buy them for less then $3- for 100

[PetalsandPines]

When aerating.....are you at all worried about the lines, or just the heads?

[Barkleymut]

I've never hit a line or head. Just mark the heads and you should be fine.

------- if customer is home then cycle through the system that is usually located in their garage. If they are not home find the green plastic circles in the ground that usually say ICV on them. Then turn the valve CCW until you feel some water pulsing through. Don't over loosen or the handle will pop off and you will get really wet in the next 5 minutes as you are cussing while trying to screw it back on.

Best advice- have the customer do it if at all possible.

[kppurn]

When aerating, my main concern is irrigation heads. I do supply marking flags, although not my pesticide ones. I buy the wire staff flags from A.M. Leonard. They cost $5.00 per 100. The customer marks them prior to the aeration service and I remove them when I'm done.

[Hole in 1]

I flag all the sprinklers myself, unless the customer has done it already. I get them for about 6.00/100 and reuse them until they are destroyed. If customers want to buy flags I'll sell them for 25 cents each.

Jeff
Hole in 1
Lawn Aeration

[Nebraska]

I hope all you guys are figuring a way to re-coop those expenses and time...

[GroundKprs]

If you are going to do a job that you know may have destructive side effects, if you are professional enough, you will mitigate that possible destruction. So the customer is told to flag the heads, whether you supply flags or not. And he does not want his system damaged, so he religiously flags each head the night before you aerate. Next morning after he leaves for work, the neighborhood brat pulls 5 flags. So now who is going to pay for repair of the heads you damaged? Will client really believe the flags were missing, or that you pulled them to cover your carelessness?

All my aeration properties are tape measured and mapped to locate heads. I can go in early spring, before irrigation is turned on, and locate and flag every single head. Flagging each property myself takes no more than 10 minutes on most properties; don't even have to use the tape now on most of them. And the aeration clock starts when I jump out of truck with the flags, not when I start the aerator. Mapping time is covered in the first aeration, when you may need to run irrigation to make sure you have them all.

The client is paying for you to do the work, and assuming you know what you're doing. So why not do it all the way? If you've been paid to mark the heads, and you damage a head, you just repair it. Simplicity. And the pay for marking the heads is probably my highest profit of all jobs I do - only overhead is a little shoe wear, LOL.

And I use old PLASTIC marker stakes from lawn care flags and utility markers. I run really close to heads, and don't want to pick up wires in the aerator.

[Nebraska]

...yet when your aerating 200, 300, or more... properties in the fall things go smoothly if they mark their own system with their own flags.. If they are not marked on the day they have been sheduled we charge to mark them....no one ever has a problem with it and our time is compensated for.

Of course if a head is damaged replace it...even if the customer perceives it to be your company's fault when you know it isn't. With that said I have yet to run into a situation where the neighborhood brat has removed them... If your unsure of what you see it takes just a little common sense to notice an area with no flags. To not do so is on the verge of negligence...manually turn on the system and find them.

[GroundKprs]

Cool, no brats in NE! I've flagged new ones the evening before aeration, and see flag(s) are missing next morning. My maps have the number of heads in each part of lawn noted, so I can double check that I got them all.

What the hey, however you do it. Sounds like Nebraska has a good responsible system, too.

[Nebraska]

Funny thing is I have five children (3 mo., 3yr, 5yr, 7yr, 10yr).... One day I pull into my driveway and see telephone marking flags, cable tv marking flags, gas co. marking flags, and electrical co. marking flags all over my yard. Total of about 75 flags. Went inside and they greeted me with excitement and enthusiatically asked me if I like how they decorated the yard :)

[TotalCareSolutions]

Originally posted by GroundKprs
And the aeration clock starts

Jim,

If you 'care to share'...
You appear not to be using a Sq. Ft. formula. If you are charging an hourly rate, what is it?