Mulch Blower Service

[jkelton]

Any of you guys used a mulch blowing service? If so, how much did you have to pay per yard? Was there a minimum? It seems like this would be the way to go - Just wondering if anyone else out there has had any experience with this in your area.

Pros/Cons?

[LAWNGODFATHER]

I'm looking into buying one.

Finn 302

[65hoss]

around here there is a $175 min. Its 35 per yard.

[jkelton]

65hoss (or anyone else),
Have you used this service before? If so, what particular reason did you use them (labor savings, headache savings, blown-in finish, etc.). Would you personally use this service for any job over the $175 minimum? What company in the Memphis area currently provides this service? Thanks.

[DanG]

There's a couple of guys around here who have them...
I know the one guy bought his this year for adding onto his spraying business and charges i think $40-45 depending on the type of mulch.
I believe his truck will also do top soil and seed at the same time to.
He paid alot of money for it and drove all the way out to Oregon to pick it up.He's got the biggest truck(tri-axle) around here(Albany area).
All the other guys have ones on trailers or small ones on trucks.
I believe his holds something like 30-40 yards of mulch.

Dan G.

[65hoss]

MulchWorks is the name here in Memphis. I haven't used them, but I will if I ever need anything that big.

[kutnkru]

DAN G
Is that a rexius truck that he purchased??? I have always wanted to see one of those bad boys in action -argh! argh! argh!

Kris

[MTCDAVE33]

KUTNKRU
THE BLOWER TRUCK IN ALBANY NY IS A 60 YARD EXPRESS BLOWER. I HAVE WORKED W/ IT. YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM!

[kutnkru]

MTC thanks for the reply.

Welcome to Lawnsite and all that other happy horse -LOL!!! I would recommend turning off your caps key when posting because it makes things very hard to read, some will skip right by, and I guess the ettiquette thing says it resembles shouting.

What are the advantages of the Express blower over a Rexius or are they the same deal just diff manufacturers???

Thanks again,
Kris

[jkelton]

The Rexius unit is the same as the Express Blower. I went out a few weeks ago to their (Rexius) Oregon facility to check it out - very nice. We will be getting our unit in December. My feeling is that this method is the way to go for someone who has the need for >7 yards mulch at one time. More of your laborer's time can be spent doing jobs and tasks that provide a higher profit margin (in addition to reducing the aggravation factor). You also do not have to be concerned with the lawn damaging affects of moving mulch around in a wheelbarrow or Bobcat - the blower has the capability of pushing the mulch through 800 feet of hose - a signifigant advantage when trying to get to hard-to-reach places.

[kutnkru]

Jay

How are operators able to gage the depth they are applying if the are not spreading it because its hose fed. Or do they still have to do the same amount of handwork to finish the beds as before less the lugging and tugging of products???

Kris

[LAWNGODFATHER]

I played with a Finn in KY at the EXPO for about an hour, and used the Rexius. Both were easy to use. I had Finn come out and I demoed a Finn 302 model. It holds about 1.5 yrds. You can actualy do a better job than with a wheel barrows and rakes. 2 guys can do the job of 5 or 6 and do it faster and cleaner.

The reason I would prefer the small trailer mounted one, is it can be put in areas that the truck one can't. Also most of the Rexius ones you will be required to have or hire a CDL licsensed driver.

The Finn 302 you can load with a small tractor or Dingo type on the job verses a $30,000+ skid steer or a very large tractor, as the top of the truck is over 10' high. The 302 can shoot mulch though a 200' hose and can easily be manuvered, and towed with a light weight truck. Also the 302 is around $34,000 and the truck mounted ones are $80,000+ then have to add the truck in too. I heard the big Rexius is $300,000.

Kris, no problem. You could have it down in about 15 - 30 minutes.

[jkelton]

Originally posted by kutnkru
Jay

How are operators able to gage the depth they are applying if the are not spreading it because its hose fed. Or do they still have to do the same amount of handwork to finish the beds as before less the lugging and tugging of products???

Kris

You still should be able to gage the depth the same way. The guys at Rexius did not do any further finishing of the mulch after they blew it in - they just had a backpack blower to clean up around the beds. Actually, blowing the mulch in gives a much better look than spreading it by hand - blown mulch is more even. Plus, I believe less mulch can be blown in because of the inherent structural properties of the process (blowing in mulch provides more of a homogeneous density characteristics; spreading it by hand creates areas where the mulch is compacted). I'll try out that theory when I get the truck.

[BRL]

If you do a search in the Landscaping forum you will find a few discussions on these also. I have used the services of a company that has 2 of the Rexius' and they hold 60 yards and cost around $300,000 as mentioned. The blower spreads the mulch more efficiently than hand methods, resulting in less material used. I used them for jobs where I had done the same beds a few times by wheel barrow & the blower used 15 - 20% less.
Kris, No extra handwork needed, just blow any mulch off of sidewalks, grass etc. back into beds & drive off. Looks beautiful. I think I took pics of them working for me & if I can find them I'll post them. The first time I used them they blew 60 yards into beds spread out all over a cemetary in 3 hours with 3 guys. I couldn't have done that with a tractor & wheel barrows.

[kutnkru]

Impressive to say the least. If I can save theoretically 20% of my materials cost I just may have to find a Co. willing to travel from the Albany or Syracuse areas to blow down some mulch for me at a site that normally takes 3 men 10 hrs beacuse of hillside conditions.

Sounds as though I could pay for the outfit and still buy them all beers for the night when that job was complete. :D

Kris

[Grapevine]

I had a company lay 125 yards at 3 good size condos in the spring, one of the best moves i've ever done. The company charged me $39.00 per yard installed. With the labor market so tight, it's tough to make the committment to large complexes without these types of services.

[HOMER]

I'm gonna ask this at the risk of being laughed at: Where do you get all the bark from to load in the hopper? Is there a lumber yard close by? Seems that's an awful lot of material moving through the machine if you didn't have access to a lumber mill.

If anyone wants to make the trip down south with one of those you might jump into an untapped market. Before the trade magazines and Lawnsite I had never heard of this or the machines. I've got access to a lumber yard where I can get all the free bark I want, maybe a used trailer version might get me on my way huh.

What kind of bark are they blowing anyway?

[Guido]

to get into this business.....but for the people that know how to sell and market to the right custoimer's, they are going to make a fortune of this service.

Also, once these things start to age and phase through the company and they go onto the used equipment marketplace, I think the price for the newer machines may go down some.

We'll see I guess!

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Aged double ground Oak bark.

Cost me about $10 per a yard.

Also aged tripple ground Oak bark.

Cost me about $16 per a yard.

Delivered to my site. 75 yards at a time.

[landscaper3]

We run a Finn 302. We can put 3 employees on it (1 running the hose, 1 Running the Bobcat, 1 running the truck, we can spread 1 trailer truck (90) yards in 1 day. We go through 5-6 trailer truck loades a season, 4 for our accounts and we sell 2 or so to the public with landscaper discounts. We sell up up to 500yrd of mulch and is very profitable and a bark blower is about if not as productive as our Walker mowers!!!!!!! It will go faster------- then any wheel barrols we put it to a challenge last year on one of our condominiums takes 88 yards of mulch took us 3 days 5-6 employees doing the OLD fashioned way we then did it the following year with 3 guys just over 8 hours!!! saving us alot of man hours! We got over 400yrds done in one week saving us 3 weeks of labor time and 3 employees less. We are looking for a 10yrd one for 2003.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Cool that's exactly what I was wanting to hear. but I didn't want to put out the $70k more for a truck mounted one. So the 302 will have to do till the market soars to make me want to buy a bigger one. Then I'll put both to use.