Spring Cleanup Prices

[LawnCareNoobie]

Hello folks, I'm new to doing spring cleanup for customers. I tried the search feature and it for some reason it's not working for me at the moment. What are the basic price ranges for cleanup of sticks, leftover leaves, dirt/stone from snow plows and such? Do you guys go by an hourly rate? I am not sure how long it will take me to clean up the whole yard. I don't want to estimate and then find out I didn't get enough. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

[LawnCareNoobie]

Wow, thanks!

[Daner]

Charge your hourly rate...Only you will know how long It will take to do the job...Or post some pictures...then It will be easier for us to help you out

[cabo91]

what do you guys include in your spring cleanup? And when do you start? Meaning do you do it on your regular stop when your scheduled to mow? Or do it seperatly? Thanks

[JoPa]

I generally start clean-ups a couple of weeks or more before the grass needs to be cut weather permitting. I don't go by an hourly rate although I know some who do, for a routine clean-up I generally charge twice the amount I would for a routine cut, If it wasn't cleaned very well in the Fall or if its a new customer that hasn't cleaned it in the Fall I might charge more, its different for every situation, but generally I charge twice the rate of a cut.
I generally include cleaning/blowing leaves out of flower beds/landscaping, cleaning branches and twigs..thats about it really

[Jb3NH]

Depends on the customer what'll include.

Usually what'll do is

Clean up sticks, branches, clean cut broken tree limbs
Ferilize the perennials with 12-12-12
Lime near the pine trees if necessary
Pull all the dead stuff off the plants
Check for grubs and suggest mulch and dethatching if necessary
Rototill garden beds
Pull weeds
fix plow damage

[PSUturf]

Spring cleanup should include whatever the yard needs to look good. It can include:
-repair plow damage to the lawn
-leaf cleanup
-rake lawn areas with snow mold damage
-cut back perennials
-repair critter damage to lawns, boulder walls
-topdress bark mulch
-and more

Since every yard is going to need different services you should only give a price after seeing what is needed.

[POPO4995]

We are starting cleanups now; have 40 scheduled. Most are getting all the leaves/natural debris out of the planting areas, picking up all the fallen tree branches, dethatch, aeration, rolling, etc. We had a very hard winter but I only have 2 places to repair MY plow damage. There is a few with plow damage repairs that we didnt plow. I charge my hourly rate and then a minimum of $25 for hauling/diposal of all the debris. Since we had the hard winter, I have 20 rotary broom jobs on the books. I'm pretty happy about that, should get the broom paid for this year in usage. I charge $60 an hour for that, 1 hour minimum.:waving:

[LawnCareNoobie]

Sounds good. I got a few folks already that I priced out. I just charged for the job as a whole. So far so good, learning as I go.

[mzgloves20]

I've been estimating an hourly rate, totaling it and presenting it as a job price. Every job is different and requires a different amount of labor. It's the only way I know Im not ripping myself off...lol...

Also, telling someone $40 an hr to rake leaves and twigs sounds harsh. If I think it'll take me two hours, I kinda sell it as $80 to clean up the ENTIRE yard and dispose of the debris...doesn't sound so bad then... haha

[SongBird LawnCare]

I've been estimating an hourly rate, totaling it and presenting it as a job price. Every job is different and requires a different amount of labor. It's the only way I know Im not ripping myself off...lol...

Also, telling someone $40 an hr to rake leaves and twigs sounds harsh. If I think it'll take me two hours, I kinda sell it as $80 to clean up the ENTIRE yard and dispose of the debris...doesn't sound so bad then... haha

yeah... that's right

[herberg]

All the cleanups that I've done so far have been at an hourly rate. I'm a parttime solo, so it has actually been kind of nice for people ot not want to pay the hourly rate. Saves me the running, plus those people ussually are pickier than any of the others.

For yards that have a lot of clean-up (no leaves removed in the fall) I give a very rough estimate, and have them point out the areas that they want done first. So far I've gone over on two of the jobs, but there were massive piles of leaves, the homeowners realized this and agreed to pay the additional cost of loading and dumping the remaining leaves.

All in all - this spring has been pretty successful. Truely enjoying my new Redmax - it's more than paid for itself.:cool2: