The Going Rate?

[mowerman87]

Diesel is at $4.50 a gallon here in the D/FW area and commercial equipment always goes up in price, yada yada yada. The cost of doing business is much higher than when I first started and I dont know if I can even afford to get liability insurance for the business. The question I have is, what is the going labor rate per hour for general landscape or maintenance work? I'm not talking about the rate you tell customers or employees, but the rate you base prices off of in your head. With one guy on the clock at say, $10 dollars an hour, I try to use $75 per hour as a calculation rate. So if it takes me two hours to trim shrubs, I would want to charge $150 (which probably seems steep to customers). How high can you charge for quality work in an area saturated with landscape companies?

[larryinalabama]

For me I charge 45$ for maintance and 60$ per hour for running equiptment, trimming a buse would generally be considered maintance.

The gas prices is hurting all of us

[mowzum]

Lately I've been basing maint @ $44.00 per hour that does'nt include any irrigation repairs which are extra at the same rate but trimming mowing edging are all part of the maintenance, Trees I just pass on and recommend a tree service I use regularly, be careful with trees because a lot of maintenance liability contracts don't cover you if tree damage occurs. I Know!