How much to charge for 5.5 acres?

[Daren]

Bidding on a location that is approximately 5.5 acres of grass. Several buildings on property. couple of banks approximately 15 high and 150 feet long that will have to be weedeated. Mow weekly. Curious to see what others charge for this. Will be paid per mowing.


Daren

[sheppard]

I approach any new account based on how long it is going to do the job. Depending on the complexity of the lay out I charge any where b/w $35.00 an hour to $55.00 an hour. Commercial is closer to $55.00. I back off and look at the property and estimate how many hours it will take- then I time ea. 'section' ( flower beds, parking lots...). If my second est. is close to the first I take the higher. If I am drastically off I do the whole thing over.

I take an intuative approach rather than getting the square footage and computing it out. Other men may differ and compute it otherwise.

I almost always seperate out shrubs, pruning, pine straw- thing like that.

Most of the time I'll recommend how many visits a year to give the account. Almost always the customer goes with my recommendation. My largest account is close to what you describe. I go out 26 times a year. I charge them $750.00 a month. It's a HOA next to the coast.

Cordially,
Sheppard

[Mark]

Sheppard if the acerage is fairly smooth my bid would be 247.50 per cut. And if you spend alot of time on those hills trimming,id tack on the footage. Somewhere around 990.00 per month......Marks Mowing Service

[Lawn Dog2001]

I would most likely be at $285 per cut. It really depends on how long it will take you to do those hillsides.

[_GUNNER_8]

Originally posted by Daren
Bidding on a location that is approximately 5.5 acres of grass. Several buildings on property. couple of banks approximately 15 high and 150 feet long that will have to be weedeated. Mow weekly. Curious to see what others charge for this. Will be paid per mowing.


Daren

Darren what type of equipment using? and how many people going be on grounds?Your in Tn so base it on 32 cuts, If using a 60inchztr and 52inch walkbehind,and not ruff ground u can cut that in hour,have 3rd guy trimming around buildings sidewalks ect., then all three team up on banks and blowing,you guys should easily be out under 2 hours.If u think banks are a killer add extra hour that put you at 3 hours at $60 hour Be $180 based on 32 cuts would be $5760 divided by 12 be $480 month year round time you add mulch,flowers,shrubs,ect., you would be able to push that up quite bit higher after 1st couple cuts you want have that much time involved as est.,you should get quicker each time.Hope i helped

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Originally posted by _GUNNER_8


Darren what type of equipment using? and how many people going be on grounds?Your in Tn so base it on 32 cuts, If using a 60inchztr and 52inch walkbehind,and not ruff ground u can cut that in hour,have 3rd guy trimming around buildings sidewalks ect., then all three team up on banks and blowing,you guys should easily be out under 2 hours.If u think banks are a killer add extra hour that put you at 3 hours at $60 hour Be $180 based on 32 cuts would be $5760 divided by 12 be $480 month year round time you add mulch,flowers,shrubs,ect., you would be able to push that up quite bit higher after 1st couple cuts you want have that much time involved as est.,you should get quicker each time.Hope i helped

Gunner that's only $20 a man hour, a little cheap don't you think.

9 man hours at $20 = $180

If they got it done in 6 hours that would be $30 a man hour.

I would atleast go $35 a man hour on the low low end x 9 hours = $315


BTW Yall are a little low there no one is over $300 for a 3 hour plus job.

[jay warner]

I agree, higher rates are a must. However lower rates rule, due to bad business. By this I mean the LMC's operating without insurance, WC, licensing, or experience out there low balling the socks off of me. And I go for the sweet accounts too. I am a residential builder as well and have to carry a state license governed by a committee, LLC, they regulate us to insure quality housing and consumer safety. I wish some how Grounds Maintenance could get on the same page. Making these start ups know the business and all the ramifications that go along with it. Not just buy a hot rod mower and start cutting grass. I hear ya, a lot of us did this me included. Only difference here was that when I started there may have been 5 LMCs in the area so I wasn't screwing with market prices and was strictly bidding small residential accounts. Believe me cutting grass ain't what it use to be. Some of my accounts pay more per year than the houses I build, so don't tell me we don't need some sort of Licensing process. Just my thoughts.

[andyslawns]

I would be at $264 a cut, Thats if it is all fairly flat, and I can get most of it on the Walker. I am about in the same boat as Mark.

[_GUNNER_8]

Lawn i don't base that on man hours, i base that on crew hours,which i would be paying out $52 in wages on that account, based on 2 hours, however i would bid it at 3 hours, but my crew would have NO problem doing that less than 2 hours. My crew of 3 would costs me $26 a hour so at 2 hours only got $52 in that account in wages per time, that leaves $128 for 2 hours after wages i don't think that is low at all,but if i'm cutting with small equipment and only 1 or 2 guys yes i would be in mid $200 range because of hours,I work in VOLUME i don't have to relie on account that size to pay bills lot of guys that would be 1 of their big accounts if not their big account, but you know as well as i do something wrong if good crew can not do that in less than 2 hours

[LAWNGODFATHER]

I'm not trying to get in a debate with you, but I got the calculator out.

avg. $8.67 an hour that's some cheap labor:D (send me some of these guys)(alos I assume no taxes)

3 crew hours at a cost of aprox $37.50 X 3 = $112.50

equipment cost per crew hour guess $30 X 3 = $90

Each employee at $10 an hour plus all equipent, labor tax, ins, fuel, etc. costs.

$202.50 3 guys 3 hours

$135 3 guys 2 hours

[_GUNNER_8]

Was that your bid you filled out?

And you assumed correct i do not hold taxes out on my guys thats up to them to handle.I live in a town of 45,000 so 10 a hour cash good money for around here.

Foreman 10 hour x 2 $20
2 labors 16 hour x 2 $32

$52

128 divided by 2 =$64 a hour for taxes, ins.,fuel,equipment,and PROFIT if man can not turn profit off that something wrong, but if your taking 4 hours on grounds than that would be different story,my guys can knock those size accounts out all day long :D

[_GUNNER_8]

By the way godfather not tring to pick fight, but "3 plus hour job"??? umm surely that wouldn't take you guys that long.

[tlcservices]

im at $247.50 no hedge trimming mow edge weed eat blow off.if i look at could be much higher,thats over the phone estimate not bid

[tlcservices]

lawnfather your cost are $30.00 per hour per crew?plus wages?
30 overhead
14.50
14.50
14.50
_____
73.50 per hour per crew per hour?
just wondering

[Richard Martin]

Some of you guys would cut a quarter of a million square feet of grass for under $250.00? Just kidding... My price would be around $340 to $350.00.

[Mark]

Richard it must be nice to average around 63dollars per acer, Your up there in Maryland where the big bucks are. LOL Marks Mowing Service ps Richard thinks for the advice on the valve,joint and o-ring for my new Kaw,already on order.

[kerr lawn]

hey
with all those banks, driving time, plus mowing, blowing, edging i would say right around 325-350
those banks sound like a bear need to make your money.
richard we are where the big bucks are according to mark. LOL

[LAWNGODFATHER]

tlcservices your calculator does not work (buy a new one) I have NO clue to what you wrote. I take it you didn't see the "aprox" or "guess" written there.

Second I am not using my numbers, I was trying to show the $180 a cut bid was unbelivably too low.


OK gunner you bid on that job and go cut it for $180 sight un seen since you can deffinatly cut it in 2 hours.

You said it in plain black and white.

I would love to see what happens with all those under the table payroll payments.

You don't need workmens comp. payroll taxes, liability ins(for them) etc....

WAIT that equals no employees.

[Richard Martin]

Mark, you're welcome for the Kaw parts info. In-so-far as the pricing goes we really don't have a choice. Everything seems to cost more money here everyday. A couple of examples are: regular gasoline is $1.20 a gallon and a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house under 1,000 sq ft house rents for $1,000 a month. One third of my mortgage payment consists of property taxes and insurance. My vehicle insurance is going up 7 percent on March 15 and my commercial insurance company has already informed me that my rates will be going up substantially this year due to events surrounding September 11.

[kutnkru]

Originally posted by Richard Martin
Some of you guys would cut a quarter of a million square feet of grass for under $250.00?No not under just slightly over -LOL!!!

I cut a property last season that took just under 2.5 hrs to mow trim and blow. It was a gradual incline and had virtually ZERO obstacles. The trimming up the drive and around the house including blowing off debris took about 20-25 minutes. I billed them for $165 ($30/acre) and was glad to get it.

I also had a 3 acre site that was a PITA and it had every possible distraction or possible obstacle you could think of. This site I billed $175 ($58/acre).

I am getting ready to up this one to $60/acre and will probably be able to get it again, and to be honest with you I think the account SHOULD be $100/hr for all the bs that has to be dealt with. However this is a high profile site and the referral work it generates is well worth the pay cut - errr um.... aggrevation -LOL!!!