Let's check bidding prices

[65hoss]

Let's see what the different people would bid. Might be interesting seeing the different areas of the country.

These numbers I measured off yesterday: Total numbers
Grass: 67,021 sf
Trim and edge: 4088 linear ft
Trim: 1363 linear ft
Edge: 2725 linear ft

Of the grass area, 3 of them are islands.
Island 1: 5452 sf
Island 2: 5076 sf
Island 3: 6678 sf

Remaining area is wide open space. Level of difficulty is 3. This is just cutting only. Cut 3 times per month. Bermuda grass, and its all flat areas.

Lets see where everyone will be at. Please no arguments, maybe we can make this one an education tool for all of us. Also, I do know the current price being paid on this job. In the end I'll let everyone know.

[LAWNS AND MOWER]

Great thread Hoss!!! Especially the part about no arguing. Assuming one can access the islands with a walk-behind, I would price mowing and weedeating @ $350/cut. I don't do any edging so edging is not included in this guesstimate.

LAWNS AND MOWER

[65hoss]

All parts of the property can be accessed by any mower. Size or type is of no concern.

[ohiolawnguy]

of the three island areas, what machine woud be designated for them? are they rideable, or are they needed to be mowed with a walk behind, or even possibly trim mower?

will edging be weekly, bi-weekly, or as needed?

how much blowing of walks, and or driveways are there? i dont necessarily need a square footage, just an idea how long it may take to blow off these areas.

will non-selective herbicides be used for walks and driveways?

without that information, i could only be guessing at a price.

[65hoss]

Originally posted by ohiolawnguy
of the three island areas, what machine woud be designated for them? are they rideable, or are they needed to be mowed with a walk behind, or even possibly trim mower?

will edging be weekly, bi-weekly, or as needed?

how much blowing of walks, and or driveways are there? i dont necessarily need a square footage, just an idea how long it may take to blow off these areas.

will non-selective herbicides be used for walks and driveways?

without that information, i could only be guessing at a price.

Any mower will fit anywhere on this property.

Cut 3 times a month, everything always done. Mow, edge, trim and blow.

No herbicides of any type.

Blowing time will be about 20 minutes tops.

Level is 3 on 1 to 10 scale.

[crazygator]

No lower than $350 per month.

[ohiolawnguy]

thanks for the updated info! given that, i would take a ballpark guesstimate at around $250-275 a cut.

i dont like the idea of only cutting 3 times a month though. would rather cut on a weekly basis. but, whatever floats their boat i guess.

[Hookset]

Good post, with my limited experence in priceing commercial I would bid either $350.00 or $420.00 per month. I don't really understand the difficulty factor of what would make it a 1.5 or a 3.

[accuratelawn]

$270 per month

[Lawnwizard]

$385 per month:blob3:

[kutnkru]

$19.95/cut -LOL!!!

Actually I have a question as to whether or not Im reading your bid correctly???

Is it accurate if I were to add up the three island beds (17,206)and subtract the sf from the 67/m that wide area mowing will only consist of 49,815m/sf???

I would also like to know what size the island beds are. Sometimes if it could enhance the entranceways and such I will use a smaller deck for these areas instead of the 52.

Thanks.
Kris

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Give it a shot with my new formula.

$100.50 mow

$40 edge trim with weed eater

$20 blow

$160 forget the $0.50

[CS Lawns]

$250.00 TO $ 275.00

[kutnkru]

Originally posted by Hookset
... I don't really understand the difficulty factor of what would make it a 1.5 or a 3.The basic principal behind estimating your mowing times is to figure in what is commonly referred to as a Degree of Difficulty to help compensate for obstacles/circumstances that have to be dealt with while cutting.

Its obvious that if you have an athletic field, there will be no obstacles to cut around nor will you have to contend with people/animals. Since this is a cake-walk for mowing conditions this would be considered the easiest to cut (1.2 or 1.5 - however you choose to base your difficulties).

If you have a property that is basically flat open areas, but might have some berms to contend with on the outside perimeter, occassional employees/pedestrians, few trees and/or wetlands could be considered about a 2.

Then theres those properties that have multiple cars/pedestrians to contend with and catchers must be used for most of or all of the mowing. These properties have high visibility ornamental beds scattered throughout the property, and numerous trees, benches, footpaths etc. that make dispersing the clippings a real PITA. Some sites might even be comparable to highly functioning parks, or botanical gardens with heavy foot traffic to boot. Sites that will have you spending more time avoiding people and/or picking up trash above all else are what I consider to be category 3.

Lets say that you were going to shoot for $1/min for your services. When you calculate your bid according to the D.O.D. (compensating for your troubles -LOL!!!) if the sites looking like its going to be a real PITA (#3), then what would normally cost say $1.20 (#1.2) now becomes a $3 per minute contract.

Hope this helps.

[gtlss71]

i would charge about $200-$225

[leeslawncare]

Of of my formula i would say 222.00 but would need to see it first. My formula is 37.00 per 10k.

[wrtenterprises]

$150.00 per cut here in Central Pa....

[kutnkru]

$390/mo or $130/cut
Without having to bag the medians for cars etc. using a 52" on everything.

$467.50/mo or $156/cut
With bagging the islands using a 36" deck.

[AGG Lawn Maintenance]

If I hit the pick it for 10 million I'd do it for free. LOL's :D
But being that I didn't yet $300 a month.
1- 60" rider, 1-48" walkbehind, 1 guy trim and edge. I like that rating system you have hoss. I rate it in my head but never thought of a 1-10 system. Are the Winter Games getting the best of you? Only kidding.
Travis

[SUNSHINE LAWN]

How many man hours is what I would be trying to figure out and having these measurements should help but i've only maintained less than 1 acre properties that i can estimate just by looking at them. My rates are for this are $30 minimum per hour, sometimes more, but rarely less. Anyone have an idea of man hours for a property of this size, maybe with a 1/2 hour fudge factor for variables?

[George777]

I'm interested in finding out your man hours per visit?
How many to complete the job per visit?
your brake down i.e. 2 mowing, 1 edge, 1 string trim.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

About 2.25 man hours I was told

[SUNSHINE LAWN]

So, if it were wide open mowing, it would be an area of approximately 260 ' x 260' - 3 islands of about on average 80' x 80'each ='s about 2 man hour = 4088 edge and trim ft. say at about
60ft per minute trim , 75 ft per minute edge ='s 1 man hour + blower clean up and minimal trash pickup at .50man hour, and about .50 hour for variables ='s something like 4 man hours is at 35 per man hour $140 per cut. Somewhere in the ball park?

[kutnkru]

Thats true the basic idea WAS to list what we would charge for the items listed, not just total costs. :rolleyes:

Heres the jist of mine.
$156
Mowing:$120
I figured would take up to 45 minutes with a 36" deck for the medians. The remainder of the property I estimated 1-1/4hrs.
Trimming:$36
I figured the line trimming to take just under 1/2hr, and the edging about 15min. I then took 1/3 the cost of these services for the sweeping price and added the three together.

$130
Mowing:$94
I figured the property to be estimated at 2hrs.
Trimming:$36
I figured the line trimming to take just under 1/2hr, and the edging about 15min. I then took 1/3 the cost of these services for the sweeping price and added the three together.

I hope the others will break theirs down as well too so that we can all compare notes. ;)

[gtlss71]

$3\1000sq ft =$201
Excessive trimming would add to charge. Would have to see property.

[Tim Canavan]

I also base my decisions on a dollar a minute. This formula is usually used with residential properties though. I am assuming this is community association property. Anything bigger than a residential property would also get overhead added on. A couple of other factors would be do you know the person for whom you are bidding and do you have any other properties nearby? Saying no to both of these I would bid $450.00 per month. This would be based on 36 visits per year multiplied by $150.00 per visit divided by twelve (months). That is how I bid all of my agreements. Hint: with residential, always say agreement. Never contract.

[crazygator]

OK, you want it broken down so here goes my numbers:

67000 at $1.25 per thousand (Or 67 x 1.25) = $83.75
4100 Ft at $1.00 per 100 (Or 41 x 1) = $41.00
Total = $124.75 per cut
Total per month $374.25

Factor in a discount of your doing multiple properties for the customer and it could come down to a range of $300 per month if needed.


Or if you factor it to take 2 hours, most want to average around $60 per hour here so you would be at $120 per cut or $360 per month.

Doing multiple properties at the hourly rate with a possible discount could bring this to $50 per hour, or $100 per cut with a rate of $300 per month.

[AGG Lawn Maintenance]

Lee is that $222 a cut? If so you should round that number off to $220 a cut. Because $222x3=$666 and you don't want that.

Travis:blob2:

[jhengen]

I charge $15.00 per 10,000 sq ft. From what I'm hearing this is to cheap. Great post!!

I would have done this for $100.50 total. What is the charge?

[1stclasslawns]

Oh I figure it some where in the $125.00 to $175.00 range per cut.

Depending on the level of difficulty which is subjective to each individual.

Jim

[leeslawncare]

That is per cut.Sorry if i miss led you.

[Lawn-Scapes]

I don't know why it would take 2.25 hours to cut.. but based on that..

$95/cut

[Lawn-Scapes]

After rereading the thread.. I think I need to relocate. Some of you guys are getting some fantastic prices! I can't command those kind of prices here..

You should make 100K easily as a solo???

[65hoss]

Here is the price the guy currently doing the property is getting. $100 per cut, 3 times a month.

The 52" Lazer HP can easily be used on the entire property. The island areas are very easy to handle. 29'by188', 27'by188', and 63'by106'. I will just need a ramp to get the lazer into the island areas.

Cutting time I would estimate at 1 hour. This is my high time estimate. Its a spread out property. About a 8-10 acre total size, but its building, drives, and parking lots. Its bermuda so it will be necessary to edge the entire place every trip. Trimming around the building isn't bad, but there is a chainlink fence around 80% of the place.

I know the guy that runs this place. He is one of my residential customers. They are not looking for someone new, but he just wants me to have it to help my business. He knows the guy is low. He can possibly get a little higher price thru, but nothing real high. His boss over the entire region would have to sign off on it.

I would have no red tape to go thru. He will have his office cut me a check whenever I want it. After every cut or end of month. Whatever I want.

I'm not going to say what the property is, but its a very large operation so the possibility of other properties is always there.



My initial thoughts on this 1.54 acre grass area was $125-$150 range.

This thread did what I was really hoping it would do. Bring us together with some real measurements and see how far or close we are together. Maybe we all learned something about our own operation and the operations of other areas of the country. Thanks guys!

[Quality Lawn Care]

Wow - I let everybody know I was only .50 off on my bid. of $100.50. what do I win.

[TGCummings]

$408 per cut according to my formula. ;)

Bear in mind, I've never come up with a profit formula for anything over 10,000 square feet because we don't have 'em like that out here!


So, $1632/month or $17626 with a 10% discount for prepaying the entire year.

Did I get it? :)

[ohiolawnguy]

i guess we wouldnt have gotten the bid.-LOL

would have priced a little cheaper if could be mowed every seven days, instead of ten. but not a lot cheaper.

I am glad you started this thread 65hoss.
was very interesting indeed.

[65hoss]

Originally posted by TGCummings
Bear in mind, I've never come up with a profit formula for anything over 10,000 square feet because we don't have 'em like that out here!


If I plug the numbers into my sf formula I come out around $285 per cut. But nobody is going to pay that for 1.5 acres.

[TGCummings]

Originally posted by 65hoss


If I plug the numbers into my sf formula I come out around $285 per cut. But nobody is going to pay that for 1.5 acres.

Oh, no question about it. My formula works real well from 500-10000 square feet (or so), but if larger properties were to open up in my area I would have to tweak my formula to take them into consideration. Having never done anything larger I would have to lean on the wisdom and intelligence of LS to guide me through such changes...

[plow kid]

Originally posted by Quality Lawn Care
Wow - I let everybody know I was only .50 off on my bid. of $100.50. what do I win.

Nothing, I guess <B> jhengen </B> wins the boobie prize, a 5 lb bag of 10-10-10 fert, you pay shipping.:p :p ;) :rolleyes: