school bids

[mountain]

How do some companies do it? We just lost a 100 acre school complex , about 70 acres of grass. The low bid was $550 per cut , if anybody knows how to cut , trim and blow off walks on 70 acres of grass for $550 please let me in on the secret.

:angry:

pheww , I feel better now

[stslawncare]

how much walkway is there? if the 70 acres is open it can be done easily with a tractor and batwing mower, if large amount of sidewalks put a blower on a ztr or push blower.

[mountain]

That's all well and good, but you didn't mention anything about the trimming! Plus I know for a fact that they don't have that type of equipment.

[stslawncare]

get one of those trimmers u see in the lawn magazines that mount on ur ztr. what equip do they have

[Fantasy Lawns]

there are no short cuts to quality services .... only cheap PM's .......trimming n edging is best performed by human touch ....70 Acres is a lot of grass even with a ztr .... n gang reels are $$$ .... unless you do sport fields n roadways

$550 a cut .....my god I'd loose that much every visit maintaing that job at that rate ....but they'll come back .... when the job gets half %$# ......

I know the feeling I just lost a 3k monthly last month (new PM last summer .... she's going to hit the budget!) ....too god knows who ....as it still hasn't been cut in 3 weeks ...happen before n then the call back ....we raise the rate ...n go on with it

[rwleigh]

I do not understand what is going on but in my area the parks dept. bid went for $9.50 per acre! and there is 900 acres. I have not heard on the school board bids yet, But the parks bid was just ignorant!

[rodfather]

$550 for 70 acres ($7.86 per acre) is frigggin' ridiculous..even if there was no trimming or blowing off of the walks. Something tells me "there's a termite in the wood pile".

[stslawncare]

$8 per acre may be cheap but when ur dealing with large properties like that isnt it normal? im not familier with this but thats what i heard.

[rodfather]

I'm sorry, but $8 an acre is nuts...let 'em have it and go broke trying to do it. Amen.

[AGG Lawn Maintenance]

Wow!!!!!!! They must do a mow and go type of job. They edge and trim it?(yea right) Thats what sucks about the landscaping business all the cut throat stuff. $7-10 an acre???? I understand that you may only drop the gate once in the day but man!!!!!!:blob2:

[kerr lawn]

7-10 bones an acre
sorry sir i got somebody elses grass to cut, see ya around

[GLS]

I'm not saying that $550 isn't way too cheap, but schools in my area don't get trimmed, edged, or have sidewalks blown off. They go around with their pull behind mowers on their tractors and cut the grass when it's at about 10" tall. They leave huge piles of grass (discharged). They don't go to the trouble of the detailed work and make it look nice.

[rodfather]

Hey Mountain...I'm right across the river from you in Hunterdon County, NJ. Email me their name so I can keep an eye out for these clowns.

[TOSLC]

They don't even bid the schools around here. They have a maintenance staff do it. . . for now! Budget cuts will probably force them to look into it.

[clipfert]

Mountain

$550.00 per mow????? Was this bid for BASD? I'm glad I did not waste my time on this one. What did you bid for this contract? What equipment and man power is in your arsenal to handle this job.

As info for others "String trimming shall be done around trees, shrubery, light poles, curbs fences, and other obstacles present."

"All clipings on walkways or paved areas must be removed."

[David Haggerty]

Originally posted by TOSLC
They don't even bid the schools around here. They have a maintenance staff do it. . . for now! Budget cuts will probably force them to look into it.

Don't expect them to pay anything decent. They'll go from a bloated wasteful maintenance staff to penny pinching bids. Trouble is, they won't reduce staff. They'll just sit on their cans and have somebody else do their work for next to nothing.

Back in the '70s' people told me "to get schools or city bids you have to bid $11-$12/acre. I said OK I won't bid them. Doesn't look like it's changed much in 30 years except to get worse.

Commercial bids are more like residential, just bigger. I've worked for most every factory in the county at one time or another with great success. But I've never seen a municipal or school bid worth having. They're just too vulnerable to the current political climate to allow you to maintain a lawn properly.

The only thing worse than being lowballed on a school/municipal bid would be to land the bid yourself!

I really feel for you guys who have to try to earn a living dealing with those types of bureaucracies.

Dave

[mountain]

clipfert
Yeh that's the one and we bid alittle higher then that HaHa. Maybe the winning bidder missed that line on spec sheet.I know I'll be watching , maybe even ending up at a few board meetings if job isn't up to specs.

[sbvfd592]

At my high school the largest in the state of CT, they have a grounds man who mows the courtyards and hard to reach areas with a 48" w/b and he mows trims and blows the walks with a back pack and a PTO drive blower on a ford tractor with front end loader on it i was talking to him oneday and he said he gets 78,000 a year plus benefits that's not bad if you ask me he dosent mow the felds thow