Estimates for hedge trimming

[Coop]

I am new to the business and I have a customer that is looking for an estimate for trimming 140` of hedges 6` tall. What would be a reasonable estimate and what kind of equiptment would you use

[little green guy]

The way i estamate hedges is by figuring out about how long it will take and charge an hourly rate. <p>I use commercail gas powered double recipricating hedge trimmers to cut the hedges. I also bring a backpack blower, rake, green barrel, hand prunners, an other person or two and sometimes a ladder. hope this helps

[osc]

I look at it by the day, if it takes me 1/2 day with no help, I want atleast $350.00. If full day with no help then atleast $500.00.

[yardsmith]

Dittos on figuring it by hourly, & also add in how many loads of hauling it'll take to cart it away too.<br>If I will have a helper, figure in their hrs. too (naturally).<p>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<br>

[thelawnguy]

How wide? If under 6 feet wide I would charge $140. $1/foot with my 6-4 frame and 37 inch sleeve and 30 inch trimmer it'd be done and cleaned up in an hour, maybe $8 for the tipping fee for disposal of the debris. If you use hand shears well then charge by the hour.<p>Bill

[AGG Lawn Maintenance]

On an hourly rate!! ($40/hour for my company)<br>Plus anything we haul away $50.00 per pick up load. Use a two man crew one on a ladder doing the top and one on the ground cutting both sides. If the hedge is right next to a street you might be able to cut it standing in a pick up truck. Also check into a Echo line trimmer that you can put a hedge trimming attachment.<br>Good luck Travis AG&G Lawn Maintenance :)

[bill phagan]

Coop, the above ideas are great especially for a 6' hedge....you may also want to calculate your production rate for hedges by the sq ft....average is about 150 SF per manhour....take your cost per manhour X # of SQ......factor in the 6' hedge, ladder, up and down, hauling of debris, add in overhead recovery and finally what you want to make to determine your selling price.<p>Bill Phagan<br>Greenindconsulting.com

[Dale]

It's either two men a half day, or two men a whole day for anything. We only sell our time in those kinds of blocks. $ 140 for that hedge ?? You gotta be kidding me. OSC is much closer to reality.

[lawngator]

I'm with THELAWNGUY. If you know what you're doing, this is a one - two hour job included dump time. $150 is a fair price and easier to sell than $350. $75/hr is good money in my book. Anything more than that is greed, and that won't get you any repeat business or referrals. Just my opinion, Bill

[thelawnguy]

two guys half a day? Whats the company motto, smoke em if ya got em? Dont know where you are from, but around here customers dont pay for ineptitude. Theres enough guys who know what they are doing and who can be in and out in a reasonable time, that the slowpokes wont even get a crack at the job.<p>Bill

[Dale]

Where does it say ineptitude moron?? The type of clients we work expect perfect quality work and we give it to them. If they do not want to pay that price there are plenty of scrubs like yourself to pick up the slack and the crap accounts we don't want or need. Do you figure in support time ?? Dumping, mobilizations, travel?? Or do you just hammer your gross margin with them ?? Two men half a day at $ 35 per hour is $ 280 for that hedge trimming. Whats so obscene about that ?? We make 40% plus GM on regular maintenance. I am so glad there are operators to take those low margin jobs and keep those nose pickers off my telephone lines and keep them open for real business.

[Guido]

Uh Oh, this is gonna get nasty!<p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://communities.msn.com/guidosequipmentpics/&quot;&gt;&quot;Guido&quot;&lt;/a&gt;<br>David M. Famiglietti

[thelawnguy]

I stand by my contention, that 8 hours to trim and clean up a 140 foot hedge is ineptitude. Someone with the right equipment who knows what they are doing will do a top-quality job hour and a half TOPS. Thats 93/hr. for me, an ok profit margin but 140 is more like it. If thats a scrub, well then I guess its good to be the scrub.<p>Once again, where are you from, Im sure there are others who are itching to underbid your existing customer base.<p>Bill<p>PS If you fabricate sideboards for your Nissan Hardbody you can do more than one hedge before having to travel to the dump, cut down your travel time, just be sure to wait til the last run of the day before picking up that &quot;like-new&quot; mattress from the heap. TLG

[Dale]

Read my post again. I said that's how we bill our time in those blocks. I did not say it would take us 8 hours to do the hedge. If its in a regular maintenance contract then the faster the better. If it's a extra job, then we sell the time in those blocks. And for your information, we are much more equipment intensive than any of our compititors. We use Clip King trailers with the two way hydraulic dump boxes, we have dumps in every other vehicle, we have the latest Sthil long reach trimmers with angle heads. Ineptitude is thinking that price is the only thing driving the customers selection of a maintenance contractor. There may be more people wanting to under bid us, but since 75 % of our work is negoiated and not bid it really does not matter. We do enough business with clients wanting a company that can execute in a timely manner and are willing to pay a fair price. I got two calls from prospective clients today and will be quoting ( not estimating) about 20K in maintenance work tomorrow. They are more concerned with a company that is responsive and will take care of the landscape without calls all the time. I told them it was not going to be as economical as their current provider, and they said&quot; Price is not the issue here, service is&quot; Oh, and they were refferals from existing clients. No yellow pages or nose pickers allowed.<p>It's kind of like hydroseeding or aerations, it's not the price per hour, it's the price per unit at the end of the day.We can make $ 125 per hour on aerations all day long.<p>I turned down a mow jockey that was doing a persons yard that I gave a bid to earlier this year. His mower broke and he couldn't get it fixed and wanted to us to mow it. He wouldn't sign a work order agreeing to pay for it, so I told him to go find a goat.

[thelawnguy]

Coop,<p>Heres an example from a job I did today- 90 feet of privet hedge, hadnt been trimmed since last fall (this is a new maintenance customer as of this spring). hedge was 9+ feet high and is supposed to be around 6 +/-. From the time I stopped the truck to the time I turned the key back on again, 53 minutes, includes trimming, cleanup, and a quick chat with the homeowner (90 yo man) and his daughter. Not including travel time (90 seconds from my last account, and from this job I went home). I will bill him $100 plus tax. From this I must deduct $22/hr for my overhead and maybe $5 as the share of the dump fee when I go on Friday morning. The rest is mine to do as I please with, maybe buy groceries, pay my taxes, whatever.<p>Probably could have gone quicker, if it were the morning and I wasnt dragging my butt, and if the daughter wasnt there asking questions that her father already knew the answer to.<p>Hope this helps in your bid. A yew hedge would not go as quickly, nor if a ladder were involved.<p>Bill<p>

[osc]

As far as my comment goes, I'm not saying $350.00 minimum but rather a guideline. If the job only takes a couple of hours with no help, then maybe it's 150-200 dollars. But these projects have a way of tying up more time than expected. By the way, that's 2 hours of ass kicking with the best trimmers money can buy in our outfit.<br>I have 4 full-time employees plus myself and we did over 30K in June. We need to rake in 6-700 dollars in profit per day to make me smile and we can't do that by fooling around all day on a 150 dollar job.<br>Wish I could say it differently but that's the truth. Sometimes tying up a few hours on something not so profitable can wreck your day. If a 2 hour job takes up one man's time, four guys do not necessarily do the job in a 1/2 hour. IT DOES'NT WORK THAT WAY! I think that people need to understand that before they grow and take on employees. <p>This is another reason to not underbid.<br>The real question is &quot;what does it take to make things work for you that day only?&quot;.<br>Do you need 100, 200, 500 dollars of profit? How much headache was envolved? How many people did you oversee, how hard did you sweat?<br>I think everyone has given some good pricing guidelines.

[Lance720]

I normally eyeball the top first then run a string to ensure the top is level(this obviously takes me longer). I'm curious how the rest of you are cleaning up the top of the hedge. Are you using a similiar system or just eyeballing them.<br> Lance<br>

[thelawnguy]

Eyeball. Sometimes using a string will make a nice straight line but it wont look right if the lay of the land doesnt cooperate. Kinda like how a level is useless when working on an old house.<p>Bill

[Lance720]

Sorry substitute straight for level. Thanks for anserwing my question the reason I ask is I have seen some major mistakes in my area.<br> I think I'll stick to my good old line.<br> Lance<br>