commercial mowing

[JTS lawn care]

i was wondering if anyone could tell me how i would go about figuring out how much to charge for doing a commercial place.

[brian mon]

$1.75-$2.00.....per thousand sq. ft.....just for mowing

[greenman]

Originally posted by brian mon
$1.75-$2.00.....per thousand sq. ft.....just for mowing

You're kidding right? :confused:

[brian mon]

No...thats what we bid em at around here.....$25.00 ph labor rates....although I have some that are double that $1.75 rate...

[greenman]

So,what would 10,000 sq.ft. bring? If $2 per 1K? $20?

[65hoss]

Originally posted by greenman
So,what would 10,000 sq.ft. bring? If $2 per 1K? $20?

A 5000 sf lawn would bring $10. But, I'm assuming he deals with bigger lawns. Larger sf would bring more dollars.

[Mykster]

Maybe being from S. Dakota has something to do with his prices.

Where abouts is Yankton?

[PaulJ]

Greenman

I grew up about 20 miles from where Brian is. I'd say he's right on with price for that area. You have to realize that Yankton is in a very rural area. only about 10000 people (correct me if I'm wrong Brian). Not an interstate within 40 miles. Not alot of industry and what is there is depentant on the Ag industry, and if you have'nt noticed the ag industry is really suffering.

I'm in about the same boat here. Columbus has about 20000 people. Most of the factories are laying off. One of my Goals this year is to get all my mowing accounts up to $30 per hour.(36"gear drive). I probably won't get them all there but I'll try.

I'ts hard to read about a dollar a minute mowing, but that's usually with about a 60" mower.

I try to price by the estimated average time it will take me to Trim/edge, mow and blow. Instead of by the sq.ft.
I do measure sq ft and use that as a starting point and for fert pricing.

Pricing varies so much around different areas in the country, I'ts hard to compare.

sorry for my ranting

[tiedeman]

I charge a flat rate for both commerical and residential of .003 per square foot. With a minimum charge of $20 for a lawn. So basically I charge $3.00 per 1,000 square feet.

[greenman]

I was not, by any means, knocking his prices. I am just amazed how some areas are so much different in price than others. Prices are pretty competitive here, but I live around busy towns that are really growing,but this market is flooded. I've heard where some guys average $40 to 45 per acre, whereas it probably $55 to $70 here.

[brian mon]

PaulJ You know the area well…. A $30. ph labor rate would be nice, but you would lose more than you would get around here. I do have some that are owned by out of town co. that are well above that rate…. find out what your market will support and work around that.

Greenman Not doing any bashing, but how long would it take to mow a 100ft x 100ft piece of grass…w/a 50” mower…1/2hr?….maybe a little more, still that’s close to $30/$40 ph just for cutting grass…I look at all aspects of work, mow, fert.,pruning etc. and try to price accordingly

Tiedman still only charge same rate for com./res. more to bag-less to mulch or side discharge…min. for me on res. is $30. but I don’t do many nor do I want to…only big stuff that’s where the $$ is.

JTS Sorry I brought up the $$$ thing….as you can see it’s different all over the country. Try to find out what your market pay’s, measure em up and get as much as you can…good luck!!

[rodfather]

Predominately, we will charge more for commercial properties than residential (from 25 to 50% more). Commercial property owners have the liberty of writing off the expense of mowing and maintenance.

[Strawbridge Lawn]

I charge a $30.00 minimum per lawn whether residential or commercial. As size increases I adjust based on time. If it takes me an hour 30 min, I charge for 2 hours labor. Try to sell an annual package that includes aerating, seeding, and fertilizing services and you can increase your profit margin and have a year round monthly check.

[kutnkru]

I try to calculate my mowing figures using 44,000 sf as an acre. You have to know your equipments productivity in order to bid efficiently whether its by the sf, lf, or hr. I always try to assess how difficult an area is going to be and assign it a “Degree of Difficulty” from 1.5 (flat bagged areas, minimal obstacles) to 3 (steep hillsides, heavy foot traffic, numerous obstacles restricting high productivity while cutting).

Lets say you use a 52” wb and you calculate that your average hourly production time is 40m/sf per hour or 674 sf/minute; and your other mower is a 36” wb that you have averaged out to 28m/sf per hour or 467 sf/minute. You know that you can stick-edge 6’000 lf of vehicular and pedestrian pavements per hour; and you can line trim 4500 lf per hour. You estimate that your blower time averages out to be approximately 1/3 your trim+edge time so now you have your production rates to bid.

EXAMPLE: commercial site with 140m/sf of turf area to be serviced, minimal obstacles to cut around (hydrants, poles, etc.), LF of trimming = 2100ft, LF of edging = 3273ft, and there are 44 mulched tree rings scattered throughout the property.

The parking lot has 3 islands with 8 trees/rings each measuring a total turf area of 5400 sf. Bagging has been requested in these sections to keep clippings off the vehicles and since the 52 is just to big for this area, you know that using your 36 its going to take you 12 minutes to mow these 3 islands. If you figure in a degree of difficulty “2” allowing for bagging times this area now gets bid at 24 minutes.

Directly in front of the building surrounding the entry and corporate offices is 10m/sf that they have requested bagging in addition to a smaller machine. Production times tell you it should take you 21 minutes to cut this area. Again figuring in a degree of difficulty “1.5” allowing for bagging times and zero obstacles this area now gets bid at 32 minutes.

The remainder of the site is virtually flat wide open areas to be cut using the 52. According to your production times it should take you 3h05m to complete the service. If everything is flat and wide open theres really no need for a “DOD”.

So lets say you want to average $40/hr.
Mowing By The SF= $170.80 (or) Mowing By The HR= $161.47
If you were to bid by the square foot you would bill your 52 out at $.001/sf ($124.60). The 36 would normally be billed at $.0015/sf but because of the DOD factoring “2” this is increased to $.003/sf ($46.20). If you billed by time the 52 would be $123.95 (3h05m) and the 36 $37.52 (0h56m)

Now you have to calculate your hand-held services ($113.03).
I figure 30 tree rings avg per hour with a line trimmer which also accounts for walking distance between trees/shrubs etc. With 44 rings on site this would be $58.76 (1h28m). The total lf of trimming was 2100ft = $18.76 (0h28m). The total lf of edging was 3273ft = $22.11 (0h33m). If you have a total time of 61min, your blower time would be 20 minutes = $13.40.

Based on the examples used here:
the estimate for mowing based on SF would be $283.83 per visit (or)
the estimate for mowing based by the HR would be $274.50 per visit.

Hope this helps give you an idea of how to bid for your commercial accts.

[MacLawnCo]

kutnkkru,

that was very well said. Im glad you took the time to explain to everyone how to do proper estimates. Now we just have to get the new LCOs to read this and we will never have to answer a biding question again.

[JTS lawn care]

thanks for all the info on commercial biding it help me out more.

[imalandscper]

I have never seen so much math in my life...........I just walk a prop and a figure pops in my head!!!! i guess that is where i got lucky.......