Estimating survey

[southside]

OK here is an excersise for the commercial guys out there.
I'll give some measurements for a medium sized subdivision
we maintain over here. Price for mow and trim only.(We do
full service on this site but don't worry about that for now) Don't worry about converting to Australian dollars,
I'll work all that out. The person with the closest estimate will win an autographed photo of my truck. :)

Measurements are as follows.
Mowing:- 12 acres or 522720 square feet
Trimming curb,footpaths and garden beds:- 32808linear ft.

Terrain:- mostly flat,but 1 embankment to mow,nothing serious.
Turf species:- Greenless Park Couch.
Mowing height:-2 1/4 "
Equipment used:- Walker MT26 48"ghs deck.Atom blade edger,
Solo trimmer.
All grass is bagged,but dumped on nearby vacant lots.

If you need to see pics of this site,go to Guidos equipment
pics. They are fairly representative of the site.

I look foward to seeing your estimates.

[HOMER]

What in the world is "GREENLESS PARK COUCH"

I pulled a sheet from a govt. contract, broke their numbers down that they used.

Looks like a govt. contractor would have bid in the neighborhood of $320.00 to do it.

That didn't include bagging though so I would raise it to Oh say, $475.00 per cut.

I used to cut 10 open acres with a Church on it and very little trimming for $180.00 per cut. Using 2 Choppers we have done it in less than 2 hrs. Using 2 Choppers and 2 Lazers we mowed it in 55 minutes. I don't know how long it will take you with one mower.

Homer

[Richard Martin]

My bid on this job would be high. Around $1000.00+. There are 3 reasons for the high price. 1: The relatively slow speed Walkers move at. 2: Having to stop and dump the clippings. The 6.2 miles of trimming. The trimming is the part that really drives the price up. How long does it take you to do this job?

[grassyfras]

$1 dollar Bob

[cantoo]

I have a Walker 48" we do some soccer fields will it. They are around 3 acres, so my estimate for your property would be around Can $680. I'm not sure about the edging though, we do very little of it here.
The rate for schools here are from Can $22 to $29 per hour using farm tractors with 6' mowers on the back. I tried to bid the job but they said they were unsure my mowers could do the work. More Board of Ed morons making the decisions, I'm gonna try to rebid it again this year. I am giving them the phone number of the Town that I already do work for to ask them questions.

[lawrence stone]

Mowing 12 man hours labor,equip,oh=$23 x 12 = $276
Triming edging blowing 12 hours ''=$19 x 12 = $228

Total cost $504 without travel time or clean up/setup.

Sell price at 30% gross profit markup=$720
'' 35% ' =$775
' ' 40% ' ' =$840

[cleancut]

I usually charge $35.oo per acre but since you're bagging I would go to $45.00..Then I would tack on another 15% percent for trimming..So I would say around $620 per cut..CleanCut

[PIONEER]

Estimate would be $450.00 per week

[Getmow]

I can't say I would never bag that much grass, but chances are VERY slim. Using one Walker and one trimmer the price would be around $1318. Using a DC without bagging it would be apx. 780.

[AGG Lawn Maintenance]

For my company it would be $500 a cut
Two guys cut
One to two guys edge and trim.
Travis
AG& G Lawn Mainteance

[Vibe Ray]

$715 a cut.

[HOMER]

Ok Southside, its time for you to tell us what your doing it for, how close are we?

Homer

[John DiMartino]

800 a cut,if bagging.I bet if not bagged though there is a lot of blowing to do, with push blower,3 miles is a lot of pushing.

[Runner]

Couldn't touch it. 12 acres bagged? With one mower? There is WAY too much money to be made out there to haul grass around behind me. The price for this amount of property would normally come in at around $350 per cut with edging once per month and providing it doesn't have a whole lot of trimming involved. Another factor is, this is considering there's no fenceline. To bag it, it's hard to say, since more time would be spent dragging tarps than actual mowing. I would DEFINITELY be selling them on the advantages of leaving the clippings!

[grassyfras]

when are we going to know the answer?

[southside]

OK. We bag all grass and dump on vacant lots and kick it around,so we don't need to cart it away. Job is done 3 times
per month in summer and twice monthly through winter.Edging
around garden beds and along curbs and footpaths takes 7 hours. Mowing takes 8.5 hours.
Greenlees Park Couch is a low stolonizing grass.We cut at
around 2 1/4 inch.
Minimal blowing required.Along the main road the grass is blown off by passing trucks. The rest we suck up with the Walker after trimming.
There is around 3/4 mile of fenceline. A lot of bollards to be trimmed around too. Check the pics. The mowing,ect consists of 6 parks of varying sizes around the estate.

And our price is $940 per cut AUD.

And the winner is.............
Richard Martin!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes Richard,you receive an autographed copy of my truck mailed to you courtesy of Australia Post!!

And to all of you who priced,thankyou for playing "The Price Is Right!" :)

[HOMER]

Well Karl it's good to know somebody's making pretty good money doing this. Ya'll got any openings down under. I'll bring my Choppers down there and we can knock it out real quick! Gotta split the money though!

[lawrence stone]

$940 AUS=$520 US

That is just a break even job. I am sure you are at 20 hours per mow when you figure travel time, clean up, set up, blade sharpening, and administrative costs.

[southside]

Lawrence, We make good money off this job. We sub out the trimming and push mowing to a small residential contractor
for $200 per cut that leaves $740 for me. Works out at
$87 per hour for me. Bear in mind it's actually a full service job.Fert,spraying,rubbish removal,garden maint,
slashing,cleaning of display homes,ect.Total asset maintenance.
We normally charge the Walker out at $40 per hour.
20 hours per mow? Nowhere near that,we move at the speed of a thousand raped apes. :)