hedge trimming

[clallen03]

Originally Posted by jlawnman

$25 per man per hour w/free haulaway of debris.. most of my customers like this... of course you have some that want to know how long it will take.. I simply give them a "range".. it could take an hour... it could take 2 1/2 hours... only had problems with one customer not wanting to pay in all of 08 when it came to pruning... oh.. the laying down of tarps to collect the debris in my opinion is a waste of time... when you prune, cut off little pieces at a time... then use one of those nifty little echo leaf suckers and suck up all the clippings.. works wonders in pinestraw beds where raking out the debris would remove half the straw...

So you are saying if you are trimming shrubs for an hour you are only going to charge $25. I can see why all of your customers like this. We trim a 10 foot long 3 foot tall hedge in 5 min and make $25 and we sell them on a pine straw application at the same time.

I dont know your market but there is no way you can make a living with rates like that. If you work 8 hours a day trimming shrubs you made a whopping $200, then you have to pay for disposal. Just something to think about. You know your market better then I do.

[barefootlawnsandlandscape]

Jlawn,

You're cutting yourself, (and probably the shrubs you are trimming), short. $25/manhr with free haul off you should be covered up with work!

[nozzlehead]

I'm new to a lot of this. Do most of you bid by the shrub such as yardatwork mentioned or use an hourly rate? Another question, I have a customer who is going to want some major cutting on some really overgrown stuff, he has a couple burning bushes that are out of hand, should I wait until they start to bloom or do it earlier?

[david shumaker]

Originally Posted by clallen03

If these shrubs sit in some sort of bed, it is very important that you sell them on a mulch or pinestraw installation at the same time. It is a pain in the rear to get these little leaves out of mulch and almost impossible to get them all out of pinestraw. If you sell them on both then after you trim the hedges you clean up just the big stuff and lay the mulch or pinestraw on top of all the little leaves. This will save you lots of time and you can make a couple of extra bucks on the add on service you just sold. Mulch installations are very profitable if priced right.

Just a little trick of the trade. Hope this helps.

You're right about the pine straw beds....they are a pain. I've got one customer that has pine straw. I have to put tarps around the shrubs to catch the clippings. At least with mulch you can rake out some of the clippings. Pine straw gets all messed up if you try to rake it.

[david shumaker]

Originally Posted by Glenn Lawn Care

i use a hand shears not power. why you ask: i think it looks better iwth hand shears, yeah it takes longer but it looks better in my opinion. i have a few coustomer with shrubs that i trim they dont have a lot of shrubs but they care about what thier shrubs look like more then their grass. remember you cant put back what you cut off!!

Right. If it's a "high end" customer, I would use sharp hand shears if the customer is willing to pay for the extra time it takes.

[david shumaker]

Originally Posted by nozzlehead

I'm new to a lot of this. Do most of you bid by the shrub such as yardatwork mentioned or use an hourly rate? Another question, I have a customer who is going to want some major cutting on some really overgrown stuff, he has a couple burning bushes that are out of hand, should I wait until they start to bloom or do it earlier?

I estimate how long the job will take and charge a flat rate. For example if I think it will take 2 hours and charge $40.00 an hour, I tell the customer $80.00 for the job instead of $40.00 an hour. They usually don't know how long it will take and if I tell them I charge $40.00 an hour they sometimes think I am crazy and charge too much.

It will take some time to get good at estimating how long it will take and still you will not get it exact everytime.

If overgrown shrubs need pruning back alot (radical pruning), I do it at the end of February or early March so you get new growth in the spring. This applies to most plants that are hard to kill. On Azaleas, I wait until right after the blooms fall before pruning.

[nozzlehead]

Thanks Dave. Hope ya have a good season!

[lawnpro724]

Originally Posted by jlawnman

$25 per man per hour w/free haulaway of debris.. most of my customers like this... of course you have some that want to know how long it will take.. I simply give them a "range".. it could take an hour... it could take 2 1/2 hours... only had problems with one customer not wanting to pay in all of 08 when it came to pruning... oh.. the laying down of tarps to collect the debris in my opinion is a waste of time... when you prune, cut off little pieces at a time... then use one of those nifty little echo leaf suckers and suck up all the clippings.. works wonders in pinestraw beds where raking out the debris would remove half the straw...

$25 per man hour is way to cheap. We get a $100 hr for a two man crew and charge a debris removal fee on top of that. I have been thinking about raising our rate even higher. We are so busy all year doing shrubs we don't have much time to do anything else.

[barnes]

how to price 776 shrubs

[jlawnman]

Originally Posted by clallen03

So you are saying if you are trimming shrubs for an hour you are only going to charge $25. I can see why all of your customers like this. We trim a 10 foot long 3 foot tall hedge in 5 min and make $25 and we sell them on a pine straw application at the same time.

I dont know your market but there is no way you can make a living with rates like that. If you work 8 hours a day trimming shrubs you made a whopping $200, then you have to pay for disposal. Just something to think about. You know your market better then I do.

25 per man per hour, minumum 2 hours. I usually never prune alone. Always at least myself and a helper. I do not pay for disposal. I have 3 disposal options. 1. Customers know that the bill will be cheaper if I don't have to haul away... many of them allow me to dispose in the woods behind their house. 2. I have a customer that love to have weekend parties with bond fires... I maintain his property for free in trade for him taking all my yard debris. This is where all the trees and large bushes end up. 3. If I stuff the debris in bags, my trash guys will take away anything for a 12 pack of beer... I had 2 couches, an end table, old refrig, and about 45 55gal bags of junk.... The trash guys backed the truck to the pile and loaded it all up for a case of beer... It's just another way we can "stick it to the man" I'm not every going to pay the big bucks for disposal...