Pricing - Mulching, Planting, Pest / weed prevention

[chapandrew6]

If someone wants flowers planted and or wants me to mulch their flowerbeds, how can I come up with a way to price this out?

[chapandrew6]

Oops, accidently hit enter before I was ready. I also wanted to ask how I can price putting down weed and or pest preventors?

[pattytastik]

What I usually do is I figure out how much mulch a job will use. Assuiming you will pick the mulch up yourself by the cubic yard, then you will see that you have to get lets say 2 cubic yards. This typically costs around 60 bucks where I'm from, then you can charge 60 or so for the delivery. Then figure out how long the job will take you. Lets say getting the bed ready and mulching will take 3 hours, and you (assuming no workers) want to make 40 an hour, then you will charge 120 for labor.

So this would mean job cost would be $240 This is just how I price mulching jobs.

Did this help?

[flyingdutch16]

You could charge to put down mulch by the yard. Thats what I do

[wiselandscaping]

Originally Posted by chapandrew6

Oops, accidently hit enter before I was ready. I also wanted to ask how I can price putting down weed and or pest preventors?

Are you a state certified applicator in Ohio? If not, don't do it. The EPA will burn you and won't think twice about doing it.

[Heroslawns]

Down Here in the great state of Texas for me hardwood mulch is $30 a yard and cedar is $35.. Ive been charging $100 a yard that is everything from picking it up and spreading it out..

[jwsland]

Cubic yards needs to be calculated. Once I do that I have a price per yard I use to determine cost. I have currently been charging $100 per yard. That $100 includes the cost of the mulch which is around 18-22 depending on color, edging the beds the mulch is going to be spread in and spreading the mulch. If we have to blow a small amount of debris out of the bed thats not a big deal or pulling a few small weeds as we go gets included. If the beds are in really bad shape and have a large amount of weeds, fabric needs to be layed down, bushes need to be trimmed etc, there will be an additional charge.

Any material you bring to a job should be marked up a minimum of 25% to cover your "shopping costs". Plants for instance, I get them with a 20% discount when I buy them from my nurserey. I dont always mark them up 25% over the retail price because I'm a nice guy sometimes. It depends on the amount of planting. Small jobs will get marked up usually. The reason I do this is because I base my planting price off of the retail price. 80% of the retail price is what I charge to plant. A couple plants wouldn't really be worth it to me if I didnt mark them up. Larger jobs don't always need to be for me because the 20% discount and planting price makes me enough money. I offer a 1 year warranty for double the cost of the plants. That includes me buying a new plants and my labor for replacing it.

Don't reveal your rates, hourly or per cubic yard to your customers. And don't pass along your discounts if you get them.

I hope this helps. Its late and I'm tired so sorry if its confusing!