How important is being a few square feet off?

[ptjackson]

I know that companies that do treatments change by the square footage. Is this usually a strict rule or do you usually have some standard rates? I ask because we've created this Free tool http://servicevines.com/jobs/measureit to help businesses like yours. Some companies charge and we do it for free. I think it's pretty accurate within a few square feet.

I posted in general green discussion and the response was pretty good. I'd love to hear what people in this forum think

[charmill26]

I tried it but after I type in the address and click "Go" nothing happens. Like no link is being clicked. I'm on a MacBook Pro and using Google Chrome

[Duekster]

Did not work here either. Windows 7 IE8

[ptjackson]

Thanks. I was trying to figure out what problem you might be having and why it still worked for me. then I remembered at first we ask for your location, since when you bring up the map we show a map of the current location. So if you haven't clicked okay it doesn't work. New Browsers (chrome and ie 8) are the only ones that support this. Here is an image. Maybe we should just get rid of that part

[GreenI.A.]

[QUOTE=ptjackson;4559273]I know that companies that do treatments change by the square footage. Is this usually a strict rule or do you usually have some standard rates?

To go back to your original question. Yes, most of us charge by the square footage. But there is more to it than that. Most of the fert companies charge with a sliding scale. For example we have a flat rate for the first 3,500 feet, then we charge an additional amount per every 500 ft. After 20k ft that amount drops a little. The reason for doing this is that as the sq footage increases your time per sq foot drops. For exaple, you can treat a single 100k lawn, or you can treat ten 10k lawns. Your costs for materials is the same, but the one large lawn in much quicker and requires much less overhead.

On top of all of that, there are other factors. You could have two different properties that are both 20k of turf, but the price could vary greatly. When we measure a lawn we look at the ease of treatment, is it a wide open flat lot where we can use a ride-on. Or are there many narrow strips and small segragated areas of grass that we need to use a push spreader. Are there raised areas that we will need to lift a spreader up to get to. Are there slopes that we can't safely treat with a ride on. Are there many beds of delicate flowers that we have to be extreamly cautious of fert or pest overspray damage. In the care of these factors we might price a 20k lawn as a 23k sq lawn to make up for the extra time needed.

Like I have posted on a fw other threads here, the satalite image measuring has its place. We will use it to get a rough idea of the property before we go out. Or if it is a property we have been to before and know the conditions but do not have actual measurements, it works fine. But satalite images can not give me soil samples, is the soil loam, clay, sand? this is important to know the type and frequency of treatments. When I look at a satalite image I may see 3k of bare dirt where the swing set is, but the image is 3yrs old, and I don't know that that has since been seeded. Or on the oposiste I could loose a bid because I price the turf as 10k but didn't know that since the image was taken the customer built a large addition, added a 6 car garage, and a 4k sq foot driveway/parking for his home business.

Do those examples seem absurd? These are all examples we have seen this seasnon.

[ptjackson]

Thanks Green IA. that's great feedback. We know it's not a one size fits all solution. We could add a topo option if that helps at all, to show you changes in elevation. Nothing beats on onsite visit for sure, but maybe it gives you some kind of idea if you have a customer on the phone. We'll begin working the teleportation app tomorrow j/k

Like I've said many times. I'm here to listen as well as talk so when people take the time to give me feedback I try and learn from it. Thx

[GreenI.A.]

like i've said i see it as a great reference tool. I actually just used it the other day doing a large industrial park bid. There were way to many large lawns and islands in between the road ways to measure individually. It was much easier to measure online, and then drive trough the site and make adjustments to the measurements for the obstacles you couldn't see. Had we measured it all by hand it would have taken three of us a couple of days. So like I said your app definitely has its place.