Lawn Care Forum banner

Need advice on a shrub job

9K views 39 replies 11 participants last post by  TaylorLandscapingLLC 
#1 ·
Well hello everyone. ive been a long time lurker of about 7 years. i just started another lawn care business so i made a new name to start fresh. my question is:
When you do a shrub job, do you haul off the clippings or put them by the road for the city to get.

around here, we set things by the street all the time and within a week they are gone. we dont have to call anyone. they just roam around i guess. i have a large overgrown shrub job to do tomorrow. Probably 35' or shrubs about 6' tall. im bringing them back down to 3' and i have to take away enough material to have a 1' gap between the house and the bushes. so im estimating alot of take away. Im kinda new to shrubs because i have only been asked to do minor trimming and shaping. also, with the limited info provided, what would a rough estimate be on something of this caliber? i gave a quote, but it was kind of on the fly. just curious if i way underbid, or if i way overbid. im almost certain i did one of the 2. thanks in advance.
 
#3 ·
thanks for the post. I quoted him $150. i didnt know exactly how long i was gonna be there but i imagined probably 4 hours atleast. thats based solely off of me trying to invision myself doing the job in 5' sections. i have nothing else to really base it on but he was anxious to get someone out because he is leaving town for a while and just needs it done. i was nervous that i would learn i underbid myself but hearing you say big shrub jobs take a few hours has me thinking im in the ballpark atleast. thanks again.
 
#7 ·
no its 35' strip of shrubs. they are about 6" tall. cutting down to 3'. its alot of material removal. and ill be sizing them down so the bushes are about a foot from the house. should i take away or set the clippings by the street?
 
#8 ·
no its 35' strip of shrubs. they are about 6" tall. cutting down to 3'. its alot of material removal. and ill be sizing them down so the bushes are about a foot from the house. should i take away or set the clippings by the street?
I would take them away Looks more professional when you haul all away

What species of the shrubs cutting them in half might be hard on them
 
#9 ·
Haul the trimming off cause you are removing a bit more than 1/2 of what is there. In my area we don't have curb side pickup for trimmings. But if they do where you are I would bag them so it looks neat and tidy plus it makes you look better to the home owner that you take the extra steps to make there place look great!
 
#10 ·
no its 35' strip of shrubs. they are about 6" tall. cutting down to 3'. its alot of material removal. and ill be sizing them down so the bushes are about a foot from the house. should i take away or set the clippings by the street?
Do you mean a hedge?

30' ft an hour for hedges that are only going to get a few inches cut off.

Taking 3' off of a 6' hedge is going to go down far enough where many if not most branches can be to thick for a standard hedge trimmer to cut. You may need a heavy duty trimmer as the Sthil Rejuvenator trimmer or resort to doing a lot of hand work with a pair of lopers. This sounds as if your 1 hour job can turn into 2 or 3 hours.

No town I know of will pick up piles of yard waste that is just dumped by the curb. It has to be tied or bagged.

I would bag and leave it by the curb.

Always good to point out that you will leave the debri left bagged at the curb to be picked up by the town. Being they are paying the town there is no point for them to pay me to haul stuff away.

This past week I cut down 8 cedar shrub/trees from about 5' to 10'. I was doing bed maintenance that day and did not have my trailer. The lady asked if I could cut down those shrub/trees and also said I know that you normally do not take away debris but my husband said if you cut them to 4' lengths and tie them in bundles the town will take them.

I told her that I'll come back tomorrow with the pickup or trailer and take the trees away to the dump. What I would have to charge you for the time to do the extra cuts and tying them up, and cleaning up the mess from all that extra cutting. It will be easier and cost you less money to just let me take them to the dump.

Went back Friday, cut them down. Charged her $20 extra to haul them to the dump Saturday morning. She was happy to pay the $20 extra instead of more for doing it her way.
 
#11 ·
If you haul them away, what will you do with them? I don't understand how you gave a bid without a disposal plan? Local composting facility charges by trailer size here. A 16' trailer load costs $95 to dump alone. Hauling charge, dumping fee? If its as much material as I'm thinking, you get to do it for about $0.

For your sake, I hope they will pick it up curb side.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#12 ·
Im not sure of the species of bush. its got light green leaves on it. the story is:

the landlord called me yesterday panicked because his tenants didnt keep up with the lawn care. He is leaving the country for 3 weeks for vacation and needed to get someone over there to take care of this bushes asap. The bushes got overgrown and now he has a buyer for his house but the bank wont approve their loan for the house until the bushes are cut 1' from the structure. I tried to tell him if i cut that much material from the bushes they will be bare with very few leaves, and it might actually kill them. He said he didnt care what it looked like. He just wanted them cut down to 3' so it was even with the smaller bushes and so the address could be read from the street as the bushes were covering it up.

I made sure he understood what the outcome was going to be and he repeated he didnt care if there was just a trunk and some sticks.i forgot to discuss with him that i would be leaving the clippings roadside (we do have a debris pickup in our town). I figured since his tenants are being evicted, his new buyers will be moving in in a few weeks, and the fact that he will be out of town for 3 weeks, he wouldnt care if the clippings sat for a week until the debris man could come by and get them.

Ill upload a picture later of the before picture. Ive got a midway picture as well but ill be the first to admit that looks like crap no matter how you did this job. you can see right through the bushes and im not proud that the finished product is gonna look like crap but thats what he asked for and i really need the work so i guess we will just have to make do for now. Im sure a few lessons will be learned out of this but this is probably my biggest shrubs/hedge job to date. I did have to use loppers quite a bit. I knew that from the start. thanks for the input guys. it really helps me out.
 
#13 ·
Not sure if this type of work is something you'll end up doing a lot of, but I'll let you in on a little secret of mine: If you have to use loppers frequently on stuff like this, pick up the Black & Decker Alligator Loppers (the 20 volt lithium model). It'll save a boat load of time with these lopping jobs. Works great for a bunch of other trimming work too.
 
#15 ·
That's funny :laugh::laugh::laugh: You sound like some customers
You call your self a landscaper
gotta start somewhere dont ya? sorry, but i dont have 25 years in the business. this has been a very part time gig for me up until recently. I also mentioned that i have not done a lot of bush overhaul in the first post. just some minor shaping and trimming. i may not have all the knowledge to be had but im far from a homeowner hack. I am fully licensed and just got my insurance quote this AM. i dont want to step on anyones toes and im not going to blow smoke like i know it all. im not afraid to ask questions and im completely transparent with my skills. Now, i can take a joke, as i assume you are meaning. I just want everyone to understand im not trying to pass myself off for something im not. I have aspirations of doing full on landscaping. at the current time, more people are getting cuts than anything. a few mulch jobs, which ive done in the past, a few bed redesigns, which ive done a couple of, but mostly bi weekly cuts. this is where i come to learn if im unsure. so if you could, please bare with me because im liable to ask a dumb question here and there. thanks for the input thus far. its been more than helpful in the lesson learning ive had to do in the last day or so with this job estimate and execution. :drinkup:
 
#16 ·
gotta start somewhere dont ya? sorry, but i dont have 25 years in the business. this has been a very part time gig for me up until recently. I also mentioned that i have not done a lot of bush overhaul in the first post. just some minor shaping and trimming. i may not have all the knowledge to be had but im far from a homeowner hack. I am fully licensed and just got my insurance quote this AM. i dont want to step on anyones toes and im not going to blow smoke like i know it all. im not afraid to ask questions and im completely transparent with my skills. Now, i can take a joke, as i assume you are meaning. I just want everyone to understand im not trying to pass myself off for something im not. I have aspirations of doing full on landscaping. at the current time, more people are getting cuts than anything. a few mulch jobs, which ive done in the past, a few bed redesigns, which ive done a couple of, but mostly bi weekly cuts. this is where i come to learn if im unsure. so if you could, please bare with me because im liable to ask a dumb question here and there. thanks for the input thus far. its been more than helpful in the lesson learning ive had to do in the last day or so with this job estimate and execution. :drinkup:
It was funny is all
the way you put it
 
#17 ·
It was funny is all
the way you put it
not a problem. i dont mind a little heckling. i didnt think you meant it in a mean way but i figured that was as good a time as any to tell all a little bit about myself. no offense taken.:)
 
#18 ·
Also, i guess this would answer a few other questions as well. My wife is in the Air Force. We have been married 10 years this may, and we are both 28. we have 2 young children. a 5 year old boy and a 3 year old girl. it worked out to my advantage i guess. lol. Since shes in the mil, every time i get a business rolling and get a clientele i have to up and move to another base. This third time, i went to the police academy since my career field/profession is law enforcement, just in a different state. its really competitive where im at and im tired of waiting for hiring freezes to lift and what not so i decided to just do what ive done in the past. Re start my lawn care biz.

before it was always word of mouth jobs on the side apart from my full time LE job. this time, i am a stay at home dad going stir crazy. I went out and bought a 2013 Exmark Lazer Z 52". wife was thrilled :hammerhead: I still had a couple stihl power tools but decided to buy a new stihl trimmer, as well as the extended hedge trimmers they have. pretty nice tool if i do say so myself. got a brand new 14' tandem axle trailer and tossed some extreme trimmer racks and backpack blower rack on. I incorporated, applied for insurance under my parameters and boom the business line starts ringing. i dont know how because i have yet to start a marketing campaign but ive had 5 calls in 2 days. it puts some cash in my pocket, gets me out of the house and teaches my children about ambition and motivation. I call the shots like always, and ive got 2 HOA bids ive been asked to submit in the last week. thats me in a nutshell. :waving:
 
#19 ·
Just cut them according to specs and pa attention to what happens... best way to learn...

Your biggest problem may be getting paid from this spastic landowner... Shrubs have become a "Crisis Situation" ,,, give me a break... :)
 
#20 ·
Just cut them according to specs and pa attention to what happens... best way to learn...

Your biggest problem may be getting paid from this spastic landowner... Shrubs have become a "Crisis Situation" ,,, give me a break... :)
I've done lots of broker work over the years. If a bank, or mortgage company is dragging their feet because the bushes or trees are "on the house". Anyone trying to make a commission on the sale will view it as a "crisis situation".

He could give two ****s about hacking that thing down.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#21 ·
Also, i guess this would answer a few other questions as well. My wife is in the Air Force. We have been married 10 years this may, and we are both 28. we have 2 young children. a 5 year old boy and a 3 year old girl. it worked out to my advantage i guess. lol. Since shes in the mil, every time i get a business rolling and get a clientele i have to up and move to another base. This third time, i went to the police academy since my career field/profession is law enforcement, just in a different state. its really competitive where im at and im tired of waiting for hiring freezes to lift and what not so i decided to just do what ive done in the past. Re start my lawn care biz.

before it was always word of mouth jobs on the side apart from my full time LE job. this time, i am a stay at home dad going stir crazy. I went out and bought a 2013 Exmark Lazer Z 52". wife was thrilled :hammerhead: I still had a couple stihl power tools but decided to buy a new stihl trimmer, as well as the extended hedge trimmers they have. pretty nice tool if i do say so myself. got a brand new 14' tandem axle trailer and tossed some extreme trimmer racks and backpack blower rack on. I incorporated, applied for insurance under my parameters and boom the business line starts ringing. i dont know how because i have yet to start a marketing campaign but ive had 5 calls in 2 days. it puts some cash in my pocket, gets me out of the house and teaches my children about ambition and motivation. I call the shots like always, and ive got 2 HOA bids ive been asked to submit in the last week. thats me in a nutshell. :waving:
I know what you are going threw
My sister was a Captain in the Army My brother in law He tried so many things and did many things Stay home dad but Seem like every 4 years they moved and his business had to start all over
This is for your Wife :usflag::usflag:
 
#22 ·
I've done lots of broker work over the years. If a bank, or mortgage company is dragging their feet because the bushes or trees are "on the house". Anyone trying to make a commission on the sale will view it as a "crisis situation". ...
Posted via Mobile Device
Exactly... The idiot is managing a property that he's allowed to get run down to that extent!?!?! he's is an irresponsible fool...
Last I heard, many markets view the landscape up to 15% of the value of the property... any one who is not savvy to that concept is not likely taking the chump who will come in and hack some bushes seriously,,, not enough to pay anyways...

These types of situations are best avoided, or done quickly and I wouldn't take it seriously what is going to happen to the shrubs... the new owner will rip them out anyways... :)
 
#23 ·
much appreciated snyder.

As for the spastic customer. Hes just freaking out because hes finally got a buyer for his short sale and he doesnt want to delay anything because of such a stupid reason. Ive been through the same thing.
this guy doesnt care what it looks like. he just wants it done. hes not living there anymore. hes got a house on the beach now. he was renting it out and the tenants cared more about partying than maintenance. ill hack it up but i dont want my name posted that i did it. i cant afford to turn away customers at this point.
 
#24 ·
i dont know what to tell ya small axe. you may be right. i might try to do a decent job given the orders, and still get stiffed. im supposed to be getting the payment on monday. hes having work done to the house then and his family member will have my cash. hes going out of town for 3 weeks on vacation so thats what the situation is for right now. its seems dicey i know. i should have maybe structured it a bit different but this is just the way the chips fell. he was in a hurry to find someone and leave the neighborhood because it was getting late in the day, and i was crunched for time as well cutting it so close to picking up my child from school. we agreed and went on our way. lets hope that all ends well and ill learn a few things from this job.

-establish whats to be done with clippings
-charge a little more for my time
-have a little more solid plan for getting paid
-dont estimate and run. take my time and make sure theres plenty of time for questions and concerns.

got it. if i dont get paid, ill consider it a paid lesson learned.
 
#25 ·
i dont know what to tell ya small axe. you may be right. i might try to do a decent job given the orders, and still get stiffed. im supposed to be getting the payment on monday. hes having work done to the house then and his family member will have my cash. hes going out of town for 3 weeks on vacation so thats what the situation is for right now. its seems dicey i know. i should have maybe structured it a bit different but this is just the way the chips fell. he was in a hurry to find someone and leave the neighborhood because it was getting late in the day, and i was crunched for time as well cutting it so close to picking up my child from school. we agreed and went on our way. lets hope that all ends well and ill learn a few things from this job.

-establish whats to be done with clippings
-charge a little more for my time
-have a little more solid plan for getting paid
-dont estimate and run. take my time and make sure theres plenty of time for questions and concerns.

got it. if i dont get paid, ill consider it a paid lesson learned.
Sounds like you have a decent handle, and a good attitude. Good luck. Hope it goes well.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#26 ·
Sounds like you have a decent handle, and a good attitude. Good luck. Hope it goes well.
Posted via Mobile Device
thanks for the kind words. Im confident all will go alright. it will be interesting but after yall have given me suggestions to think about, it will go a little differently next time around. thats for sure. :)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top