spraying gravel driveways and parking lots with soil sterilizers

TURF SIDE UP · Jul 26, 2005

i have decided to expand my chemical services into spraying gravel driveways, etc.. with round up/sahara .
i am looking for a ball park pricing structure for this type of service, i want to charge by the 100 sq ft, does anyone else offer this service or know the going rates.
i am gonna buy a spray rig solely for this purpose, also should i offer a full year or six month weed free gaurantee?

i would think the pricing would be higher, then the prices i charge for lawn care of the same square footage.

any info would be a big help!!!
shane

Drew Gemma · Jul 26, 2005

well first figure out what 100sq ft takes chemical wise then figure out how many times you won't have to spray the conviencie factor with sterilent you only got to spary 1 instead of every month. I would tend to be pricey on that services cause no one does it around here. But bill in a little extra for retrips and wash out.

olderthandirt · Jul 26, 2005

TURF SIDE UP said:
i have decided to expand my chemical services into spraying gravel driveways, etc.. with round up/sahara .
i am looking for a ball park pricing structure for this type of service, i want to charge by the 100 sq ft, does anyone else offer this service or know the going rates.
i am gonna buy a spray rig solely for this purpose, also should i offer a full year or six month weed free gaurantee?

i would think the pricing would be higher, then the prices i charge for lawn care of the same square footage.

any info would be a big help!!!
shane

Can't help you with the pricing but want to thank you for sharing a great Idea payup

turf hokie · Jul 27, 2005

I do a little of this out of a 50 gallon dedicated round up sprayer. I charge for product plus labor. It is not as easy to price as lawns. I am still figuring out a good system.

Drew Gemma · Jul 27, 2005

how is what is the percent of the solution that you are using then what part of the cost is that from the bulk product. then add a stop charge then mark up the product 20% I think you should be around 6.00 per thousand sq. ft. plus a stop fee then sell an additional retrip service.

rick2752 · Jul 27, 2005

Why not bill by the linear foot. Say 10ft wide drive, charge a certain figure for how long it is. You would only have to use a measuring wheel and get the length to give a bid.

SHOWCASE LAWNS LLC · Jul 27, 2005

I Would Say No Less Than 75 A Driveway...........no Weed Free Guarantee Other Than A Total Initial Kill And 3 Billable Apps A Year. Price Has Got To Be High Per Thou Sq Ft Because Most Driveways Arent That Big. Plus The Higher Price Will Help Cover Any Coincidental Reseeding The Customer May Need ( Runs Drips Or Errors)

TURF SIDE UP · Jul 27, 2005

thanks for the input, i have thought about this service for along time, because driveways are all sizes and sometimes 100's/1000's of feet long(i live in the country), the best pricing would be by the 100 sq ft for my purposes, it only takes a couple minutes to figure the square foot of anything, so thats easy enough. i can just price out what the materials would cost per 100 sq ft, then figure what i need to make in labor, but what is the guarantee factor worth?
also this app should only be done, when calling for clear weather the couple days afterward. so i would have to chose the days wisely to apply.

there is a guy in my area that offers this service, with a year guarantee. not sure if he is licensed or not, you must have a industrial weed control license to spray roundup/anything similar in maryland.

has anybody used sahara, what is the residual time? i thought i read it was 6-9 months depending on the rate?

shane

TURF SIDE UP · Jul 27, 2005

turf hokie, i tried to pm you would the site would not let me. shoot me a email at shanebrenda99@comcast.net, if you dont mine i have a couple questions.

shane

Tharrell · Jul 27, 2005

A little off topic but, do any of you know of a marker for roundup? I've been doing this for a while and gravel parking lots are difficult without a marker.
BTW, what about charging by the gallon?

Drew Gemma · Jul 27, 2005

orizon or surflan or even hyvar last one full season. 230 for 2.5 gallons use 4 oz per gallon i think plus round up. if you use suflan or orizon they are dark orange so they leave a temporary mark.

Shadygrove · Jul 27, 2005

Rule of Thumb for sterilant work, because of the risk of run-off and damage. If your not making your insurance dedutable off the job...don't do it.

lordohturf · Jul 28, 2005

If using Sahara, make very sure there won't be a heavy rain within a couple days of treatment if there is any chance of runoff into desirable turf areas.
Also make sure you are nowhere close to the drip line of trees or other desirable plants. Sandy areas or heavy gravel aren't good sites for Sahara.

I would charge at least $10 per 1000 plus $25 stop charge with a $75 minimum for this service. You could set up follow up visits every 45 days for spot sprays or as needed. This is a great service for industrial sites, railroad sidings, parking lots, etc. You could also contract to pretreat for excavation contractors and driveway sealing companies.

Your price should be high because your risk for damage is far greater with this application compared to most lawn care applications.

MOW ED · Jul 28, 2005

Tharrell said:
A little off topic but, do any of you know of a marker for roundup? I've been doing this for a while and gravel parking lots are difficult without a marker.
BTW, what about charging by the gallon?

I use Turfmark Blue. Its a blue dye that is degraded by UV and rain. I use it for all liquid aps. About 35 a gallon and it has mixing directions on the lable. It has no effect on the mixture you are spraying except for letting you know where you have been.

I have no expeerience with Sahara but I am using glypho (41%) mixed with Scythe. The glypho kills it and the Scythe makes sure its dead and then basically dissolves the plant material. I hate the brown dead junk that is left to see. It costs a little more to mix the two but the end result is less labor because there is nothing left to have to look at.

Runner · Jul 29, 2005

That is a safe way to go, because with just Glypho and Scythe, there is nio residual. With things like Sahara and Oryzalin (used with Glypho), you really have to watch for leaching. Also, with using Oryzalin, it does stain concrete, but I don't know for how long. If anyone has any experience with this product on concrete, please chime in.

Ric · Jul 29, 2005

Shadygrove said:
Rule of Thumb for sterilant work, because of the risk of run-off and damage. If your not making your insurance dedutable off the job...don't do it.

Shadygrove

You make an excellent point about Risk to Reward Ratio of Sahara and other soil sterile chemicals.

My take is why risk it when you could lose your insurance and then license. Why use something that works so long you can not make Reoccurring Revue from the customer.

Sahara not unlike Top Choice are products I stay away from. In the case of Top Choice I would only visit the property one time a year. I would miss the chance to up sell other services from IPM inspection of that property. After all this is a business and providing service to the customer is not the only goal. Some where you might want to maximize Sales and Profit.

Grassmechanic · Jul 30, 2005

Runner said:
That is a safe way to go, because with just Glypho and Scythe, there is nio residual. With things like Sahara and Oryzalin (used with Glypho), you really have to watch for leaching. Also, with using Oryzalin, it does stain concrete, but I don't know for how long. If anyone has any experience with this product on concrete, please chime in.

I've literally sprayed hundreds of gallons of oryzalin (Surflan) and never had run off or leaching. It does a very good job of staying where you put it. I've used it with round up around trees for years with no ill effects to the trees. It is one of the ingredients in either XL 2g or Snapshot, and is used around many ornamentals. I've used it for weed suppresion in cracks on concrete and the staining is temporary, lasting only several days.

Garth · Jul 30, 2005

I use a combination of Roundup Pro and Spike for the same purpose. The Armed Forces training base pays $5000 every six months for fencelines, fuel dumps and motor pools. It takes three days to do all seventy-eight acres.

spraying gravel driveways and parking lots with soil sterilizers

TURF SIDE UP

Drew Gemma

olderthandirt

turf hokie

Drew Gemma

rick2752

SHOWCASE LAWNS LLC

TURF SIDE UP

TURF SIDE UP

Tharrell

Drew Gemma

Shadygrove

lordohturf

MOW ED

Runner

Ric

Grassmechanic

Garth

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