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How much to charge for weeding flower beds around house?

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66K views 18 replies 14 participants last post by  Soupy  
C
#1 ·
I was asked today from a lady with lots of contacts (works for the Chamber of Com.), if I am willing to weed flowerbeds. Of course I said yes. If I get the pricing right, I'll be able to get several jobs in the community.

How much should I charge when providing a quote. I was thinking about $8-$9 per sqr yard for removing weeds, depending on how bad it is,
$4-$4.5 per sqr yard for applying mulch. Do these prices sound about right?

I would then offer maintaince for removing weeds every 2-3 weeks.
$10-$15?


What do you think, am I in the wrong ball park, or playing the wrong game.



Thanks
 
L
#2 ·
hmmm. i dont know if i would do it by the square foot if i was you. lets say you have a big open garden 10 x 30 with only woody shrubs. how long will it take you to find and weed that garden? now lets say you have a garden that is 10 x 20 and is all full of wild flowers that are close together. how long will it take you to find all of the weeds in there, rip them out, and not crush any plants? reason i say this is because last week we weeded two homes right next to eachother. 1 of them took 2 guys about 3 - 4 hrs. then they went to the neighbor's house. weeded all the gardens but one in about 2 hrs. then we went back saturday and it took them 2 people 4 hrs to weed one garden about 15' at widest by 60' long. so its all about plant density, and what kinds of plants you have.
 
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G
#6 ·
We charge $35.00 per hour. But remember, it usally takes longer to pull weeds than you think. I usally add a little bit extra for good measure. Also remember to tell the customer that the price you quote is not good for a long period of time because weeds grow and acumulate. I ran into this once where I bid a job to weed out some beds on one week. And it was done 3 weeks later. Knowing that we were coming to weed, the customer did nothing, and man, the weeds were out of control!!! It took way longer than it bid for. live and learn.
 
L
#9 ·
I can't remember the author's name of "The well tended perennial garden", Janet... something. At any rate, I heard her at a seminar and she said that she esimates that a perennial garden takes about 10 man hours per 100 sq feet per season to maintain.

From this number I have tried to evaluate if this is accurate for perennial beds. Often ornamentals and annuals are mixed into the beds.

What I have found is that anywhere from 6 to 15 man hours per 100 sq feet of bed area per season is required for edging, weeding, deadheading, staking, watering, fertilizing. You might even through mulching into the equation.

Just as Lawnboy82 said, it depends on what's in the bed. We bill by the hour, but customers till ask for an estimate so they can budget cost. If the customer has 300 sq feet of bed, with mostly ornamentals, ground cover and a couple of perennials, I might figure about 25 to 30 man hours for year, or about $1,000 for maintenance. If you've got annuals and perennials in the majority of the beds, add more hours. If you use a preemergent, add material cost but your labor will decrease. Same with mulch.

I'd bill it by the hour.
 
D
#10 ·
I use this rule of thumb. Time is money and you are worth what you get for leaf blowing or mowing or edging. In other words, if you charge $50/hour for leaf blowing or mowing, then any job you do is worth $50 per hour of your time.
I've been using this method for the pass years, and it works well. Look at it this way, if you can make $50/hour mowing, why do another job that pays you only $30/hour. Also, it gets ridiculous, to start a clean up job, which needs pruning, blowing, mowing edging, and weeding, and attempt to figure how long each job takes.
Basically, I stand the door and say, I'll do anything you'd like, "it's a dollar a minute", or $60/hour.
Pete
 
G
#12 ·
mulching,weeding, edging....all the same grunt work to me...$45 per hour....then I have any power equip iinvolved, I add maybe $5 per hour or more. Of course dont tell them your hourly rate, tell them the price of the job...I never tell them the hourly billable rate....they dont get it that their hardresser makes about the same rate....they never even think about that fact...or the fact we do very physical, hot, tiring, work and have expensive maintenance costs ( and also have to stay educated on our business) cutting hair doesn't change much....good luck
 
D
#14 ·
Harvestman,
If you have different rates for different jobs, then how do you pay your workers??? It would be hard to pay them different amounts for different jobs, or worse, if you pay them the same, then you would make less money for different tasks???
Pete
 
S
#16 ·
If you have different rates for different jobs, then how do you pay your workers??? It would be hard to pay them different amounts for different jobs, or worse, if you pay them the same, then you would make less money for different tasks???
Click to expand...
It's kinda like looking at the glass and saying it's half empty instead of half full. If you pay your workers acording to your normal paying jobs. Then charge more for other work. You are makeing more per job, not less.

Soupy
 
D
#17 ·
Originally posted by Soupy


It's kinda like looking at the glass and saying it's half empty instead of half full. If you pay your workers acording to your normal paying jobs. Then charge more for other work. You are makeing more per job, not less.

Soupy
Click to expand...
Soup,
I'd like to think we're both saying the same. I'm saying if you make $50/ hour for mowing, the charge $50/hour for weeding, too. So, in other words, I'm saying charge more (but not really) for weeding (the same as mowing).
As for the other guy who didn't want to weed because it paid less, if you just charge the same amount, then Hell, I can sit on my ass and pull little green plants for $50/hour :p And then. the customer "can take it or leave it". And, since most everyone hates to weed, more than likely you may find that more people "will" let you weed, even at $50/hour.:D
Pete
 
S
#19 ·
Pete, Im just got home from a all day turkey shoot, So I'm half looped. I can't figure out what your trying to say right now, maybe tomorrow I'll be able to think better. But this is how I see it.

If I pay $10/hr & that worker makes me $30/hr cutting grass. But makes me $90/hr landscaping, or what ever. Are you saying I'm losing money cutting grass. By the way, I get $60/hr, It's in my contract. If they don't ask for a bid, and just tell me to do it. They get charged $60/hr. Normally I give them a bid and it's even higher then that. I get $300 to overseed a 10,000 sq, ft lawn. If I do it myself it cost me $20 for areator and about $20 worth of Lesco Seed which I get a great deal on. But sometimes I sub contract it out if I'm busy and pay the Chemlawn guy $125 and still wak away with a killer profit. So You can make good money cutting grass, which is my main profit. But when I get a side job, I get paid top $. So my worker is makeing me more money, not less.

Like I said, I'm looped, and It took me 30 minutes to type this, So if I'm not makeing since or if I misspelled alot of words. Please excuse me. I don't drink alot, but when I do, I do it right. Just like any other job I do.

Soupy,
 
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