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How early do you start mowing

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13K views 33 replies 32 participants last post by  casco73  
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#1 ·
How early in the morning do you guys start mowing residentials. I am a morning person, and like to start as early as possible, to give myself time in the evening to make up for rain delays.

Do you worry about waking people up? This is my main concern, I realize dew can be a problem, but my mower handles moist grass very well, you can't tell the difference.

Is 7:00am to early? Last year I started at 8:00, at a house where I knew the people that lived there were at work, but this year I will be cutting quite a few more customers, and won't be able to change the route based on who I know is not home in the morning.
 
#10 ·
5:00am for commercials that are not located near residential areas. Otherwise its 7:00am elsewhere. If we work on Saturdays its no ealier than 8:00am.
 
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#11 ·
Unfortuantly I have to start around 9 or so. Any earlier than that the dew is too thick and I have to come back later in the day and double cut it. Even cutting it twice at one time doesn't make it in my book. Im usually up and ready to go by 7:30.
 
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#12 ·
If I'm real busy, 9am is the absolute earliest the first 2-cycle motor gets running, as much so to relieve the frustration that comes with dew and sometimes frost, but also so as not to violate local noise ordinances.

Even if I get out of bed at 7:30a, I can't seem to get to the first house before 9, I don't understand this but it always works like that :laugh:

But I can get 8-10 yards / day cut by 4-6p if need be, which leaves a few hours of daylight for maintenance and paperwork, one would think I'd be done in good time, but when things are busy, by the time I get a chance to sit down it's always 10pm or later.

The other thing I find is that starting time is the only way I can somewhat control how much work gets thrown my way. Starting earlier, at least in my case almost never means getting done earlier... I am always busy until dark and then some... So it gets to a point, I start just in time to get the day's scheduled work done and usually an extra hour or two (at the most) to stabilize things in case of down time. Other than that I am none too keen on getting a rolling start too early because it just means more work gets thrown my way. Worse than that is it's still 10pm or later before I finally sit down for good, and once a day goes much past 12 hours, this homeboy loses interest.

Funny how all that works out.
 
M
#16 ·
Monday - Saturday: I start as early as it comes light, but no earlier than 5:30am.

Sunday: usually not before 7am.

As a side note, I do usually try to start with homes where no one lives in (summer cottages).

However, I have neighbors of several of my accounts who mow their lawn starting at daylight on Saturday/Sunday mornings, so if I have to be in that neighborhood, I start there. My main town that I work is full of self-employed workers that start their day long before daylight. So, it's not a problem. Most are up!
 
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#19 ·
7am, if kids can go to school that early, i can start that early. i also list that as my daily start time in my proposals so people cant say i ddint tell them. usually the neighbors have something to say though. if its a commerical not near houses i start 6-6:30ish to beat the sun
 
#23 ·
Depends on what day it is, what season it is, what temp it is and what the weather is.

Last summer, when we had highs around 110*, I called by clients and asked if I could start at 6:45AM before it got too hot...they all said yes, they understood the situation.

Normally, when mowing after School, the earliest I can start is around 3:30PM (when I get home), and work until it gets dark (or I finnish the days route).

Weekends, with normal (good) weather on saturdays, I start at around 8AM, unless it's going to thunderstorm in the PM, then start at 7AM.

There you go!:usflag:
 
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#24 ·
Hi,
It all varies, on wed. 6:00 AM all other days 7:40 - 8:00. Only one mad neighbor so far, but she was worth ten mad people!:laugh:
 
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