Okay, I have done a little searching and have not found exactly what I am looking for. Recently, I have had some customers not complain.... but just mention they would like to see better clean up after mowing. We have had a boat load of rain and grass is of course growing like crazy, so when I mow, trim & edge.... there is quite a bit of grass clippings that will fall onto the street, curb, sidewalk, etc. I use my blower to try and blow everything into the best pile I can and then I sweep it up and either bag it or throw it in the home owner's trash cans. But there really isn't anyway to get it perfectly clean. I could spend 45 minutes manually sweeping the sidewalks and curbs and what not, but who can afford to do that. I am using a little Toro 22" Mower. It's a mulcher and I have recently sharpened the blade. So short of bagging every customers house, I am at a loss. What do you guys do? How do you respond to this type of feedback? My blower will also vacuum.... should I be vacuuming up the overage??? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Clean Up after mowing
WannabeLawnMan
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Okay, I have done a little searching and have not found exactly what I am looking for. Recently, I have had some customers not complain.... but just mention they would like to see better clean up after mowing. We have had a boat load of rain and grass is of course growing like crazy, so when I mow, trim & edge.... there is quite a bit of grass clippings that will fall onto the street, curb, sidewalk, etc. I use my blower to try and blow everything into the best pile I can and then I sweep it up and either bag it or throw it in the home owner's trash cans. But there really isn't anyway to get it perfectly clean. I could spend 45 minutes manually sweeping the sidewalks and curbs and what not, but who can afford to do that. I am using a little Toro 22" Mower. It's a mulcher and I have recently sharpened the blade. So short of bagging every customers house, I am at a loss. What do you guys do? How do you respond to this type of feedback? My blower will also vacuum.... should I be vacuuming up the overage??? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Do you pay taxes? Are you insured? I don't mean your vehicle. Do you have insurance on your business? Are you working for beer money for the weekend?
Are you putting your self through school? So that you don't have to do this forever? Are you providing insurance for your employees? I could go on.
What is your angle? Live at home with parents? Wannabe man?
Are you putting your self through school? So that you don't have to do this forever? Are you providing insurance for your employees? I could go on.
What is your angle? Live at home with parents? Wannabe man?
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captken, take it easy on the guy
Just curious though, if it's a mulching mower, how are you even getting anything on the surfaces? Every mulcher I've used dropped it right underneath me when I was cutting, unless I came off the curb & knocked it loose. But, I've never used any push mowers for commercial use either.
If it's wet grass that I'm cleaning up from side discharge, I've found a backpack blower works the best. If needed, I use my handheld @ the same time; I.e. tube in the right & handheld in the left.
Just curious though, if it's a mulching mower, how are you even getting anything on the surfaces? Every mulcher I've used dropped it right underneath me when I was cutting, unless I came off the curb & knocked it loose. But, I've never used any push mowers for commercial use either.
If it's wet grass that I'm cleaning up from side discharge, I've found a backpack blower works the best. If needed, I use my handheld @ the same time; I.e. tube in the right & handheld in the left.
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A blower can do a much better job than 45 minutes of sweeping can.
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Sorry, I can get carried away. I have bills to pay and after that I have guys who depend on me to pay them so that they can pay their bills....feed their family, you get the drift....
kenny
I wish for a professional forum.
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I don't get it either.
He should be able to blow the excess back onto the lawn, if there are clumps on the lawn use the blower to break them up...
21" mulchers and tall grass don't work well together.
He should be able to blow the excess back onto the lawn, if there are clumps on the lawn use the blower to break them up...
21" mulchers and tall grass don't work well together.
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CaptKen, I am not sure what "I wish for a professional forum." implies, but I appreciate any and all feedback. Yes, I am licensed and pay taxes. No, I am not insured. As you may have encountered, in my state you must be self-employed a given length of time before most reputable insurance companies will write you. In my case this is two years. I am a newbie, so the "Wanna be" name was just something I thought would be funny. But I am a professional and do look to other professionals in the business for advice. I know there are a lot of fly by nighters out there..... I don't aim to be one of those. I aim to be reputable and legit. No hard feelings.
As far as the mower, I am a newbie starting out and don't quite have the 9K for the Walker yet and have not built my accounts up yet to invest in something bigger. So for now I use a little TORO Self-Propelled job. Works well. But, everything says Mulching mower. The blade is a mulcher, the deck is a mulching deck and the blade was just sharpened. Yet, if you tip the mower back (front wheels off the ground) to turn or pivot it will throw grass. Grass is dry so slightly damp in some cases. Are you saying this is not right?? Do any of you guys have to sweep afterwards? When using a blower, where are you blowing it too? My customers today seemed to be comment on not wanting it blown in the street.
Thanks again for the help and feedback.
As far as the mower, I am a newbie starting out and don't quite have the 9K for the Walker yet and have not built my accounts up yet to invest in something bigger. So for now I use a little TORO Self-Propelled job. Works well. But, everything says Mulching mower. The blade is a mulcher, the deck is a mulching deck and the blade was just sharpened. Yet, if you tip the mower back (front wheels off the ground) to turn or pivot it will throw grass. Grass is dry so slightly damp in some cases. Are you saying this is not right?? Do any of you guys have to sweep afterwards? When using a blower, where are you blowing it too? My customers today seemed to be comment on not wanting it blown in the street.
Thanks again for the help and feedback.
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2,220 Posts
If you want it to look like the homeowner did it themselves, blow it in the street. No pros sweep, that's why they make blowers for blowing the grass back onto the lawn.
I wasn't knocking your equipment, but you definitely don't want to be mulching around our area when it has been raining almost 5" a week all year. What height are you cutting at? You might try raising the height to the highest point & then going over it a second time to get it to regular height. You might also need to adjust your schedule to include more frequent visits so you don't have so much to cut off at one time. Make sure you are charging accordingly for any add'l work involved.
You could also just give them my number. :laugh: Never hurts to ask. :waving:
I wasn't knocking your equipment, but you definitely don't want to be mulching around our area when it has been raining almost 5" a week all year. What height are you cutting at? You might try raising the height to the highest point & then going over it a second time to get it to regular height. You might also need to adjust your schedule to include more frequent visits so you don't have so much to cut off at one time. Make sure you are charging accordingly for any add'l work involved.
You could also just give them my number. :laugh: Never hurts to ask. :waving:
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Well I typically cut it down to about 2.75" on the fescue I got. I got a few customers where its really all weed.... those I just mow. But with the rain, etc. that we have had, when I get to the account for the week the lawn could be sitting at 4".... Not to sound too new, but supposedly only wanting to cut a 1/3 of the grass length at a time... that should be doable. 4" length then I mow it to about 2.5-2.75". I guess my mower is just a little underpowered for that 1.5" cut of grass and that is why it doesn't come off the grass clean when I hit concrete. Its that over throw of grass that gets me on clean-up.
Thanks for the help
Thanks for the help
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2,220 Posts
Your height could be part of your problem. You should be cutting at 3.5 - 4" regularly - 3.5 in the spring & 4 when it's hot out. I typically always cut @ 4" year round though. If you can afford to do it, you might want to switch to a side discharging machine.
What mower are you using?
What mower are you using?
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Sorry for being a horses azz. These are beginner questions. I see you are near Olathe. See my brother at Olathe Toyota. He is part owner, Kelly Thomas. Tell him I thrashed you on lawnsite, I bet its good for a couple hundred off the purchase price of a Toyota of your choice.
sincerly,
kenny, aka, captken.
You dont need 9k for a mower. It sounds like your cutting the grass too short I agree with the guy who said cut at 3,5-4 in. especially in the heat! Plus your toro homeowner mower has too slow a blade speed to mulch long grass thats why your getting clumps. You should try to get a 36in. W/B with a bagger it has a better blade speed and will knock out lawns faster! The faster blade speed will chop the grass finer so it will drop down between the grass blades! I use a bagger in the spring when it grows too fast. Look at:w a quick 36 theyre very reasonably priced! Good Luck:waving:
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WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I find it very hard to beleive an insurance company will not write you a policy. I have never heard of this, sounds a little too far fetched to me. As far as clean up we have a Little Wonder HPV we use, about 3.5 seconds and its all clean up.
You stated in your post that you have problems throwing grass when you hit the concrete. Try circling the yard first, that way when you get to the end of each run you do not have to get on the concrete, just turn the mower around in the area that you already cut while circling. If you are turning your mower around on the concrete, I bet you are leaving green wheel tracks also. (these are really hard to clean-up)
I know that with my 21" mulching mower, if I circle the property with the concrete or road on the right side of the mower then it seems to sling less grass which must be cleaned up.
When you are finished mowing, take your blower and blow all grass clipping back into the yard. You may have to run the edge of the property again with your mower to get rid of the clippings which you just blew into the yard.
I use a mulching 21" mower on several properties and these method works for me.
One other trick...if there is already leaves or grass on the road in front of the property, blow this into the yard first before you start mowing. This way while mowing you can mulch this crap up also.
One more then I'm done...if you are mulching tall grass and are leaving what I call windrows, then you have a couple of options. You can either use your blower to spread then about or raise you deck about 1/2" and go back over the yard.
Good luck!!
I know that with my 21" mulching mower, if I circle the property with the concrete or road on the right side of the mower then it seems to sling less grass which must be cleaned up.
When you are finished mowing, take your blower and blow all grass clipping back into the yard. You may have to run the edge of the property again with your mower to get rid of the clippings which you just blew into the yard.
I use a mulching 21" mower on several properties and these method works for me.
One other trick...if there is already leaves or grass on the road in front of the property, blow this into the yard first before you start mowing. This way while mowing you can mulch this crap up also.
One more then I'm done...if you are mulching tall grass and are leaving what I call windrows, then you have a couple of options. You can either use your blower to spread then about or raise you deck about 1/2" and go back over the yard.
Good luck!!
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You don't need to spend thousands on a new mower. Pick up a used walk behind for a couple hundred. I bought all three of my WB's for under $500 and they all deliver a great quality of cut and are easy to maintain. You also want a good backback blower that won't put a hole in your wallet. I have two Echo blowers that I picked up for around $200 each. You don't need to put an hole in your wallet in order to have a successful business.
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My guess is he is walking onto the hard surfaces to make his turns... He should be outlining the lawn before making his straight rows thus not goingon the hard surfaces while cutting. We rarly have to blow grass clippings on sidewalks... usually just leaves or other debris thats blow in.
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i too am new. my original insurer dropped me because i did not have 2 years of continuous operation. (that was nationwide insurance, btw). so, i had to pick up insurance from a no-name carrier. it's almost twice as expensive but at least i'm insured now. i know if i went un-insured some dumb fluke would happen causing 50K in damage. i'm insured for 1mill per instance...why? because that's how i roll....cya.
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192 Posts
Yeh i used to make that same mistake when i started mulching. If you are striping a lawn which you should be (not going in a square, instead back in forth each row) you tend to want to turn around on the concrete which will drop the uncut mulch on the sidewalk. I fixed that by outlining the entire lawn first, then making my passes, then going back over my original outline. Really makes a nice cut for me with minimul cleanup.
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5,298 Posts
I try not to blow it into a pile, rather just blow it back onto the yard, and if there is too much on the lawn take the blower and go over the thick areas till the grass disperses.
I never ever bag grass clippings especially St. Augustine grass. too much work.
I never ever bag grass clippings especially St. Augustine grass. too much work.
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