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What do you guys charge for bed edging?
chefcam864
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I accidentally posted this with no text. By the time I had it written more than 10 mins had passed. Sorry.
This will be my 3rd season in lawn care, and I'm a small, one man company. Im a full time college student, and this is how I pay the bills. I do this work because I really enjoy it, and it is the best part time income I can make. Plus, it gives me experience running a small company. I focus on maintenance almost exclusively, but have been branching out into fert/weed control. ( I already had insurance on my company, and being a student I could take the applicators exam for $35. I figured why not?)
Anyways, I gave the long intro so you guys could understand where I'm coming from. A customer asked me about edging his flower beds last week, so I measured them. It came out to about 230 linear feet. I told him I'd do it for $220, and he balked. I thought it was a fair price, but I'm not sure. I'd have to rent a machine for $65 to do it. However, I've been wanting to edge my mother's beds for her, and figured I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Am I way off here? I felt I might have been low, if anything. I try not to lowball, and when I do it's usually out of ignorance. How would you guys price a job like this? Sorry if it's kind of a dumb question, but I've found pricing jobs is one of those things that can be tough.
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This will be my 3rd season in lawn care, and I'm a small, one man company. Im a full time college student, and this is how I pay the bills. I do this work because I really enjoy it, and it is the best part time income I can make. Plus, it gives me experience running a small company. I focus on maintenance almost exclusively, but have been branching out into fert/weed control. ( I already had insurance on my company, and being a student I could take the applicators exam for $35. I figured why not?)
Anyways, I gave the long intro so you guys could understand where I'm coming from. A customer asked me about edging his flower beds last week, so I measured them. It came out to about 230 linear feet. I told him I'd do it for $220, and he balked. I thought it was a fair price, but I'm not sure. I'd have to rent a machine for $65 to do it. However, I've been wanting to edge my mother's beds for her, and figured I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Am I way off here? I felt I might have been low, if anything. I try not to lowball, and when I do it's usually out of ignorance. How would you guys price a job like this? Sorry if it's kind of a dumb question, but I've found pricing jobs is one of those things that can be tough.
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Spade. No need for a machine
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I thought about breaking out the edging knife, but I'd rather use the machine so I could do my mothers beds. It'd be a nice surprise with Mother's Day coming up. How would you price it?
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Here is a recent thread that might help you out. http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=423268 Again i would use a spade. Just charged 80 bucks for 150 feet of edging with a spade. Once you get the hang of it you can do it pretty quickly.
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I would have been at the same price as you.
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In the thread , it seems like they're talking about sidewalks etc. I have a stick edger for that. I'm talking about cutting a trench round the flower beds. I may not have explained it so well.
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I got it. Was not sure if they were also talking about bed edging on that thread.
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I thought if seemed reasonable, but I'd never bid a job like it before and thought I might have been way off
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New lines. If there ever were line, I can see no evidence of them now.
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I can see why your customers balk.
How long does it take to cut out one foot of trench with a machine?
Because it doesn't take me 30 seconds with a hand shovel.
One lousy foot of dirt, two good plows with a spade and it's out of there.
Keep a wheel barrow handy to drop the dirt in.
And I hate to tell you but the hourly rate for a hand shovel is a whole lot less than using a machine.
The overhead on a hand shovel is lower, a new shovel's all of $20...
I'll throw in a two-wheel 10 cu.ft. wheel barrow for another $120, total material cost at risk: $150!
With your prices I could pay myself $80 and buy all new equipment after I'm done?
That's why the customer is balking.
Then the machine needs to come out cheaper than that per hour, otherwise you wasted your money.
I mean look here, with this edger it says I can do up to 90 feet a minute!
http://littlewonder.com/lw-edgers_pro.asp
Now I understand a little bit about how those "up to" disclaimers go...
Chances are, machine like that, 15-20 feet a minute is more like it.
That's a foot every 4 seconds, I'd say that sounds reasonable.
So I do 15 feet a minute, that's 240 feet in 16 minutes.
And you're telling me $40 is a 'cute' price?
Granted, I would still have to clean up and make it look good.
http://littlewonder.com/lw-edgers_pro.asp
Now I understand a little bit about how those "up to" disclaimers go...
Chances are, machine like that, 15-20 feet a minute is more like it.
That's a foot every 4 seconds, I'd say that sounds reasonable.
So I do 15 feet a minute, that's 240 feet in 16 minutes.
And you're telling me $40 is a 'cute' price?
Granted, I would still have to clean up and make it look good.
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If you would edge & clean up 230' of beds for $40, I'll gladly sub it out to you. Assuming you can do 2'/min, as you claim, that's still 110 minutes of labor. That's a best case scenario. I tend to think it would take you a little longer. However, even at that clip you're only getting $21.82/hr for hard work. I don't know about you, but I cannot work for $22/hr. I have taxes, insurance, maintenance, and fuel to pay for. I'm not little Timmy from down the street, and I do not work for peanuts.You would do well to google "opportunity cost." A firm understanding of this key economic concept might just change the way you make decisions...
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Could not agree more with this^^^^ Opportunity cost = icing on the cake
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I stay pretty true to $1.00 per foot and I ONLY use a spade shovel. However....I just had a job with 520' of edging and I estimated it at $420. It was a mowing client of mine so I gave them a discount. I start out at a $1.00 per foot and I can adjust based on the final dollar amount.
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Healer, you would seriously do that for 40 bucks? I knew you were cheap by other posts but wow.. no wonder our industry has such low costs
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