Curious what you guys feel is fair for mow, blow, trim per acre at large cemeteries 5+ acres. I've heard most acreage rates are $75-$100 but I feel that it could be higher in cases depending on how many headstones there are to trim around, even rows, hills and such. I've never trimmed 500 headstones so don't tell me "just multiply your hourly rate by how long it should take". Thanks and God Bless
How do you price cemeteries?
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I mow a 2.5 acre one, old cematcem. 52 deck side discharge. I mow then trim whole rows front and sides, then do the back of the row. I use the trimmer to clean up the stones as I go. Keeps the blowin down takes me alone about 3.5 hrs total. 1.5 he mowing, 2 hrs trimming. The one I now is pretty disorganized, almost divided into 4 sections. Not much open turf to mow. I charge 180 a cut bi weekly. Its a pretty nice gig the cemetery is closed so there aren't to many visitors
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Very nice, $72 per acre.
Be careful using trimmer on any polished stones, especially marble it will actually start to cut a grove in stone at grass height.
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Getting head stones blown off? Good luck with that most places.... Hard enough to get guys to trim around them. Expecting them to walk back around the cemetery to blow stuff off??? Usually the minimum wage guy mowing thinks that aiming the discharge chute to the back side of the stones will prevent any build up over time. But I'm talking about cemeteries with 1000+ stones, not behind the church family lots.
Problem around here with some bigger cemeteries was after about a month guys get lazy and try to see how close they can mow to the stones and start rubbing up against them with the tires. Nothing like having families complain about black tire marks on Uncle Joe's marker along with the grass buildup or heaven forbid knock the headstone over!
In all honestly, maybe it's just the locale around here, but I've never saw a cemetery that has above ground markers/stones have any type of quality cut. The only cemeteries around here that look "decent" over the course of a season all have in-ground (flush w/ground) markers.
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Well there is the problem right there.
If you've got minimum wage guy's.
I've never had issues with my guy's not blowing off stones properly.
1 cemetery is just over a thousand stones and the other 2000. Blowing off stones is the easy part.
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I don't have any larger cemeteries. Turn them down yearly because Dignity wants to pay about $30/acre. Guys around here drool over a 20+ acre cemetery and it bids out every year for less than $1000 per cut.
The largest that we maintain is a fairly new facility with roughly 400 markers and they are geared to mausoleums and memorial gardens. I believe they have a cap at 600 markers but I can't swear to that. Since we've been doing it there has only been about 50 bodies added over the years.
My guys make good for the area. I'm speaking from what I observe visiting deceased family members and seeing things first hand. I do use growth regulators and made that part of the contract up front years ago. Never had any issues from families in 10+ years.
The largest that we maintain is a fairly new facility with roughly 400 markers and they are geared to mausoleums and memorial gardens. I believe they have a cap at 600 markers but I can't swear to that. Since we've been doing it there has only been about 50 bodies added over the years.
My guys make good for the area. I'm speaking from what I observe visiting deceased family members and seeing things first hand. I do use growth regulators and made that part of the contract up front years ago. Never had any issues from families in 10+ years.
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It's really old no marble, only sandstone granite and bronze, most have been reset onto concrete footings. It actually has a revolutionary war memorial. Mostly cival to early 1900s.
I'm planning on bidding a 15 Acre Cemetery with roughly 2500 stones. I was planning on bidding around 1,100 Per service. Dose that seem fair?
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Who can handle a gov.contract 2500 headstones 101 acres that could be worth a 4yr contract. Highly demanding with lot of groundcare, irrigation pest control(ants) dead plants removal
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