Cemetary Help!!!!

[JRSlawn]

I was asked to bid on a very large cemetary close to 100 acres with above ground head stones. How much time will this take and what would be a fari price. All head stone will need to be trimmed around and they want a seprate price for edging head stones. Please help. The head stone are pretty close also I would imagine using 48 or 36 in walkbehinds

 

[tiedeman]

I personally would pass on it. I have heard horrible stories of people doing cemetaries. A local LCO (the largest in the area) did the cities cemetary last year, she actually got fired half way through the season because of the number of complaints.

I just think that you are opening up a bag of worms that does not need to be opened

 

[GreenUtah]

so the entire site is above ground stones? Or are the newer sections monument styles? What is the frequency of trimming? Weekly, biweekly, what? With that spacing and that acreage, you will need probably 6 people working nonstop each week to complete the weekly services. Toss in flower and gift removal/work arounds and memorial and labor day, you better have a very substantial crew of help that is flexible enough to assist in those periods where the labor load is going to be extremely high. Edging is only pertinent to monument markers and drives, but without being on the site and knowing the full scope of responsibilities you will have, I doubt anyone here could even give you a ballpark figure to go from and have it be even remotely realistic. I will say that a site that large is not for a 3 or 4 crew company that already has a 75% or above filled schedule. Although the dollar signs may be flashing in your eyes, recognize the perils jobs of that scope can have for companies not big enough or ready to handle them. I've seen more than one company die trying to eat the elephant in one bite.

 

[mjean]

stay away from cemetaries I mowed a city cemetary for four years what a nightmare. I went through more employees because of that place, and it was only about 15 acres. nightmare believe me

 

[mkjsunscapes]

We mow a cemetary that is about 40 acres. Some sections have all flat markers with just flags to avoid. The other sections have some flat and some above ground stones to go around. With (4) 60" lazers we can mow it in about 6 hours with three years of practice. To trim all the markers and stones completely it takes us about 10 hours with 4 trimmers. Of course the trimming depends on how many stones your cemetary has. We rarely trimmed the whole cemetary every week. It was a challenge to figure out a good system and to know the property and know the Cemetary management. Some sections we only trimmed every other week and management seemed ok with that. It was kind of up to us to trim as needed, but if something looked neglected, we sure did hear about it. Knocking down flags with the mowers was an issue also. Trying to keep up the speed but also get close made it challenging. For the most part I don't mind the cemetary at all. There also aren't any houses near so we can start mowing at daybreak. Mid summer we actually start mowing and trimming at 5-530am. This was good because it didn't cut into our res. mowing which we couldn't start until about 8am. Oh yea, we get around $1300.00 per cut. I'm not sure if thats good or not for your area, but for the time it takes us it works for us. One more challenge we have is manpower. We need more people to mow and trim the cemetary completely, but we don't need that many for the rest of my lawns. I hope all this helps you a little bit.

Mike

 

[burns60]

I happen to know of a cemetary here that is under contract for $35,000. It is about 50 acres. A crew of about 4/5 men work all the time on it. I don't guess they ever get through with it in the summer growing season. You need small 21to36 inch walk behinds and 48 to 52 inch riders not to mention the number of trimmers and blowers. That is too much equipment that would not be available for anything but this account,and you got to figure the turnover on the manpower is tremendous. I would not bid it for less than twice what the present company has it for, if I was even interested, which I am not. Good luck with your decision.

 

[tinman]

Bid so high that you either will not get it or it will be well worth it. By worth it I mean you do none of the actual work yourself. Trust me that would suck. I do a smalll one & it is rough.

 

[promower]

I'm surprised a cemetary that size doesnt have thier own maintenance crew. Theres a few big owns by me and they do it all in house, its a full time job for 6 guys. As far as pricing something like that I really cant help you. I do know if you misjudge that big of a pita you could lose out in big way so becareful. Bid the job to make money, whatever you come up with, add 10%

 

[dcondon]

I was asked to bid on a very large cemetary close to 100 acres with above ground head stones. How much time will this take and what would be a fari price. All head stone will need to be trimmed around and they want a seprate price for edging head stones. Please help. The head stone are pretty close also I would imagine using 48 or 36 in walkbehinds

You will be better off finding other jobs besides a cemetary. I have a friend that does one and he is always running into problems. JMO

 

[lawn_pro]

I personally would pass on it. I have heard horrible stories of people doing cemetaries. A local LCO (the largest in the area) did the cities cemetary last year, she actually got fired half way through the season because of the number of complaints.

I just think that you are opening up a bag of worms that does not need to be opened

yep, I would pass...