Fall clean-up pricing

Hey folks, just a trying to get an idea about charging for fall clean-ups. I tow my 12' trailer with my 96 chevy pickup carrying 2-52" mowers with baggers, 2 8hp blowers, a (jrco)leaf plow, 2-backpack blowers. If I need to I can have one of my men drive my 86 dump with a 16hp Giant vac hitch mount to the job to suck up the leaves and take away. I don't get charged to dump the leaves. As far as an hourly rate, where should I be per hour for a clean up with needing to vacuum or without having to vacuum. My business is in CT. I usually have a total of 3 men to do a clean up without the vac. If I have to vac I usually try to get a 4th man. Thanks for the help.

 

for cleanup where i need to tarp leaves and pull them to the street i charge 5-7 times as much as cutting the grass.

 

ive been doing tons of cleanups i love them.i charge 150 to 250 i only did one house for 75 because they gave me two refarals of there neighbors of 150 each a house .im the cheapest around landscappers in my neighborhood get 350 to 450 so im stealing all there business .the only different thing i dont do at the end of my cleanups is mow the lawn if they want it ill charge another 30.oo but only two people had asked for that.i went to do a house today of just blowing out all beds that was two acres took me three hours with another person helping i charge 150.oo for that i think i undercharged but it wasnt to bad.the landscappers that did the whole leafcleanup got 650 without the doing any beds they blew alot of leaves in the beds so thats how i wounded up with this job today.but 650 is really good huh for just doing leaves if u have the right equiptment i guess you can do anything....just charge what you feel that would make u satisified theres always more than you bargained for so dont charge cheap.......

 

Theres a lot of new developments I do along with old developments. Its difficult to say to the new ones that I'll do their leaves for 120.00 (4x 30.00) when they only have 3 15' pear trees. On the other hand a lawn that I did yesterday I do for 25 during the season, charged 200.00 for a cleanup. If they had me come out when the leaves first fell the bill would have been 350 or so. What to do? Charge by the hr. This yr I charge $XX per hr per person including travel time. An earlier post said that theres always more than it seems. Dont cut your throat by giving a price unless youve done the property before.

 

thats true how abut like 50.oo a hour i also had thought about that but didnt think customers would buy it.

 

I must say i bit the bullet on a few leaf jobs so far, being kind of new to this bus. it was hard for me to bid these clean ups. What i can say is we have quickly learned not to feel guilty to charge 4-5 times the cost of mowing for leaves, it ALWAYS looks easier than it is!!!!!

 

I don't give set price on leaf clean-ups. I may give a price range...very wide, and then charge by man/hr on the job. It's too easy to "eat it" on leaf jobs. I see no reason why any of us should not make a good profit on leaf clean-up. My baggers and wheeled blowers only get used this time of year, so it's got to be worthwhile for the equipment expense alone.

 

We charge $30.00 per man hr that works great most jobs that we mow for $20.00 or $30.00 per time in the summer will take 4 to 10 hr we have tons of red oaks as of Nov 10 we have had snow on the ground so we missed out on about $4500.00 of clean ups thats life. well git them in the spring.

 

I have been charging hourly for cleanups as well. I have been considering going to a flat monthly charge for service next year though. With an hourly charge on cleanups there is no incentive to work hard and fast, not worth it if I am alone because my average property can be cleaned in 1 hour. with 2 men working together (one on pushblower and one on backpack) it takes 45 min to 1 hour (therefore 2 man hours, and no customer have ever complained about that). There is also no incentive for upgrading to better equipment. I bought a high output blower this year which saved me alot of time on cleanups....now I have a better blower and am making less money. What's that all about ? So for regular customers, I can take this years gross and figure a monthly. The only time I could really get screwed is if we have alot of rain.

jeffyr

 

Tom-

These other guys are right. you should charge buy the hour so you don't get burnt. I t seems like you have nice equip., so don't under cut on your prices. You have gas and maintainence to pay for. for 3 men i would probably charge around $75 dollars.

Don't ever ever ever tell a customer you can dump the leaves for free. My landfill is 30 min. away. I tell every one I take them there. Then drive about 3 miles up the road and dump them on a buddies farm. Then charge around $20-$40 for landfill.

As for the 16hp Giant vac you have- does any one know where I can find one. I'm looking for something kind of cheap for I don't do many clean-ups. what's a price range I'm going to buy one for

I live in Delaware- if any one has one for sale thats about 2 hr. away e-mail me

I'll probably have to wait after clean-ups for cheaper

Thank you