What all does fall clean up include? Is this normally customers choice or do you guys have cetain things you do for a fall clean up package? Thanks
Our package is the cutomers choice. From the roof gutters to the street gutters. Once a week or once a season.
My weekly customers call and let me know if they want me to do the fall clean. If they do I keep going on the lawn every week until the grass stops growing. The final clean is 4X the weekly cutting rate and 6X if I have to remove leaves. I will use the backpack blower and blow out around the house and in the beds. Everything gets put to the lawn and the Walker eats it up. I'll usually dump it on the curb and the city comes by and sucks it up. I can't wait!
I hate fall cleanup time. I do gutters, leaves. Some customers call and some are on schedule. Either way it sucks. Carrying that blower for hours. All that dust from the leaves... I dread it every year. If it weren't for the money I would....
yea, but ya gotta admit that there is something special about the time of year when everything is finished and the soil is feeding- then all the sudden, everything freezes, and the heartbeat of nature stops for a second- then plants either make it or they don't: as the coldest night of the year hits. then all the sudden it's time to apply iron and change spark plugs and do something different this year_ then summer comes and brings drought. WoW! did all that just happen? another year? how old am i now? gosh. i have to take Benedryl in the fall because of fungi, achooo! free time is breif, travel!
We mow weekly until October 31, then we start our fall clean ups. We clean what ever the customer wants, gutters, bed areas, the lawn only. Most customers want the beds and lawn clean. We blow out beds and depending how thick the leaves are on the lawn we use a Trac vac on the Dixie to suck them up or push the piles to the truck loader with the leaf plow. Then run over the lawn with the Dixie to suck up remaining leaves. We charge by the man hour. The one post mentioned charging 4X-6X weekly lawn service price. This may work for some places, but we have a few lawns that take 3 passes with the Dixie and there done in 5 minutes. The clean up usually takes 14 man hours because there almost in the woods.
Scotty, The only ones I get away with 4x to 6x weekly mow are my weekly customers as I am there every week for mowing and I can stay ahead of the leaves. If I was to just pick up a customer for the clean only then I estimate it for my price. So even when the grass is almost done growing I'm still showing up making my weekly rate until a day in November when I do a final clean for 4 to 6x the weekly rate.
I try to wait on the gutters until all the leaves have fallen, then clean them on the final clean-up. Otherwise I show up weekly to cut.Like Charles, I dread the work. With snow on the horizon and many yards to go, there is only so much time in a day. The work is much more physical and draining mentally. I love the season, just not high on the three weeks of stress. I actually hope for a early snow to end the season, then I have all spring to catch up.
