Lawn Watering - how much to charge

First of all I would like to thank every one on this site for all the great info. Just reading the posts i have learned a lot and respect every one's opinion. Here's the situation - Long time Commercial Account came to me and wanted me to water. They did not want to put in irrigation because every peice of lawn is surrounded by asphalt. He said he didn't care about price if we would just water it. I bought a 16' trailer (from another LCO) that I setup with 2-325 gallon tanks on it, a 3.5 hp briggs/teel that will pump 5000 gph, and 3 25' sections of fire hose and a nozzle to fill/water with. Total, I have about $2300 in trailer, pump etc. I fill from a hotbox (basically a fire hydrant) that is like a mile away. This lawn takes 3900 gallons to water. I can fill, haul and unload 650 gallons in about a half hour. I pay $.002 per gallon for water (748 gal. = $1.50) If we charge $.15 per gallon you would be making $195 per hour. Sound like a fair price? Any advice would be great!

 

If I were your customer, at those rates, I'd start caring about the price.
If this is a really high dollar outfit, maybe they won't care.

Are you figuring in your total overhead cost to get to these figures, then marking up from there to get your sell?

Trying to picture 650 gallons in 30 minutes, are you just flooding areas? Do you not have to be concerned about washout?

 

me personally, after only an hours worth of watering I would be calling up an irrigation company and having them install a system. Forget about all the asphalt, it would be cheaper to have the asphalt ripped up and the lawn layout designed differently and have an irrigation system installed

 

First off I think that it shouls be taking more than 1/2 hour to water the lawn.

I would be spending 2-3 hours water the lawn.

Not sure what to charge

 

thanks for the input guys... no I do not have to worry about run off, because with the fire nozzle I fan it out... I think maybe I will back off to $about 100 an hour.. McGrail lawn.. it takes a lot longer than a half hour... that is what it takes for one load

 

Bluemoon-
Do you have any pictures of this rig? It sounds pretty interesting and I would be interested to see what it looks like.

Thanks
Coop

 

Cooper - no digital camera yet... will have one in a few and I will post pics

 

Just give him your average hourly rate for normal stuff. just include the time for filling and pumping in there. then tack on the water costs.

I don't know why you would want to rape him with a simple thing as watering. Raping him with costs for like cutting down a tree is one thing...but something as simple as watering? thats crazy.

 

Don't they have an outside water spiket?

Drill a few wells arround the property, and use a hose and sprinkler.

Maybe find a company that does trenchless digging, and have them work with an irrigation Co. to go under the pavement.

or 195 an hr sound good.

 

lol phishook

Bluemoon-
Thanks

-Coop