[lawnkid]

I am not new to trimming small to medium sized hedges but a hedge shown in the pic below I've never done before and a customer that cuts their own lawn but lets me take care of all the rest would like me to trim this hedge for her. It is approximately 10 ft. tall and she would like it to be trimmed down about 2 feet. I will be working by myself with one gas hedge trimmer. I don't have an articulating hedge trimmer so I will be needing a ladder. I will be using my Stihl HS-45. I know most of you have priced bushes like this so maybe you can help. I was thinking of pricng by the hour. Would this be correct? I charge $40 per hour for any type of work. Thanks

 

[CharlesF.]

One hour with a long reach trimmer and two guys= $180

 

[Mark P]

Thats alot of hedge,prob-alot bigger than the pic indicates. Just you alone ive have to jump up into the 200 dollar range,,Your going to be there awhile, Clean-Up and haul away, Please make a profit.........Marks Mowing Service

 

[nelbuts]

Just a thought to save you a little time. Looks like you can pull your truck along side this hedge and get at least one side and the top from the driveway. My price around 225 to 250. Remember you need to include your drive time to dump the clippings and the cost to dump on top of the above price.

 

[1MajorTom]

No matter what price you decide upon, don't forget to add on a dump fee. Doesn't matter if you have a place to dump for free or not. Tack on at least 30 bucks for the disposal. Because unloading the clippings chews up time also.

 

[A1 [email protected]]

Is that forsythia? I hate forsythia. $200-$300 depending. It looks like it has been let go for a year or more. Like everyone else said do not forget about removal fees. It always ends up being more than you planned for. Did I mention I hate forsythia? My first job when I was working for someone else many moons ago was to remove a hedge similar to that. It seemed like each branch of forsythia was intertwined with every other branch. We did it by hand with no power equipment.

 

[CMerLand]

Lawnkid,

First rule of thumb in this business is nothing takes an hour so you can leave that suggestion out of the mix. You have loading the equipment time, drive there time, dumping time and drive home time and unload all the equipment time. Usually that eats up an hour automatically, and it gets worse fast if you have anyone else in the truck with you cause the drive time multiplies.

Secondly, your going to have to get up and look in that bush to find out if your sheers will even go thru that hedge if your looking to cut two feet off. Your going to have to see the diameter of the stems at the 8 ft height to find out if your sheers will cut thru the material without hacking the bushes or constantly sticking up the sheers. If its two thick for gas sheers then that means all hand pruning and if thats the case Id recommend the lady cut them to seven feet so the thick stems are not in the new growth. Then be damn certain to sure she maintains them at the 8 foot height forever into the future.

A job like that unless your a real gambling man, Id suggest doing by the hour at a minimum of $ 40.00 per hour. Sure by the hour limits you to the dollars per hour you make, but that job that looks like 5 hours can turn into 10 or 12 in a hurry. You can find yourself working for nothing to do a real pain in the --- job, up and down that ladder.

Let us know what you end up doing.

CMerrick

 

[Grassmechanic]

Appears to me to be privet, but I could be wrong.

Mike

 

[Doc Pete]

Originally posted by nelbuts
Just a thought to save you a little time. Looks like you can pull your truck along side this hedge and get at least one side and the top from the driveway.

Yeah, good idea. You're gonna have to pace youself too, or your arms will fall off by the time your done. On bigger jobs, I cut part of the hedge, take a breather by doing a little cleanup, then back to more trimming.
Pete

 

[mtdman]

I just trimmed a huge hedgerow today, and it sucked! For stuff like that, which is hard to estimate, I just tell them an hourly rate. I figured the hedges would take me an hour, hour and a half. Took me 3 hours, with disposal. You never know, so I feel safer giving an hourly price.

Can those hedges afford to be taken down to 2 feet? Don't kill 'em! My bush trimming pet peeve is people who say "Hack 'em waaaaaaay back." There's only so much you can take off without killing them.

 

[lawnkid]

Thanks for all the help guys. I made up my mind and I'm going to charge her $250. If I feel that I need to charge more I will accordingly but not too much because I would like to continue servicing her property. She is a real nice woman and really likes my work so she just has me do the work and says to drop off the bill. She is always ontime too. I will make sure to send out mid-season thank you cards to all of my customers too. Before I start tomorrow, I'll take more pics , and when finished I will take pictures too. Thanks again.

 

[lawnkid]

Thanks for all the help guys. I made up my mind and I'm going to charge her $250. If I feel that I need to charge more I will accordingly but not too much because I would like to continue servicing her property. She is a real nice woman and really likes my work so she just has me do the work and says to drop off the bill. She is always ontime too. I will make sure to send out mid-season thank you cards to all of my customers too. Before I start tomorrow, I'll take more pics , and when finished I will take pictures too. Thanks again. BTW, I think it might be privet to whomever guessed it.

 

[Gr grass n Hi tides]

lawnkid -

Like you I try to get the same pay for all types of work (e.g. mowing, hedge trimming, chain saw tree limbs, remove pampas grass, etc.) I'm in the same ballpark with others here......if I did that job alone I would plan on about 4.5 hours. For you that would = $180.00. Only you know what you can get for work in your area. Also, what 1major tom said - get a disposal fee on top of the hourly. How true. I do & explain that to my clients if they need to hear it.

 

[brucec32]

One word: Chainsaw!

You're not going to get 8 feet of growth off with hedge clippers. But this time of the year is probably not the time to be hacking a shrub down that far, anyway.

Not intending any insult, but does anyone actually bother to learn how it's done before they start a company anymore? Some of the questions I see here are stuff anyone with a month's experience should know. I'm no shrub expert myself, but I'm aware of what you can and can't do with hedge trimmers. It won't kill anybody to spend a summer or even just a few weeks part time working for someone else and learning the ropes before going out on their own and making a mess of things.

 

[gogetter]

I couldn't possibly give a price just from that picture alone. But I think $40 an hour is decent and as everyone said, just be sure to add dump fees and time to drive and unload at dump.

Looking forward to "after" pics, and let us know how long it took.

But the thought of doing those without an extended reach, articulating head trimmer makes me shudder!

 

[Cooper Landscaping]

lawnkid-
Make sure that the HS-45s will be able to get to the middle of that bush... Last year i priced a job and thought no problem- got up on the ladder and trimmed as far in as i could while leaning off the ladder and i still couldn't get 8-12" area in the middle of the bush. This makes for a whole new endeavor. lol its interesting to say the least

-Coop

 

[CMerLand]

Two words: READING COMPREHENSION

Does anyone bother to read the posts to make sure they understand the question being asked and the replies given, before they pat themselves on the back and assume how smart they are as they type out an answer????

Not to intend any insult, but do schools just hand out diplomas to anyone who showed up most of the days of the school year? Some of the replies I see on here anyone with a sixth grade education would realize that the answer has nothing to do with the question. Im no english teacher, but I was always taught to read the whole question, determine the question being asked and then provide an answer to the question being asked. Not just spout out any answer that makes me feel superior, with the intent of making others looking dumb.

The kid is looking to cut a 10 foot hedge down to 8 feet by removing TWO feet not a 10 foot hedge down to 2 feet.

 

[Cooper Landscaping]

I don't think that was directed at me but if it was i was just trying to give some advice to help him out
-Coop

 

[Doc Pete]

Originally posted by brucec32
One word: Chainsaw!

You're not going to get 8 feet of growth off with hedge clippers. But this time of the year is probably not the time to be hacking a shrub down that far, anyway.

Not intending any insult, but does anyone actually bother to learn how it's done before they start a company anymore? Some of the questions I see here are stuff anyone with a month's experience should know. I'm no shrub expert myself, but I'm aware of what you can and can't do with hedge trimmers. It won't kill anybody to spend a summer or even just a few weeks part time working for someone else and learning the ropes before going out on their own and making a mess of things.

Now Bruce,
If you reread lawnkids post, the lady wanted the hedge "taken down two feet", Not taken down "to" two feet. This means she just wanted it lowered two feet.
However, as far as the rest of your post, I can't agree more. In fact, this where much of my sarcasm stems from. This is supposed to be a forum for professional landscapers, yet questions about tire pressure, how to sharpen blades and other subjects, blatantly expose the very problem of lack of experience we allude to in many of our/my posts
Pete

 

[ProMo]

pics can be decieving but I do similar looking jobs in about an hour with no disposal I use my dc to cut the clippings up then mow them into the hedge