trimming bushes & hedges

[rocker]

how much do u charge for trimming bushes and hedges?

[PTLlandscapingIL]

hourly rate bottom 2 man crew $100 bucks an hour with a 50.00 min

[steve-o]

how much do u charge for trimming bushes and hedges?

i try to stay away from this as i ain't too good at it. the times we did it i brought my wife and let her do it. i charged by the hour . it would be better if you could give a flat price though. people tend to shy away when you tell them an hourly rate.

steve

[MGO]

From experience I have developed an estimate based on square SURFACE SQUARE FOOTAGE of hedges.

Mine is as follows: 880 sq ft of surface per hour (this includes clean-up and actual trimming) (Depends on you and the equipment you have, etc.)

For example:

Assume a 100' long hedge row, 4' wide and 4' tall

Surface area of top = 100' x 4' = 400 sq ft
Surface area of each side = 100' x 4' = 120 sq ft x 2 sides = 800 sq ft
Surface area of each end = 4' x 4' x 2 ends = 32 sq ft

That is 1,232 sq ft at 880 sq ft per hour = 1.4 hours of labor

Now throw in your overhead, cost to run equipment, and bags for cleanup, etc/.

If this was a regular cutomer of mine and I would be doing the hedge trim during a regular mowing stop I would charge:
$70.00 labor (1.4 hrs x $50/hr)
$4.20 equipment expense (hedge trimmer depreciate & maint)
$1.23 for bags
$8.40 disposal fee
$14.00 fixed overhead ($10/hr x 1.4 hrs)

Total = about $100 (rounded up from $98)

If this was a 1-time thing....i.e. not a regualr mowing customer, where I have to make a special trip then I would add in drive time and mileage.


Bottom line, try using my 880 sq ft as a starting point for estimating time so that you can quote these jobs at a fixed price and not by quoting an hourly rate. Keep track of how long it actually takes YOU to do the work and develop your own estimate baselines.