Help with Fall Clean-ups?

[Yard]

Can any of you guys help me out with pricing for fall clean-ups?
I have a back pack blower, rakes, and a trailer for carting them away. Any help?

[Lawngodfather]

I do them hourly........

Give them your hourly price.

I did them before with set prices, but all it takes is for it to rain, snow, windy day, or ground to freeze and your time can trple or even quadruple.

[Yard]

I have done clean-ups hourly in the past but I was affraid that this was unprofessional, not sure, thats why I am wondering.

I do like the low risk of spending too much time when you do do hourly rates...

Any examples of your hourly rates and why they are set at the price they are set at?

[Lawngodfather]

I doubt you will be able to charge what I do.

Also professionalism is not what others think, it's a mind set. It's all in your mind.

Professionalism is how you conduct yourself.

Plumbers and electrisions charge hourly, are they not professionals?

[Jack D.]

Forget hrly.. We can do in 20 min. what it would take most LCO's 1-2 hrs to accomplish. I charge accordingly.

You could start your pricing based on what it would take 1 man w/ a rake & bags @ $15 per hr.. For example if this one man w/rake could do a job in 2 hrs. you would charge $30. Now the trick is doing the same job in 15 min..

There is no set hrly.

[Yard]

What technique differences do you use to get a 2 man hour job completed in 15 mins?

[JNLS]

Yard, charge an hourly rate. Much more than $15 an hour per man though! Get the job done as fast as you can and as professional as you can, and no descent customer will complain! In this business you need to get paid fair for the hard work you do! Hope this helps!

P.S. I can't imagine doing a professional job in just 15 minutes!

[Lawngodfather]

Originally posted by Jack D.
Forget hrly.. We can do in 20 min. what it would take most LCO's 1-2 hrs to accomplish. I charge accordingly.

You could start your pricing based on what it would take 1 man w/ a rake & bags @ $15 per hr.. For example if this one man w/rake could do a job in 2 hrs. you would charge $30. Now the trick is doing the same job in 15 min..

There is no set hrly.

That's the most BULL**** I have ever read.

[scaguser]

Geeez you guys work for peanuts I just started this year mowing lawns here in CT.Its been going good so far.When i do my clean ups in the fall,i plan on charging $50 per hour,thats where i whant to be.Me plus a helper. The average property i service is about an acre + or - im not going to tell a customer "yeah i want 50 bucks an hour" that aint going to fly.If i tell them it will take me 6-8 hours it will be 300-400 dollors.That will include cleaning everything,beds,under bushes gutters.

All i have for now to work with is a back pack blower,a walk behind blower,and i may buy a leaf plow for my scag,and another back pack.I will tarp them and put them in the woods,if they want.For an extra $125 i will have a competitor (buddy) suck them up and dump them.

Shawn

[maple city]

Forget hrly.. We can do in 20 min. what it would take most LCO's 1-2 hrs to accomplish.

What?!?!?!?!? First, disregard this advice totally...There is no way you are doing a clean-up in 20 minutes.

Our clean-ups are removing leaves. We blow them out of beds, out of under bushes, suck them up and haul them away. Gutters are extra. We charge $60.00/hr. for a 2-person crew. I am very good at estimating time, so I can shoot a price prior to the work by estimating how long it's going to take. Do not try to guess your time this year, because you will be losing major money. It takes a while to guess time without taking a loss.

You didn't mention if you have tarps. This will be your best bet to get the leaves moved quickly.

The work you are doing will be manual labor, so charge accordingly. If you are going solo, I don't think that $20-$25/hr. is fair.

And Lawngodfather is right about weather conditions making the job harder. Also, I have noticed that some kinds of leaves are more of a pain to get out of under bushes and blow out of beds than others. And if you are working a yard with a lot of groundcover, it takes a lot longer to blow the leaves out of it.

Good luck, leaf season will be here before we know it!

[Fido]

I bill hourly too, but give an estimate of how much. I'm usually pretty close but when I am off, it's usually the bed clean out that gets me (pachysandra & ivy & shrubs that hold onto leaves).

My rate is $50/hr for clean-up only customers and $45/hr if they are a regular mow.

I use a 48 WB with bagger, tarps, a BP blower and wheeled blower. Disposal is $10 yd, thinking of raising to $12.50 because I think it's low. That's for ground up leaves. I use gators. I will often blow all the leaves into a piles and grind them up & tarp them away. Seems to be faster than using the bagger.

This year I'll hopefully have a vac system for the Z rider which I hope will be easier on me. Getting all my regular accounts done last year and all the one-time cleanups just about killed me and I've got more this year.

[Lawngodfather]

Originally posted by maple city
, I have noticed that some kinds of leaves are more of a pain to get out of under bushes and blow out of beds than others. And if you are working a yard with a lot of groundcover, it takes a lot longer to blow the leaves out of it.

Heck yeah IVY is a pain and plum trees, good luck, got to blow them and vac those up.

There are soooo many factors that can slow you down.

[Really Well Cut]

I am still gonna use a bpb this year and tarp but would it be easy to run the leaves over with my exmark and mulch then blow them into piles and tarp em. Wat about buying the 6.2 bushel Accelerator Grass Catcher and mulching and bagging them? Should i use a high lift/gator blade combo? Also had an idea of using the 15hp kolher on the exmark to pull leaves on tarp rather than me pulling. Whats my best bet to save time?

[Fido]

Leaves don't blow very well at all once they're mulched. I use that to my advantage sometimes...when it's windy I'll mulch them a bit first to keep them from flying around so much.

You can also just gather them into a pile and mulch them with gators and then tarp. I think you will find that even the big Accelerator is kinda small to really be useful for leaves.