De-thatch, Aerate, and overseeding with moss removal bid (I'm nervous!)

[Von Bobbeh]

depends on how long the brush clearing takes hahaha... haha.. ha. Luckly I Don't run on gas so brush clearing is 100% profit.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Luckly I Don't run on gas so brush clearing is 100% profit. Well, there is something called opportunity costs. If you could make more money within a specific time on another job, you could be losing money on an underbid one. That is why it's so important to get your best price for each job.

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[Von Bobbeh]

ALRIGHT! It has been a busy weekend. My customer "A" took the bid and his neighbor "B" took it too so in total so far I have completed:

De-thatching @ 210.00 per yard. $50.00 was added for rental fee (by their own suggestion)

I Got the lime down after the de-thatching, spent about $60.00 charged $100.00


And I did the brush clearing, which was more of selectively killing blackberry briers (invasive specie) and leaving the natural fauna alone.

Anyways I got really carried away and instead of just pushing it back 6' along the 200' of property that is against a forest, I removed all traces of blackberries, in some places about 30' wide.

So he gave me a 150.00 tip totaling to 250.00 for brush clearing

customer "B" gave me a decent tip for the de-thatching as well.

all-in-all I spent 4 days on it. Paying 12.00/hour for help would have been worth it cleaning up all the leftover thatch.

I still have the moss killer and seed to put down, I'm also going to suggest some nitrogen to kick start the lawn. Core-aeration which we agreed would be done late april or early may. And hopefully a contract to cut his lawn at 70.00/cut and $50.00/month to maintain the forested area.

[grass guru]

What does it cost you in fuel for equiptment and truck? What about insurance, liscensing, taxes, fees, equiptment rental, truck maintenance? How much do you want to make an hour? How much does your equiptment cost? Whats your overhead? (I dont care, and dont want to know, but you should, and you should know.)

Something doesnt add up. 200 linear ft on one leg, means about 200 on the other. 1/2B*H = 20,000ft. Either he has a massive house that takes up 7,500 ft, or an acute triangle for lawn. Anyway... $70/cut, but you will dethatch for $160?? Does this include bagging up the thatch? 4 days and around $650 and your still not done? How much mark up on the grass, and moss killer?
Why did you apply lime?

[Von Bobbeh]

Originally Posted by grass guru

What does it cost you in fuel for equiptment and truck? What about insurance, liscensing, taxes, fees, equiptment rental, truck maintenance? How much do you want to make an hour? How much does your equiptment cost? Whats your overhead? (I dont care, and dont want to know, but you should, and you should know.)

Something doesnt add up. 200 linear ft on one leg, means about 200 on the other. 1/2B*H = 20,000ft. Either he has a massive house that takes up 7,500 ft, or an acute triangle for lawn. Anyway... $70/cut, but you will dethatch for $160?? Does this include bagging up the thatch? 4 days and around $650 and your still not done? How much mark up on the grass, and moss killer? Why did you apply lime?

He's got a massive house with a very large driveway and it is a triangular property, you nailed it.


Yeah it included bagging up the thatch, I am going to charge more for de-thatching in the future.

I am far more confident in my mowing and edging, and less confident in de-thatching and the chemical application. The difference shows through in my bids. I am more confident now, though.

I put lime on because it is on top of a hill with a lot of water run off and heavy use of nitrogen based fertilizer, as well as a lot of cedar trees which further acidify the soil.

I am nearly done, it was just starting to rain as I finished the lime and the aeration should be done later in the season.

[grass guru]

I am guessing you lost a bit of money on the dethatching. It takes a lot longer than most people think. I have a JRCO dethather that mounts to the front of my Z, and allows me to dethatch, mow, and bag it on 1 swipe. If your going to do a lot of dethatching, I definately recommend a similar setup. I charge a set price per 1,000 square feet, and an additional price for thatch removal, if there isnt somewhere on site to dump it. I can typically do 1 acre in 1 1/2 hours if its not really heavy, or 3 if it is really heavy. I do the same for aeration. Both are huge money makers!

[Von Bobbeh]

I didn't loose money, I would have, if my customers had not been generous with tips. Yeah blowing it all and raking it all was a lot of work - a lawn tractor would have made it far easier. I earned wealth in knowledge though.

[Steve]

To sum it all up, how many man hours did you think it would take and how many man hours did it take?

How would you bid the next similar job differently?

[Von Bobbeh]

It took about 30 hours. I would have bid 250.00 de-thatching, 180.00 for aeration, 200.00 for clearing brush and 200.00 for chemicals. All in all I am pretty happy.

[Steve]

Did you take before and after pics to help you sell more jobs in the future and show the potential customers what you are capable of doing?