A little nudge

Ok, so i went today to give an estimate for mulch and after measuring everything up i came up with 34 cubic yards. Thats not what i am having an issue with its the price that I would be including in my estimate. I usually come up with a price by taking the price of the mulch and multiply that by 2. This method works quite well for me as I have never had an estimate turned down before. Granted the largest job bid with this method has been 18 cubic yards. What Im wondering is what if any kind of price break should I give because of the volume of mulch being used? I know there is now way that the homeowner is going to pay $1564.00 for mulch. If it matters, I am also doing a small seasonal cleanup that includes trimming the 1/2 dozen shrubs in the yard. Nothing that going to take me more than 6 hours to complete. Just looking for a little advise from someone who has dealt with this volume before.

Lawn care business tips

I've never dealt with that volume before, but I always base my price on an estimate of labour. If I'm really unsure of how long it will take me, I simply explain that I use cost + an hourly rate, and give them an "estimate" of how long it will take me, highlighting that it could be more or less than that. I've never run into any problems with that kind of estimate before.

[Steve]

Shane,

Do you have any idea how many man hours would be involved in spreading all that out?

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Team Gopher @ April 07 2008,7:42)]Shane,

Do you have any idea how many man hours would be involved in spreading all that out?

Yea i can estimate it will take me around 4 to 5 hours to spread that by myself because I dont have to move the mulch very far in either direction from the drop off location. I think if your trying to get at an hourly rate for this, um 65.00 an hour for 5 hours is $325.00. I guess thats not too bad.

[Rouskey Landscaping]

there is no way you could spread 34 yards of mulch in 5 hrs. it roughly takes one man hour to spread 1 and 1/4 yards which equals a little over 27 man hours. you have to factor a few things...are you getting this mulch picked up or delivered? that quantity may need special delivery and extra costs. also if you are shoveling the mulch from a pile into a wheelbarrow there will be fatigue over time. this is a job i would personally bid near the $1800 mark. i use a basic method for mulch...$55 per yard delivered and installed.

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Rouskey Landscaping @ April 09 2008,6:41)]there is no way you could spread 34 yards of mulch in 5 hrs. it roughly takes one man hour to spread 1 and 1/4 yards which equals a little over 27 man hours. you have to factor a few things...are you getting this mulch picked up or delivered? that quantity may need special delivery and extra costs. also if you are shoveling the mulch from a pile into a wheelbarrow there will be fatigue over time. this is a job i would personally bid near the $1800 mark. i use a basic method for mulch...$55 per yard delivered and installed.

Well I just did 6 yards of mulch in about 1 1/2 hours yesterday and I was in no big rush. So i guess your a tad bit slower than I am and the better part of this mulch will be spread across the entire back yard as theres nothing else back there. So basically it's a dump and run, dump and run sort of job.
Your prices are just about what I charge on any other job but I had to give this customer a break because of the quantity. So what I finally wound up charging him was 1450.00 for the mulch and picked up a mowing contract of 110.00 a month to do the front yard(the only place there is grass). So I think I came out pretty well on this job.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]So what I finally wound up charging him was 1450.00 for the mulch and picked up a mowing contract of 110.00 a month to do the front yard

Good job Shane, I am glad to hear you got the job.

I think it's very important too when we talk about bids on here whether the business owner bidding, got the job or not because it will then show us all what works and what doesn't.

[Rouskey Landscaping]

I was wondering what the cost of the mulch was......and the productivity number are numbers I received from an estimating handbook. If you can do 6 yards in an hour thats impressive. Just this past Monday it took one of our crews 9 man hours to spread 15 yards. There was quite a bit of walking distance. Good job on getting the mowing contract as well!