Lawn Care Estimating for Beginners.

[jvegas]

hi i'm new to the site i just watched the estimating calculator video that was great. i was looking to sign up for keiths channel canyou tell me how thanks

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by jvegas hi i'm new to the site i just watched the estimating calculator video that was great. i was looking to sign up for keiths channel canyou tell me how thanks Hello: Welcome to the forum. Thanks: Keith

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[landonkade]

Keith can you give us a example qoute for the below property on a estimate on mowing, weeding, edging, blowing, and all using your program

This is a apartment complex 6 unit complex with pool and entrance way. There are to major hills on the corners, one far left and one far right, straight aways all though out

[StartALawnCareBusiness]

Thanks for the challenge.

I will tackle this mowing project with a few disclaimers.

1) Never give an estimate based strictly on a Google Earth photograph. It can give you a general idea of your bid but you have to visit the project site yourself to understand the lay of the land, obstructions, gradients, type of grass, desires of apartment management, etc.

2) I can't see the slope of the hills you describe. Also, there looks to be a drainage problem in the upper left corner of the complex. Problems like these can add hours to your work and you simply cannot plan for them based on a photo.

3) I never give quotes on this forum but since so many people read this forum and each person has different needs and expectations it's better for each person to use the software for assistance on their own particular projects.

3) There are other aspects I can't take into account due to it being only a photo.
Weeding - I can't even see the beds. So, I'm going to leave them off.
Travel Time - Umm...no way for me to determine this.

4) For this example, I am assuming 1 person running a 61" lawn mower with ~20hp motor, 1 weedeater, and 1 backpack blower. The equipment operator is proficient and mows with a 80% efficiency (the software takes into consideration overlaps, inefficient turns, etc). I am also going to assume this area is 40% more difficult to mow than a "normal" area this size (once again, the estimating program helps you determine this).

Okay, now that all that is out of the way, I crunched some numbers based on your photo. Here is what I have come up with:

1) Mowing: I calculated the size of the entire project is approximately 16 acres (outlying trees not included). Taking out buildings, parking lots, sidewalks, etc, the actual mowing area is almost 11.5 acres. Using the productivity/estimating calculator software I believe you can mow that area in an estimated 5 1/2 hours taking into account for the difficult terrain and the equipment described above.

2) Trimming/Edging: My calculations for trimming accounted for buildings, walk paths, pool and other public areas but it did not account for the outside perimeter or the perimeter at the outside of the parking lot. Taking this into account, I came up with 6220 feet of string trimming that needs to be done every week. At 1' per second, trimming will take 1 hour 43 minutes.

3) Blowing: Blowing is subjective. By minimizing the amount of grass your mower shoots onto walk areas, you should be able to blow off the area in 1 hour. Size of blower and number of cars in the way will have a bearing.

Alright, let's add all this up:
Mowing: 5.5 hours
Trimming: 1.72 hours
Blowing: 1.00 hours
Total: 8.22 HOURS

Based strictly on one photograph you sent and some assumptions I programmed into the estimating software, I came up with an estimated 8 hours 13 minutes to do this job.

Once this number is calculated, the actual software goes further to help a LCO determine a bid for this type work. I won't go into that here.

Matt, I am sure you have physically looked at or performed this particular piece of work. How close did I come?

Keith