Levelling a Driveway

[lawn-guy]

Originally Posted by Steve What's the difference between a power rake and a box blade? the box is basickly how it sounds a 3 sided box with teeth inside of it designed to scrape the ground a power rake is a long cylinder that has alot of teeth about1-2 inch long that spins and breaks up dirt and at same time spreads it out smoothly i have a 40 hp massey ferguson tractor with cab and i use a 5 foot power rake and love it im not a big fan of the box but either way they are both great tools also i use either a 95 f150 or 97 gmc yukon to pull tractor n trailer and have no problems

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[picframer]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Steve What's the difference between a power rake and a box blade? A power rake is very good for braking up very hard soil or soil with a high clay content, think of them as a tiller, their primary function is cultivation. Personally I would not use them in a customers driveway as they tend to throw rocks, last thing I want is a rock hitting a client, car or whatever and with Murphy's Law it would probably happen. A JD tractor big enough to handle a Power Rake would come in around 4,000 pounds, even though my tandem trailer would handle that weight easy enough, I would not want to be pulling that behind a half ton truck, just too dangerous, IMHO. Also when you get into that weight you limit what you can do for a customer when it comes to landscaping due to the weight.

[Steve]

What would you say is the best way to estimate a driveway leveling? Should you charge based on the area of the surface?

Also, have you thought about getting some yard signs to put out in front of the driveway and leave there for a week or so after you do the job? Would that be a good way to market the service?

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

What would you say is the best way to estimate a driveway leveling? Should you charge based on the area of the surface?

Also, have you thought about getting some yard signs to put out in front of the driveway and leave there for a week or so after you do the job? Would that be a good way to market the service?

You have to see the driveway and experience will tell you what to charge although I still tend to over quote and if I do I only charge the client what I charge per hour. Min of $50.00 you should be able to do a 300 foot driveway in less than an hour even if it's in rough shape, doesn't really take that much longer to do a driveway twice the length. When I quote a client $100.00, the response so far has been really??? When can you do it.....From the past two days and spending some time talking to these people I have quite a few quotes for summer work, mainly decks and some clearing. One client wants 150 foot walking path put in the woods, the smaller of my tractors will be ideal for this. A job like that will be by the hour, lord only knows what we could run into.

Funny you should mention signs as i picked up four more driveways today all close to my home and have six inquiries from the website as I listed this service, website and pictures on a local community bulletin board (online), anyhow one client mentioned to me this afternoon, you can leave a sign at the end of my driveway saying you did the work if you like. I hadn't even thought of It yet we see them all the time, this roof done by....etc.

So tomorrow is a day off, spring break and daughter wants to get her drivers license so I will go to a local print shop that does a lot of political campaigns and see what the rate is. If I do that I got to thinking, we have these outdoor community mail box things (not sure their proper name) our subdivision has at least 10, each location has about 30 postal boxes, I will post a sign at each of these, I thought of that driving home when I saw signs posted offering tax return service.

Anyhow the goal is $100.00 an hour, I take my diesel Jetta to do quotes due to fuel economy, and will try and line up a few jobs in the same area and split the float fee up, I am stretching the company thin at the moment, I have one renovation crew going out straight while I do this stuff as my equipment operators do not start until April 1st and two people working in my woodworking shop, Using University kids for the equipment that have lots of experience and help me with snow removal, they are available on weekends but clients do not seem to want to wait. I am considering hiring an operator but giving a thirty thousand dollar tractor to someone I don't know just doesn't seem to sit well with me.

[Steve]

When I quote a client $100.00, the response so far has been really??? When can you do it...

It makes you wonder how much they would pay for the service and if others in the area are charging more.

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

It makes you wonder how much they would pay for the service and if others in the area are charging more.

The last part is the issue, for 15 years I looked for someone to do mine before I finally bought the equipment myself, there simply isn't anyone. I tried various things with my bigger tractor however it did not have a 3 point hitch for attachments so I was stuck with a front blade which doesn't do a good job.