Snow Removal Question.

[mortonslawn]

I have a question. How much would you charge for snow removal, which included clearing the driveway (6 car driveway), shoveling patio & steps (that takes 2 hours), and salting the patio and driveway??? Mind you, there's 2 feet of snow that hasn't been touched. Thank you in advance. Morton

[Steve]

How to get lawn care customers - Vol 2

Are you going to be shoveling the driveway by hand too? Is that included in the 2 hour estimate?

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[mortonslawn]

No, it also takes 2 hours to plow out the driveway being careful not to hit the car in the driveway.

2 Hours - plowing driveway with a plow truck.
2 Hours - shoveling steps and patio to front door and salting by hand.
Total of 4 hours.

[picframer]

Personally I would dump the plow off one of the tractors and go in and do it with a bucket, total time about 30 to 45 min, or if it's paved use one of our 6 foot blowers, total time 25 to 35 min, we do not do steps so no comment there other than getting a light snow blower, I see them around here a lot.

For the loader or blower we would charge $85.00 plus tax based on that much snow and the length. But the stairs would be an issue for me as we don't offer that service, too time consuming for the amount of cash you get so we hand out names of local High School kids looking for work.

[Steve]

How detailed do you want to get into your bid? If you want to experiment and see how your overhead costs effect how much you need to bid, have you tried using the online snow plow calculator? Scroll down the page a bit to that specific one.

Let me know what you come up with on that.

Personally I would dump the plow off one of the tractors and go in and do it with a bucket, total time about 30 to 45 min

Why is the bucket more preferable in such a situation over a plow?

[mortonslawn]

Well, with 20 inches of snow, a bucket would be better, because then you can pick it up and dump it wherever. With a plow, you have to push it somewhere, which has to usually be close by. So, yes, the bucket would be better. I don't have a bucket. All I have is a plow. It would be much easier if I did have a bucket.

When I clear someone's driveway, I make sure EVERYTHING is cleared, even if I have to come back after the sun and ice melt melt out some of the ice and snow. I also clear out their sidewalks/walkways/patios - whatever goes to their front door. Plus I put down ice melt after the storm is over and everything is cleaned up if it needs it, which in some cases is does, then I can go back and clean it all up.

I did use the calculator and came up with like $95 and some odd cents. That's a lot of work for one person, because that's all I have - is me.

[Steve]

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I did use the calculator and came up with like $95 and some odd cents. That's a lot of work for one person, because that's all I have - is me.

It's very interesting to experiment with because all to often the full expenses are not considered when creating a bid.