Hello everybody!

[mulchrevitalizers]

Hi, my name is Martin, I live in Clermont, Florida, (west of Orlando) and just joined this great forum today. I just wanted to say hello to all and tell you a brief idea of what my new venture is about. On February 2011, I started a new Mulch Re-coloring & Lawn Painting business. This was a great opportunity I had from a good man who live in Minnesota, he has been doing this business for more than 4 years with a great success. Until now, I have serviced 9 satisfied customers and I have 3 large subdivisions contracts to start by May and June of this year. I have read many threads and so far I really like the ideas you all are sharing about Lawn care and landscaping. I think I should learn more about the landscaping business and add some valuable services to my business. I want to thank you all in advance for your comments and suggestions!

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Welcome to our forum! On February 2011, I started a new Mulch Re-coloring & Lawn Painting business. Can you tell us a little bit about those services? Also are you also offering lawn care or will you focus on that niche?

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[mulchrevitalizers]

Hi Steve!

The business I have started is basically about Mulch re-coloring & Lawn Painting.

About the Mulch Re-coloring, what I do is to apply a special colorant to an existent faded/old mulch and/or pine straw. This colorant is prepared by a recognized company in St. Paul, Minnesota, following our requirements to guarantee a better adhesion into the wood and durability. The results are amazing and our application techniques have proven to be succesfull in even the toughest conditions. We can guarantee our colorants for an entire year and sometimes it lasts more than that depending of the locations and certains weather conditions. Our main company in Minnesota have painted more than 1,000,000 square feet in the past 3 years using a combination of new mulch (in areas where is need it) and the use of our patent pending "Infusionator" application process, saving the clients an average of 50-60% in replacement mulch costs.

About the grass painting, this was added to our business 1 month ago and it has a good acceptace between realtors and property management companies that are looking for a new way to keep the lawns in their properties green, but at the same time reducing the water consumption. As the mulch colorant, we use an special colorant from the same company and it is customized for us.

If you would like to receive more information about these affordable services and how you can increase your income offering them to your customers as a new alternate service, let me know and I would send you brochures and a DVD with the respectively information.

In the meantime, you can visit my website at: http://www.mulchlawnrevitalizers.com and get an idea about what this business is about.

Best regards!
Martin

[Steve]

What is the benefit of painting older mulch versus re-mulching an area? Also how old of mulch do you feel you can paint and still make it look good?

[mulchrevitalizers]

Steve,

I am offering my services primarily to shopping centers, homeowner associations and small businesses among others. I'm also doing some small and moderate residential jobs from referrals, mostly of them coming from these places. Until now, I have not used any printed advertisement, just my business card, word-of-mouth and my pick truck which has vinyl lettering made by myself.

The benefits? for example, my 1st big job was for a subdivision near my residence, which had a large double entrance, several mulch beds off the highway, a nice swimming pool and a playground, all of these areas plenty of red mulch.

The mulch was 60-70% faded, and it was pretty thick, except a few areas where was necessary to add 2 yards of new mulch.

After I gave out my quotation to the HOA committee for a total of 11,250 sq/ft, 4 days later the president call me to request a free demonstration at a small area in the pool side.

The structural committee compared the cost quoted by their landscaping company ($2,000, about 100 yards of new mulch at $20.0/yd, plus tax) and my quotation was only $1,350, a big saving of $650 in re-mulching.
They also asked to other 3 different companies the same request and all them were higher than my quotation by far.

After their annual HOA meeting, they gave me the opportunity to re-color the mulch areas as I previously quoted.

After we cleaned the areas, added 2 yards of new mulch, and re-color the entire 11,250 sq/ft. my total cost was only $450.00. After I paid my assistant his 4 hours of work, paid the gasoline, the colorant and ZERO cost of water ( I collect water in rain barrels), my net profit was $850.00 for just 4 hours of work.

They were so fascinated with the results, with the huge saving of about 68% that the company gave me another smaller subdivision that had 8,320 sq/ft. This time added a pre-emergent herbicide to the colorant at an additional cost. My cost: $300 approx. I charged them $998.40 (plus tax). My profit: $698.40 for just 1.5 hours of work, alone, without my assistant.

In summary, the benefits for my customer are:
- 50-60% in cost of re-mulching (my costs are less than $.05 sq/ft)
- ONE full year of warranty (I guarantee the color will not fade or lose their luster)
- Our colorant has a SUPERIOR ADHESION than any other colorant in the market. They are specially prepared for us with our specifications.
- Fire retardant can be added at an additional charge
- Gives a brighter and cleaner look without the expense of removing, or replacing the existing mulch
- No need to carry out tons of bags or loads of yards that consumes time and may requires a personnel to apply it.
- We paint not just the top, but 2-3 layers underneath for full coverage using our unique application system. Other companies paint just the top.
- The color is much more dense and brighter than the original color.
- Can be applied on wood mulch and Pine straw, and sometimes on pine bark.

Do you want me to send you literature about my business and how you can do it yourself as an additional service? Let me know and i will put you in contact with my providers!

Regards!

[Steve]

That is very interesting! How old of mulch can your coloring be applied to? Do you ever run into an issue where the mulch is just too old for it and needs to be re-mulched?

[mulchrevitalizers]

When the mulch is old, not rotten and still in good condition, I just remove part of them, re-color the remaining parts with a good top coat and add some new mulch, then re-paint all together to give an uniform color. If the mulch is too old to be painted, I always recommend its removal, then add new mulch and call me to re-color it when it begins to fade. Once I re-color it, it gets a better deep luster and lasts longer than the original.

Sometimes I offer my re-coloring service together with the installation of new mulch, then I charge a little bit for that, but the customer will have a brighter mulch beds with a long-lasting color.

The old mulch tend to absorb more colorant, so in this case, the infusion of a darker application is recommended.

In the long-term, it costs much less to re-color than install new mulch and let it gets faded in a few months.

Originally Posted by Steve

That is very interesting! How old of mulch can your coloring be applied to? Do you ever run into an issue where the mulch is just too old for it and needs to be re-mulched?