Need help w/quote sod install

[zmower]

Hi all: This is our first year in the biz, and newspaper advertising has landed us 9 new accounts in the past month. One of these was just a small little yard that we have done twice. On the second visit the neighbor across the street requested a quote to mow/blow plus what could we recommend to help her grass. Currently 70% weed mix 20% fescue and maybe 10% winter rye (although I did'nt really see the rye but she said it had been sewn before) The area of concern is the front entrance maybe 500 square feet. It is semi-shade with less shaded area than the adjacent home which has a good stable patch of centipede. The previous fescue/rye mixture thinned considerably mainly from lack of maintenance, ie, compaction, and lack of fertilizer/water. I kinda want to put St. Augustine or Centipede in the proposed area because it gets 3-4 hours of morning sunlight direct, before the trees shade out 50% afternoon light. It will make an excellent before and after case study for our website, and she has already accepted our weekly service. She is waiting for a quote on what we might recommend to get this grass going. What rate do any of you charge for sod install. Do you price it by the hour? Or should I just by the sod from one of three nearby growers and charge one price with sod installed. The second option I will recommend is using spriggs where I tear the sod and space accordingly. I have had very good luck with this method on my yard but it can take sometime. I have a good set rate planned for this. The third option for their consideration is aeration, adding some top soil and seeding. Really I don't like this method, and will try to dissuade her from seeding because I had so much better luck with sod with friends and family but never really priced out a sod job before. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Would taking a soil test of the problem area first help you find if there is something wrong with the soil first?

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[lawnsape]

It depends on the zone your in to the type of grass you want to put in. I would recommend only offering the sod installation as the other two options will take a lot more time and effort on your part to yield results. And the results may not be that great. another factor to consider is if she has irrigation. If she doesn't I would try to sell an install to her because even if you put new sod in, if it is not irrigated it will die more than likely or at least it will struggle especially st augustine. If she still wants the sod but no irrigation then I wouldn't think about putting down st augustine I would use centipede as its water requirements are much less. You can get st augustine or centipede by the pallet which usually comes 500' to a pallet. which seems perfect for your amount needed. The price for a pallet in my area is about $150.00 for st augustine and a little more for centiped. So I would charge about $300.00 for the sod install that's material and labor. That price would vary depending on a few factors such as how much prep was involved and how far the jobsite was from the sod supplier. As far as getting a soil sample I wouldnt bother with that because sod comes usually with a pretty good root structure in the soil from which it was grown, and I have found that no matter what type of soil I plant it on it will do well as long as it is irrigated and fed properly. Hope this helps