How NOT to price a leaf cleanup...
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Everything I learned on an ill-fated 1 acre leaf cleanup with all leaves hauled and removed as client did not want them cut or mulched.
Copper Creek Cuts is a lawn care and landscaping business in Florida with a goal to entertain and educate.
Contact me: coppercreekcuts@gmail.com
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As a lawncare business owner it's important to be making at least $80-100 an hour minimum. More with employees. So since they wanted every last leaf blown and bagged it should have been a $1,500-2,000 job. $500 would have been a good price if everything was blown and mulched.
Yeah I think I ended up under $30 an hour which is abysmal.
Just a learning curve. Did the exact same thing years. Solo 850-1200 would have been your target goal. With employees 1500-2000 east to cover labor. You will know next time.
Hey Brad, on this job I would've used a tarp with some bricks on it, then blow the leaves on and drag it to the trailer. OR I would've used a smaller tarp to blow the leaves on, wrap it like a burrito and transfer into the garbage bag. I've used this method and I find it way quicker than shoveling or hand scooping the leaves.
That would have been the way to go for sure, I am noting this for future jobs! :D
You have a zero turn and a stander, either get a larger bagger system for the zero turn or a small grass catcher for the stander. Mowers make leaf cleanups easy and fast when you can just suck it up and move it wherever you want it.
Btw after mowing the leaves up they get shredded into smaller pieces that makes them take up less space so you can transport more.
A bagging system for my zero turn it’s like $4.5-5k, a grass catcher is like $500.
Not a bad idea, but then I would have lost money to invest in something that isn't really my core business. It would almost force me to do more leaf cleanups, which I don't really want to (at this point). Maybe having the bagger would make sense if I do more of them next fall, though!
@@CopperCreekCutsId look into the grass catcher for your stander. It will be handy when you do bad yards where you need to move the extra clippings to the street for cleanup. they are cheaper and make it easy for quick cleanups. They cost for them is much more reasonable.
@@CopperCreekCuts You could get a cheap residential push mower with a bagger attachment used. Place the trash can in the middle of the yard/rows for quick emptying.
Brad, love your videos whatever it is you're working on! This was another job that I haven't seen you do before. Instead of being critical, I'm going to say you did one heck of a cleanup!! If you covered your costs, there may not have been big profits for your time, but you did mention you didn't have any other work scheduled. You once again provided us with a well narrated and explained vid, and you left a happy customer! Well done!! 👍
I charge per leaf...
LOL I will do that for sure next time!
Easiest way would had been to make several big piles and use a tarp and the remainder of what you couldn’t get should’ve been mulched. That would’ve been just fine because the remainder of what would’ve been left would had zero effect on the grass growing process. Side note. NEVER EVER BLOW PILES ON DRIVEWAY LEAVES BEHIND MESS ALSO OVER TIME CONCRETE WILL EAT AWAY AT YOUR RAKE
Yeah I just did a half acre property similar to the layout you did but what I do is I use a couple of shepherds hooks from the Home Depot and pick a spot and set up 130 gallon leaf bag suspend it and then carry a little 30 gallon semi rigid bag with me and just fill it up as I rake and dump it in the big bag till it’s full then I just swap it out and hang another one until i’m done with that sector. But in the past growing up you could go around my neighborhood and people would pay you as just a kid to rake the leaves up in the yard now it seems like you don’t see that it anymore. But don’t worry too much about the 500 bucks remember there are millions of people that work 40 hours plus work weeks and don’t make $500 for their effort 🤷🏻♂️
That's a good idea, I like that! I am seeing so many good comments I might try some of them next fall!
Wow the laziness of this guy.
Brad is it?
Well Brad if you really cared about your customer, and providing value to your service, you'd have brought along a pressure washer and cleaned their driveway and walkway at no additional charge.
They'd have likely been so pleased with the job you did they would have given you alot more work going forward, and even recommended you to their friends.
But no instead you make a whiny video (where you even said you had no other work, so your schedule was open)
The entitlement of today's people is just mind blowing.
Do better bud.
Hey Brad just a question anybody out there in the Duval Jacksonville area that rents ventrac attachments I got family in Sumter County who has a 5-acre lot his yard is pretty much an Oak Hammock and a really big house and the guy he had doing the leaf cleanup had a ventrac with the vacuum attachment just curious sir I live in Orlando and it's kind of a dead zone here for ventrac equipment rental
I would have said 1000 or I can mulch it for 450. Look at the lawn those leaves are the only fertilizer it ever sees.
Hey. I charge $500 a day per person. Plus dump fees. In my area dump fees is $150 per truck and trailer
I prefer to use a powered bagging system. Currently I use a BX with their rear-PTO-powered blower. My next upgrade will be to put a de-thatcher on the front-loader so I can use it to scratch up extra debris to suck up.
That sounds like a pretty sweet setup!
🧡👍👍👍
A beard now ? Been awhile 😬 Don't know if a bagger on your stander would have been beneficial or not (but then you would have lost money if needed to buy a bagging kit)
Am I missing something why didn’t you just put the leaf bag in the garbage can fill it up and when full just pull it out.
Hey Brad, I use tarp and load the leaves onto it and load it onto my dump trailer.
Brad, something I saw on RUclips! Put the leaves in the can, use your trimmer to mulch up the leaves, repeat! When it gets full, put it in a trash bag… also, look into a Square Barrel! 72 gallons, round on the bottom square on top. Great for putting it on its side and raking things into it. I couldn’t remember if you have a square barrel so I mentioned it anyway.
This is why I run A Walker GHS Mower . 4 Hours tops
Leaf cleanup is the whole reason I have a bagger on my mower. I hate that job.
Yes sir its the same here in TX. dont do much leaf cleanups here.
Definitely buy a leaf loader if you plan on doing leaf cleanups
Awesome info!
Hire a Mexican
WOW - You are crazy affordable! In my area of the Midwest, the general going rate for fall or spring clean up is $150 hour plus $75 per hour additional employee. 3 guys usually descend upon the yard and they use tarp to blow the leaves/debris in and pull to front yard where they vacuum it up into a truck and haul off. I have it done 2 times in the fall - week of Halloween and first week of December. So $300 each visit.
The rest of the year, we are required to put yard debris, grass clippings in these big brown paper bags we buy at Lowes, Home Depot, etc. We are not allowed to dump our yard debris in the regular trash bins or a separate large bin for debris only. The bags get expensive.
Hi Mistur Brad my dad seanslawns says you win some and you lose some and I think as long as you don’t lose lots of money then you can at least learn things thank you Mistur Brad for being so nice and helpful
How much would it have cost to hire a walk behind leaf vac?.
That is a good question, I am not sure the local rental shop has one so it would require a 40 minute trip to the next town. Not sure if it would have been worth it.
I understand the client didn't want the leaves mulched into her dirt. However, you can still run a pass or 2 with the mower to break them down and then blow into piles, scoop them up and bag them. We do that here for my sons newish business. Leaves got blown to the side of the road and we chewed the heck out of them right near the truck. Used a snow shovel to scoop them into a bucket to then dump into the truck bed with plywood sides.
Great video as always. We’ve got to collaborate soon. I have been in your position before. I did a job in Jacksonville and the leaves just kept coming out of the woodwork it seemed like. They were thicker than I thought too. Lesson learned. I ended up buying the commercial DR Vacuum that hooks up to my zero turn and has a hose that vacuums them up. The mower blades chop first then the DR hits them again. I see these videos where the guys have 5 or 6 guys blow everything to the road and use a debris loader. I’ve gotten lucky a couple times and the homeowner wanted the mulch but I can usually do a good size yard in one trailer full. Definitely easier way in my opinion to get them up and timesaver.
HTIBWCCCALCCINEF, who ever can figure out what this means, I will reply to them.
I used to tow a law sweeper with my mower, it worked great, then I just got tired of bagging leaves so I installed a mulch plug on my zt
Good morning, Brad! Good video, good advice, Brother! Live and learn. Enjoy your weekend!
Homeowner got a great deal on this. This was a good video and you did the best you could with what you had.
You need a vacuum truck.
LOL that would have been sweet!
Great informative video Brad! When doing leaf clean-ups, I always charge by the hour. Of course you have to be fair and actually be working the whole time and not dilly dallying around on your phone or anything but customers are willing to pay per hour. I just give them an estimate on how long I think it’ll take but warn them it may be longer or it may be shorter, it just depends on how many leaves there REALLY ARE. So many times, I’ve looked at a property and assumed it would take a couple hours but it ended up taking 6 or 7. That’s why I always charge by the hour or man hour if I’m working with another guy. It’s just saved my butt too many to times to stray away from the proven formula!
I like this a lot! I don't get many leaf cleanup requests but if I do I will bid a range next time.
Maybe it just depends on what trees are dropping leaves, but I used to have excellent results mulching leaves at one of my former houses. I had 10 trees in my yard that were a mix of maple and ash trees and I mulched them down every year with my lawn tractor. It didn't always look pretty when I was finished, but during the summer my lawn was very green with a minimal amount of fertilizer added in the spring.
If the client didn't specifically request them hauled away and NOT mulched I would have done that all day!
Hi Brad, if you want to use bags, I recommend using the doggie paddle method. Put two feet in the bag and pull the bag up with one hand. This should make a triangle opening. With the other hand use a rake to rake them into the bag.
I'm writing this down, thank you!!
Sometimes you just can’t win but the video was good
Thank you!
Great video
Thanks!