Hourly Rates - $9/ft of Cut Width ?

[Bird]

<font color=blue>$30 an acre</font color=blue>

Just depends on where you are. In Dallas or Ft. Worth, it would probably be about right. In my area . . ., wish I could get more work at $20 an acre, but don't know anyone who would pay more than $15.

Bird

 

[Gatorboy]

If you are paying someone a set price ($30/acre), you shouldn't care if they have a 21" push mower or a 15' batwing. You are going to get your property cut and know that it will cost you $150.

But if I was going to cut it with my 15 footer, it would take me less than an hour. I would suspect it will take the guy about 3 hours or less with a 6' mower.

Regards,
Dave "Gatorboy" Hoffmann
Fallston, Maryland

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...on average how long does it take to mow an acre with a 6' cutter?...</font color=blue>

With my 6' rotary cutter, it takes me about 3:40 to cut about 11 1/2 acres, flat, mostly wide open field... and I'm moving @ 5 mph...

So approximately 3 acres/hour mowing... not serious brush hogging... {big difference!}

 

[rbargeron]

Buck - as with many things in life there are many factors contributing to "experience". Having put about 3000 hours in all on my tractors, I'm somewhat experienced at mowing operations, but probably less than somebody else.

What I don't have experience at is estimating what a new job might take. The lot in question had not been cut in several years - so had 3"-4" thick field pines, 15' tall poplar in one corner, and the occasional rock sticking up. Going slow enough to do a decent job, it took 6 hours (not counting time to reinstall the fan belt after a sapling got up in there and dismounted it). When I had walked the field, I thought it was maybe a chainsaw & chipper job but decided to try a heavy rotary cutter - it worked but might not have if another year went by. The landowner was quite interested in the tools and methods to be used - he thought $300 was a good deal compared to manual reclaiming.

I guess there is such a wide range in conditions my original question doesn't really have a concise answer.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...I guess there is such a wide range in conditions... doesn't really have a concise answer...</font color=blue>
{Yes, it's one of those "you've got to see it in person..."}

Dick,

Translate the area into acres?

Mowing my Dad's neighbor's 11 1/2 acres, I get $225. flat-rate plus fuel $ {$30.} and I'm flying through it... not brush hogging 3" or 4" stuff and crawling...

 

[gordon]

There is no single best way to price anything. If you do flat rate bids you can really put yourself into a corner quick. After alot of hours in front of a rotary cutter, it still varies alot. Safest way is by hour. I do it both ways flat rate and by the hour. Depends on who I'm working for and if I've cut that property before. If I have it's in the address book, how long it took last time and how tall/thick it was.

As for going by the hour meter----Don't. Go by your wrist watch. That way when the customer wants to tell you about his uncles tractor your getting paid for it. Remember time is money when the tractors running. Talking time is when the tractor is loaded and your getting the check.

Gordon

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>As for going by the hour meter----Don't. Go by your wrist watch</font color=blue>

I'd agree that's the way you should do it if you're running a business, but doing strictly occasional jobs, never on a job where I need to hurry, etc. I do just the opposite. If the job is an hourly one, I go by the hourmeter; don't worry about time spent visiting or coffee breaks, etc./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[gordon]

Thats why I started the post with <font color=blue>There is no single best way to price anything. </font color=blue>

If it works for ya then run with it /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Gordon

 

[Buck]

OK. Gentlemen. If someone were to say: You've got an unusual lot.. - and I did.. then I'd be open to an hourly charge. But there after, I'd expect a fixed price.

Alternatively, If some prospective landscaper were to say: "It's difficult to judge these things without doing it once", then I'd be inclined to pay him -once- hourly.

I'll tell you this, I've done a lot of software development projects -fixed price- while having to deal with four or five $200 shoes telling me what to do mid course in the project.

Perhaps this is no worse than having one ill tempered wife watching you mow, but that is what I had to do to be competitive and to introduce my self to the market.

Buck

P.S. Please keep us informed on how well all this goes. For some reason, I think I wouldn't mind having a business like this myself.

 

[ddl]

The problem with your comparison is this: what would you charge to write a computer program if all you saw was an outline of the computer, without knowing if it was IBM or a fruit type of computer. You didn't know how much memory or harddrive space you could use for your program. You also didn't know if it had a cd drive or if it had a zip drive. That is what it is like when you look at an ovr grown field, with trees sticking up of different sizes. The people around KC will charge on what they want to make per hour, even if they give a lump sum for doing the job. Usually the second time they mow a field, they charge less or more depending on how the first mowing time went. I have mowed a lot where I lowered the bucket of the loader so it would hit anything hid in the weeds and grass before my tractor ran over it. You would be amazed of the junk that grows in a lot or field.

Dan L