Half acre clean up, how much to charge?
A member of the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum had a job come up that consisted of a bunch of smaller jobs and he wanted to know what he should charge. He wrote “I have a half acre field (flat) with branches and sticks strewn around it that I need to clean up. I also have to split and stack two cords of wood, and stack three - four cords already split. Also three average sized beds to rake and mulch. What do you think would be a reasonable price for this job?”
One lawn care business owner suggested “how I’d price it would depened partially on the type of equipment I would be using to perform this job.
I have a John Deere lawn sweeper that works great for picking up small twigs, branches and rocks. A 1/2 acre job would take me about 45 min. To split two cords of wood would take about an hour, depending on the size of the wood. I am assuming you are talking hardwood and you have access to a splitter. It would then take another 45 min to stack.
It’s difficult to comment on the beds as I would need to know the size of them. Depending on what I am doing and what equipment I am using, I charge anywhere from $60.00 to $100.00 an hour. If I quote a total for a job, I am generally in this range or above.”
A second lawn care business owner said “I get on average $75.00 for a standard 1/4 acre lot with house on it which usually comes out to about 5k to 6 k sq ft. No matter what size the property is, I make sure at the very least I always charge my minimum stop charge of approximately $25 or so.”
