bid this!!!!! + or - 16 hrs of mowing and.........

[tranum]

i don't have the acreage but the times are accurate. (trust me)

government subsidized housing. fifty-one 1 & 2 family units. not a flat spot on it. one hour drive (one way) from my "home base". cut every 2 weeks.

LCO A. mowed this property in '99 and '01. has 3 green & yellow tractor style mowers with 54" decks. always 6 & sometimes 7 people. averages 7 hours per cut. (mow & trim only) finished in 1 day. 42 to 49 man hours.

LCO B. mowed this property in '00. has 1 52" Z. arranged his schedule so he could mow alone all day on friday.(appx 10 hrs) returned on saturday with 3 helpers. he finished mowing in 6 hrs. trimming was finished in 5 hours. 31 man hours.

i have the chance to bid in '02 and i have 2 questions.

1. can 3 men with 2 52" Z's do this property in 1 day? (the 2 mowers grab a trimmer when they're finished)
2. what's your bid???????

again, i don't have the size of the property but the times are good. 2 hrs driving round trip if i can do it in a day.

whaddaya think?

[Eric ELM]

I would say if 3 on 54" tractors could mow it in 7 hours, 2 guys on 60" ZTR's should mow it in 6 or less. It's really hard to say without seeing this, but the trimming times should be about the same, 5 hours.

I just noticed you said 52" ZTR's

They should mow it in 8 hours I would think. I have never had one that size, so it's hard to compare.

[Esby]

I would say 8-9 hours would be a good approximation for the mowing with the 52" Lazers(I have a good amount of experience on mine). As far as the trimming, I have no idea with out seeing it, but based on your information its gonna take approx 15 hours to trim it. So lets figure this.

2x9hrs mowing @$35/hr =$630
15hrs trimming @$30/hr =$450
2x3hrs of drive time @$35/hr =$210 TOTAL=$1290

It looks as if you and your crew are going to be at the property for 11hrs, with 2 hours of drive time for a total of 13 hours from leaving your base until you return. This is such a rough estimate as I have never seen the property, and you must remember that growth is going to vary between cuts, especially if you are cutting bi-weekly. Better over than under, that's what I always keep in mind on very large properties such as this one.

[cos]

Remember it is also every 2 weeks too. Keep that in mind. I used to do gov't work and 2 weeks sux.

[Eric ELM]

I agree, for one thing, I would never take that job. I only do weekly or twice a week jobs.

When you are doing the every other week lawns, you need twice as many customers and they take longer to do.

[Esby]

What Eric and cos brought up is a very good point. For instance, if you schedule to mow this property every other, lets say thursday, what are you going to do for "odd" weeks when you dont go there on thursday? A very good question you must answer when deciding to bid this property

[Lawngodfather]

$2,000 no less. You will loose money on this job if you go any less.

Every other weeks suck. Clean up can/will be diffacult.

2 hours plus drive time every other week. I added it in to price too. If you have 3 guys going, your unproductive labor is 9 hours of winsheild time.

If you get rained on you have an hour drive home, then an hour drive back.

40 hours@$50

I would also make sure you add some fluff money in for the fudge factor, and if you have to add another guy to the crew.

However must have enough guys to get the job done on the same day.

If you don't win this bid at that price walk away, and don't think twice.

This is one of those that are iffy because they are out of your zone. And it's not a small place to mow, trim, and blow. You will want to get it all done in one trip.

[HOMER]

Bid high.............might be worth my time coming to help you.

1 72" Chopper
1 50" Chopper
1 48" Scag

and of course your 2 mowers

I say 3 hours tops mowing.

[cos]

I just bid a job. I talked to her on the phone and she said the bid looks good, but the lawn only needs to be cut every two weeks. I told her the bid was based on a weekly cutting. So I ended up sending another based on 2 week cutting. Sometimes people don't understand cutting higher grass takes longer and that every 2 weeks throws your schedule off.

[tranum]

thanks for the input.
i agree cutting every 2 weeks can create some problems & you do need twice the customers. but, in my neck of the woods that is more the rule than the exception!! the exception is those few props with irrigation.
any more thoughts??

[65hoss]

2 52" Z's should cut in 8 hours. The other guy is doing the trimming for 5 hours. When finished if you had a w/b for him he could start cutting and save some time overall on cutting. No way I would bid $35 per hour cutting. Your running 2 machines. Thats $15 per hour. Each Z should be bringing in revenue of $60+ per hour.

Here's my shot:
Z#1 8hrs x $55 = $440
Z#2 8hrs x $55 = $440
Trim 8hrs x $45 = $360
Drive 6mhr x $35 = $210
gov't hassle $100
Trash issue $100
Equip damage $200
Minimum bid for me $1850

I did some work last year with the gov't. You better have some good cash flow. You finish the work at end of month (say April), fill out all their forms, send in, Mid june you get a check. If you want it quicker you have to take a %less. You will get some really stupid calls, thus the reason I added the hassle factor. Low income housing usually means people that don't care what they throw in the grass. You will be surprised what you will run over. Trim time I put at 8 hours, he's there even if he isn't working. Get a w/b for him to use.

After 4 months last year I told HUD to take a hike. They were 15% of my revenue, but 80% of my time. You will wonder where they find all the stupid people. Your the outsider, don't expect them to care about your biz. I could only cut every 2 weeks also. Talk about some real tall grass (weeds). Then to make things worse they wanted my mowers lowered to the lowest possible height. Scalp it if possible they would say. Talk about hard on equipment. Good thing I bought my new exmarks after I fired them. Thus the reason I added in the equipment damage factor. The wear you put on them you need to account for.

Personnally, I would NEVER do anything like this again. Lesson I learned the hard way.

[tranum]

so far i have bids from minnesota, missouri, & tennessee. (pulling for the VOLS tonite.) i may be learning more than i thought. (about various price structures around the country)
i know you can't "see" the property, but using these times with hard working guys, what's it worth & can it be done in a day with the equip i listed? bear in mind i can drive to & from in the dark.
another thing....... 3 tractors with wider decks about 21 hrs mowing. 1 Z 16 hrs mowing. is my thinking right?..the Z is doing almost the work of 2 tractors?

[Lawngodfather]

This is America there isn't hard working guys left that don't own their own LCO


SO make sure you bid this with FLUFF money for unforseen circumstances