# how much to charge



## snowguy21 (Dec 31, 2005)

i plow and salt a place thats open 24-7 a non-customer based place. the driveway is steep and at the bottom is a river(with no protection). appx.3500 sqft. vehicles must be able to enter and exit at anytime. the only way out is to go up the hill. what would you charge to salt this place with straight salt. ( salt is $87.00 a ton)

thanks.


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## flykelley (Dec 29, 2003)

snowguy21 said:


> i plow and salt a place thats open 24-7 a non-customer based place. the driveway is steep and at the bottom is a river(with no protection). appx.3500 sqft. vehicles must be able to enter and exit at anytime. the only way out is to go up the hill. what would you charge to salt this place with straight salt. ( salt is $87.00 a ton)
> 
> thanks.


Welcome to Plowsite SnowGuy21
In Michigan 1 ton of bulk rock salt is $60.00, and I get $125.00 a ton spread. Now with that being said pricing is very local, you might be able to get more, maybe less. If your numbers are right 3500 sq ft(about the size of a very large house) you will need no where near a ton. There is no sense in applying a ton if it is too much salt. Most of my salting accounts are doctors office's and at the most they will get a 1/2 ton, now all mt accounts are billed for a flat rate per application regardless how much salt I use. Most of the time it is around 1/2 ton sometime's less.
Alot of the property owners around here do not like paying for salt by the ton because how do they know if they got a full ton spread and even need it. That is how I came about charge for every time I apply salt not how much it weigh's. Some of the guys may tell you I have lost my mind for billing like this, but it has worked for me and the customers are happy. The example at the start here make's me a profit of $90.00 every time I apply salt for about a 10 min job. You will hear many different idea's on this site, just listen to all of them and see if one will work for you. There is no correct answer for this that will work for everybody, find the one that will work for you.


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## Runner (Jul 21, 2000)

We do it much the same way. I give them an explained variable, though. On the agreement, it will say Salting of entire lot.........$90. to $120., depending on conditions. It will also say price is not to exceed $120. I always give a real high "highend", and explain to them that this is for extreme cases like ice storms, freezing wet conditions, etc.. It's not worded exactly like this, and these of course are just example numbers, but this is the general idea. They always seem to like this way. It's fair, no surprises, and they have a pretty good window of what to expect.


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