# what would you charge for this driveway?



## 00 Ram (Nov 11, 2004)

500 feet, gravel, through the woods, 2 90-degree turns, then up a sharp hill for 100' to the top with a parking area for 2 cars. no garage, but the hill and parking area is a bit trecherous, elevated, held up by boulders on one side. 

oh, and then there's a little semi-circular "turn around" area that they do...little off-shoot where maybe 3 cars can fit, if we have visitors. (not alot of room to maneuver up by the house). 

when I owned my own plow, I spent 30-40 minutes doing a "perfect" job. I don't expect "perfection", but the job I'm getting now is really, really lousy. the wife is ranting and raving about this, and "i'm gonna call them, give 'em a piece of my mind, yadda yadda yadda...". but the thing is, they're cheap. 55 bucks per storm. 20 bucks to come back for a second push. I don't think I can complain too much, having been on both sides of this. 

anyway, I was wondering what you guys would charge for a driveway like this, so I can explain it to the wife with some real numbers. 

(I'm going to get a plow sometime soon; I didnt' when I sold the old truck and replaced it with a new one, because I couldn't justify the price, vs. this guy's plowing prices. But I have to put up w/ a crappy job. oh, well...now his prices are going up enough for me to justify the cost of a plow. not only that, the shine has worn off my "new" truck.


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## go plow (Dec 14, 2004)

i was in your shoes a few years ago, the drive was like a private road in the woods, with steep hills, curves, drop-offs, and no place to turn around once you got to the house, let me tell you this, when its 2 am and your stuck, call the tow truck and they tell you to wait 3 hours, and when they get there it costs you $350 to get pulled out of the drop-offs, your not only losing money from the tow bill, but think of your other clients,damage to your truck..
i would stay away from drives like that...


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## 00 Ram (Nov 11, 2004)

I guess I didn't explain: this is MY house. I can't stay away! LOL! 

I used to plow it myself. then I sold the truck and bought a new one. I found out that this guy's plowing prices were so cheap, it wouldn't be worthwhile for me to buy a new plow for my new truck. first few seasons, it cost me about $300/year for plowing. that's makes for a long time to get pay-back on a $3500+ plow!

when I plowed it, I spent a fair amount of time, and I knew where every rock, stump, bump and edge was, in the dark, covered by a sea of white snow. 

so my question is not whether I should plow this; it is "what would you guys charge?". I want to explain to my wife just how cheap this guy is, before she goes off and yells at someone for the lousy job they did. (I don't want to burn any bridges, here...this guy is an excavating contractor that has done other work for me...he's good...hard to get for other work, which I may need some time. even if the plowing jobs are a bit lacking. the poor job is being done by some "kid" that he's hired).


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## (SIC) PLOW (Dec 8, 2005)

Well for me I like to break things down by the hour and then look at the degree of difficulty and go from there. I want $100.00 Per Hr for me and my truck.... and you said for a "perfect" job it took you about 30-45 mins so I would say $75 for my rate and $25 on the top going by how you explained it. Anyway by my guess I would charge $100. for a push. I'm not sure how other guy's price private drives but I would say the guy you have now is very reasonable.


Jason


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## go plow (Dec 14, 2004)

i thought that you were going to get this drive as a account, i agree with the post above, i would charge between 95 and 125 depending on what the drive looks like ,hard to say without seeing it in person.....how did he come up with his price, per inch, per push, per storm, those are things that i would ask...


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## Mick (May 19, 2001)

Can't really tell without seeing it and not sure what you mean by two boulders holding it up. Holding up what. Anyway, based on what I'm imagining from your description, I'd say around $75 for a basic 3"-6" snowfall. $110 then up to 9" and $150 for up to 12". And, yes, I've done drives like that with that much snow. 

But his pricing is also confusing. If he's charging $55 PER STORM (which is ridiculous) then how is he charging for coming back "for a second push"? If you're paying "per storm", then that's all you're paying for each snowstorm, no matter how many times he pushes.


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## 00 Ram (Nov 11, 2004)

its not "2 boulders"; its a whole bunch of them. driveway curves up and around a hillside, and is terraced into the hill. on one side, hill continues up; on the other, boulders, and a drop-off into the woods ranging from 2 to 5 feet. no guardrail. I'll try to attach a few pics to give you an idea....

to me, its no big deal. but its intimidating to the "uninitiated". especially when snow covers everything, and you don't know exactly where the edge is.


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## smitty (Feb 13, 2005)

(SIC) PLOW said:


> Well for me I like to break things down by the hour and then look at the degree of difficulty and go from there. I want $100.00 Per Hr for me and my truck.... and you said for a "perfect" job it took you about 30-45 mins so I would say $75 for my rate and $25 on the top going by how you explained it. Anyway by my guess I would charge $100. for a push. I'm not sure how other guy's price private drives but I would say the guy you have now is very reasonable.
> 
> Jason


It sounds like he charged you to plow the two parking areas and forgot to add in the 500 feet of gravel drive of witch 100 feet is up hill.
After plowing last fridays storm witch had a lot of ice under you should buy him some real nice dinner tickets in town!!!!!!!!!!!


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