# Plowing residental with salt



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

Hey guys new to the site and have a couple questions about salting on residential. I Started my own plowing biz this year and have been pretty lucky so far I have very good customers all pay cash and are all retired and or vacation homes so they don't care when I show up. I can bid the plowing. but a few of my higher end accounts want salt now. I was in a rush so I bought 10 bags of salt for $60 and salted them. For example: I used two 50 pound bags on a driveway and It took me about 10 mins to spread the salt with a fertilizer/hand salter. I charged the customer $ 30 for the salt. So I paid 12$ for material and about 10 mins of work. am I not charging enough or is that sound about fair?? thanks guys


----------



## Meezer (Apr 3, 2010)

What's your overhead for everything?


----------



## SnowGuy73 (Apr 7, 2003)

Materials x 3 Is a good place to start.


----------



## BC Handyman (Dec 15, 2010)

Not sure where wisco is, but you in the ball park.


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

I plow the driveway for 50$ it takes me about 15 mins (lots of back dragging and all has to be pushed out), and i told her if she wants salt it will be 30$ cause its a big long drive that needs salt, and takes easly 100 pounds of salt. Id say with plow and salt i have 30-35 min job there. So im making 80 in about 25-35 mins. I think im doing ok for my first year. I started with one account in novemeber thinking i wasent going to get any calls and was getting worried, but now i grew to 10, and am getting calls every day. Im making about 80-100 dollars cash a hour from what i calculated and my route is about 45 miles roundtrip.


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

Wisconsin cmon man you know the beer state!


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

Also I told my customers anything over 6 inches i'm going to come twice, we haven't had a huge storm yet so that haven't happened this year. OR do you think it is better to say anything over 8" is a extra 20-25$. Thanks guys


----------



## BC Handyman (Dec 15, 2010)

1-5.99"
6-12"
over 12"
this is pretty common tiers, usually they go up in 25%-75%, also some only go 6-10", but fer resi, keep it simple.
example.
$100 up to 5.99"
$150 6"-12"
$225 over 12" 
salt just go 3x your cost, & always round up (ie: you spread 1/2 a bag, @ $6/bag you spread $3, so times that by 3= $9 round up to $10, same if you use 3/4 bag of salt, round it up to 1 bag.


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

Thanks bc handy man today we got like 8 inches today, i charged my customers a extra half.. So my 50$ driveways i charged 70-75 and my 35 dollar drives i charged 15-20 extra. i think it was fair.it was alot of snow to push lol. Already out three times here in wi before xmas pretty good year so far. And for the salt thanks for the tip i appreciate it.


----------



## UniqueTouch (Dec 25, 2013)

jbsplow;1693243 said:


> I plow the driveway for 50$ it takes me about 15 mins (lots of back dragging and all has to be pushed out), and i told her if she wants salt it will be 30$ cause its a big long drive that needs salt, and takes easly 100 pounds of salt. Id say with plow and salt i have 30-35 min job there. So im making 80 in about 25-35 mins. I think im doing ok for my first year. I started with one account in novemeber thinking i wasent going to get any calls and was getting worried, but now i grew to 10, and am getting calls every day. Im making about 80-100 dollars cash a hour from what i calculated and my route is about 45 miles roundtrip.


15 minutes to do a driveway??are you serious ? I do most parking lots in 15 mins, better get a lot more $$ then that my friend


----------



## MattR (Jan 4, 2009)

UniqueTouch;1700083 said:


> 15 minutes to do a driveway??are you serious ? I do most parking lots in 15 mins, better get a lot more $$ then that my friend


As the OP mentioned, it is his first year. 15 minutes is not that unreasonable with a bunch of back dragging involved. Sounds to me like he is doing a decent job and not pounding the heck out of his truck to get it done in less time. As far as money is concerned, I am sure prices are a bit different in WI when compared to NJ.


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

UniqueTouch;1700083 said:


> 15 minutes to do a driveway??are you serious ? I do most parking lots in 15 mins, better get a lot more $$ then that my friend


Ya its a big driveway.. and when you have a lot of snow and back dragging, I have 3 more accounts less than a mile away. I do that driveway in 15 mins, then I go and do 2 more for 35 and they take me 45 mins to do all 3. 
So 50+35+35 =120 in about 40-45 mins. that's damn good and its all Cash. and when we get bigger storms I tack on 20-25 extra anything over 6 inches and it takes me a good hour or a little more then. so I get $75 $55$55. that's 185$ for maybe a hour and 10 mins at the most.. For my first year that's pretty damn good. And when your doing parking lots there usally pretty straight forward, I can plow a parking lot in 15 mins to depending on the size...


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

and im taking my time making sure everything looks real neat and clean to keep the customers happy so I can continue to plow there driveways for years to come and build a good reputation. some of the accounts I have I got because the previous guys that had them did a sloppy job, or they never showed up. MY ten accounts that I have all said they were very impressed with my work for the first year so far and appreciate my services, Even got a xmas bonus from some of my customers


----------



## 90plow (Dec 22, 2001)

I think its all relavent in a parking lot that takes you 15 minutes how much are you making vs how much is your insurance for commercial plowing. In a driveway if your making enough to clear $80 in 20-30 minutes its not bad considering there is almost zero liability as far as slip and falls. Id figure about $15 per bag if theres more than one bag and if its only one i figure $20. The only problem with doing driveways that use one bag is if in the event of an ice storm they want salt youll be driving around making no money.


----------



## Fourbycb (Feb 12, 2009)

$18.00 for 10 min of labor hand salting a driveway I believe your in the ball park


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

Ok that's what I did. I charge 20$ for just one bag spread, and if the driveway takes 2-4 bags I charge 15 per bag


----------



## maxwellp (Feb 16, 2013)

jbsplow;1693290 said:


> Also I told my customers anything over 6 inches i'm going to come twice, we haven't had a huge storm yet so that haven't happened this year. OR do you think it is better to say anything over 8" is a extra 20-25$. Thanks guys


You are about right for salt.
I charge like this
.5 to 3 base
3.1 to 6 base x 1.35
6.1 to 9 last one x 1.35
Or whatever you can charge. This is about as high as I can go here.

Over 9 is TM + base rate
By only charging more at 8 inches you are leaving a lot of money on the table. 2 inches is way faster than 6 and so on.


----------



## BossPlowMaster (Aug 10, 2013)

jbsplow;1692480 said:


> am I not charging enough or is that sound about fair??


we do $20 / 50# bag of contractors choice applied.
Usually you double to triple the cost of the salt to cover application and such. 
I use a premium ice melter at $8 / 50# bag so I doubled and then rounded.


----------



## Wayne Volz (Mar 1, 2002)

Just something fun guys. For those of you charging by the depth of the snow, where are you measuring the snow? Are you going to the opposite end of the driveway from the wind direction? LOL


----------



## maxwellp (Feb 16, 2013)

I poke around all over and find the deepest spot, tilt the ruler (that has the first inch cut off) and add 1 inch plus round up .


----------



## ozoneburner (Oct 29, 2013)

I would say your charging about what most of us charge. I take it your just using rock salt and not sodium chloride or de-icer. I am curious to how you got your clientel though, I had one customer back in November and only was able to get one more account, I have tried nocking on doors and put out 350 fliers on people's mailbox/front porch Wish I could just get people to call me lol


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

ozoneburner;1704884 said:


> I would say your charging about what most of us charge. I take it your just using rock salt and not sodium chloride or de-icer. I am curious to how you got your clientel though, I had one customer back in November and only was able to get one more account, I have tried nocking on doors and put out 350 fliers on people's mailbox/front porch Wish I could just get people to call me lol


Dude i was really nervous at first i only had one account as well in november, then i put a flyer up at the gas station and said one free plow if you sign up this year. Then i ended up getting calls. Like crazy i only lost 1 drive way out of 12 i bid. Some ppl are way to cheap and expect stuff done for
Nothing. All of mine are pretty good with paying just 2 of them thought it was pricy when we got 9" of wet heavy stuff and i tacked on 10-20$ but they still paid. Idk i put like 500 flyers out and only got a few calls. Its all word of mouth sometimes i get calls during the storms to bc people are to lazy or theres to much snow


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

But i need more accounts id like about 20-25 then i can really make some $ and yes i use rock salt


----------



## trod81 (Dec 16, 2013)

So the ones you told first one free if you sign up....what did they sign....and how many called the next storm. What if it only snowed once?


----------



## SnoFarmer (Oct 15, 2004)

knock on the doors and talk to the homeowner.
The mailman will confiscate all of the flyers you left in the mail box.
They want the revenue from the postage, your flyers lacked postage.
There is a law regarding this.

when the next big storm hits drive around and if you see someone struggling with their drive, stop and introduce yourself.

when your mom or sister goes to have their hair done have them talk about your snow business,
gossip is a good way to get the word out.

Think of all the contacts you have.
Give then a few business cards to hand out.



ozoneburner;1704884 said:


> I have tried nocking on doors and put out 350 fliers on people's mailbox/front porch Wish I could just get people to call me lol


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

trod81;1732913 said:


> So the ones you told first one free if you sign up....what did they sign....and how many called the next storm. What if it only snowed once?


Lol well then they get a free plow once.. Weve had 12 snowevents this year. Im talking about the future. Tell a customer youll plow them once for free if they like it then they will keep you for years. Trust me you plow someones driveway for free once at your cost itl be like 20$ on your tab. Just think that account could turn into an 500$ a month for years to come or 1000-1500 acount a year


----------



## Cbsnow (Feb 22, 2014)

Don't know how you guys are getting 3x your salt price. We struggle to get 2x our salt price in our area of WI. 

One word of caution jbs.... don't grow to fast. Taking care of your customers the right way will always get you more business via word of mouth. Rarely do we do any type of advertising and we turn down customers every year. Our customers return year after year and we add a certain percent on top of that. That's what has worked for us.


----------



## jbsplow (Sep 16, 2013)

Ok I will take your advice I already dropped 2 accounts cause I didn't want to deal with there cheap @sses. and yes I charge 13.50 a bag for salt speeded. I get the salt in a pallet at $4.20- 4.50 a bag. my buddy does the same thing he charges 12 bucks a bag but also has 40 accounts. For my first year i'm doing ok. I can see the good customers, and the picky ones. next year im going make a cut and have someone else deal with them


----------

