# Need input on time and sidewalks



## Hunter9 (Jul 7, 2006)

I have been plowing for over 17 years, and have done both commercial and residential over that time. I moved away from commercial (got a new job and did not want to be over committed).
Any-who, I am still doing mostly resi's (14 now all within a 3 mile radius) and I got a call tonight from a good current customer to bid their church. This is the biggest site I have done in about 10 years and need some input please.

The building is L shaped and the lot is approx 57000 +/- sq ft. There is also a home in the trees to the right of the church that has a straight 12' wide 350 ft long drive. I am running a F350 8" boss blade. Question is how long to plow a 2-4" storm? 1 hour? 1.25 hours?

Next I may also be asked to bid sidewalks, I would use a Toro single stage for them. There is almost 700 running feet of sidewalk varying from 4-5' wide. How long would this take? 30 minutes? 45 minutes?

Last how much salt with a lot this size take after a normal storm? And how much for the side walks? (I have never salted this large of a property before)

Thanks for the help!


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## Wayne Volz (Mar 1, 2002)

*Estimate for church*

Plow time about an hour at 35% efficiency factor with your 8 foot plow. About 750 pounds of material on average

Sidewalk time at .70 hour at 60% eff. factor at .8 mph average clearing speed. About 280 - 300 lbs. of material for walks at 8 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

Price the job based on your hourly rates for each service but this should be very accurate time and material rates for the job based on 2-3 inches.

Good luck. If you need help calculating cost per hour, check out our Snow & Ice Management package.

Good luck.


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## Hunter9 (Jul 7, 2006)

Perfect thanks Wayne, if I keep moving into more commercial I will definitely be picking that package up.


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## Boomer123 (Dec 18, 2011)

Hunter here is a cool calculator http://mortonmelters.com/m/calculator/


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## perrysee (Jul 30, 2009)

i like the salt calculator boomer123


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## Hunter9 (Jul 7, 2006)

Wayne Volz;1399960 said:


> Plow time about an hour at 35% efficiency factor with your 8 foot plow. About 750 pounds of material on average
> 
> Sidewalk time at .70 hour at 60% eff. factor at .8 mph average clearing speed. About 280 - 300 lbs. of material for walks at 8 pounds per 1,000 square feet.
> 
> ...


Wayne I think I am missing something here. 750lbs of salt on 57000 sq ft and then for the walks it would be 300 lbs for only 3000 +/- sq ft?
When I ran the numbers I can up with roughly 30-35 lbs for the walks??


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## wideout (Nov 18, 2009)

Boomer123;1400094 said:


> Hunter here is a cool calculator http://mortonmelters.com/m/calculator/


I have that app on my phone and imo they call for way more salt then needed so make sure you test it out for yourself to make sure you dont waste material


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## Hunter9 (Jul 7, 2006)

Ok so would I be safe at $225 for salt application (650-750 lbs) to the lot 56000 sq ft?

Thanks for any input.


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## NickT (Feb 1, 2011)

Subscribed


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## Wayne Volz (Mar 1, 2002)

*My mistake*



Hunter9;1400910 said:


> Wayne I think I am missing something here. 750lbs of salt on 57000 sq ft and then for the walks it would be 300 lbs for only 3000 +/- sq ft?
> When I ran the numbers I can up with roughly 30-35 lbs for the walks??


I added a zero, my mistake.

We generally calculate about 14 pounds +/- for lots, and about 8-10 for walks based on conditions and variables.

Thanks for paying attention.


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## swtiih (Nov 30, 2008)

sidewalks consume time in wet snow or heavy accumulation price accordingly.


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## cj7plowing (Feb 7, 2009)

the last 2 office complexs I bid, I gave them a price on the lot and a price of $35 an hour per shoveler. That way you are not getting hurt on the sidewalks as they eat up alot of time in larger snows. 700 ft of sidewalk is a pretty good size. I would say atleast 4 man hours for a 4 inch storm including salting them. Might not be a bad idea to invest in a stronger snow blower if you get it.


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

Salting is just a huge varialbe. I am new to an operation this year as their maintenance manager and I am getting ready to bid a few 12 month contracts with landscape and snow and I wanted to see what we were averaging on salt per acre for our jobs this year. We have two sites that are each 13 acres. On the first site, a shopping complex, we are putting dowing about 3-5 tons following the completion of the storm, which depending on the event, which equals 450-770lbs per acre. On the second site of 13 acres, a manufacturing/office facility, we usually put out 2 tons each application, so only 300lbs per acre which brings us to roughly 550lbs per acre average. Sidewalk we use about 1 bag per 3000 sqft. So your probably looking at about 1 bag of sidewalk salt for the job.

To do a 2-4" storm I would just figure on about 1.25hours to be safe. Gives you a little added room on the larger storm. Remember when your hitting 4" on those longer runs, your going to have a lot of snow on your blade at the end of the run. For the sidewalks it all depends on the snow water content. If its dry you wont havea problem hitting those sidewalks in about 30 minutes for 2" up to about 45 minutes for 4," but if you have to shovel them becaue its wet and your thrower is clogging up, your going to run probably around 1.5-2hours on it.


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