# Now you know why I don't do residentials!



## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

I wouldn't hire myself to do drives!What a mess.


----------



## JustJeff (Sep 9, 2009)

I don't understand. Are you saying this is your drive?


----------



## iceyman (Mar 1, 2007)

Cuz its rock?


----------



## hbrady (Oct 28, 2003)

I'm an IT guy by trade, my home network sucks and my kids are always b*tching about it. My buddy is a plumber, he has a bathroom remodel that's been stuck on the plumbing stage for about 6 months. Makes perfect sense that a plow guy's own driveway would be a mess!
 lowblue:


----------



## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

JustJeff said:


> I don't understand. Are you saying this is your drive?


Yes its my drive,seems like by the time I'm done with my commercials I don't care about my house.I never use front door,my drive is half paved/half stone I enlarged when I added garage.My wife actually plowed/shoveled after she plowed for me! I used to have the sidewalk crew stop by and do it,don't know why I stopped.Oh well,hope I don't slip and fall,can I sue myself and take a couple of months off? hmmmmmmm


----------



## FredG (Oct 15, 2012)

LOL Your Wife must love you. Everybody got all wheel, My wife is always crying about the drive. I would probably plow more but I don't want the neighbors giving me that look leaning on a shovel. They shoveling good before I plow mine than they want to act like there going to have a heart attack.


----------



## Philbilly2 (Aug 25, 2007)

Lol... I can relate.

We had a blizzard in feb 2012. Dumped a couple of feet on us, I was gone with snow work for 7 days.

Get a text from my wife, it is a picture of her 4Runner buried 1/2 way up the driveway with the words "how many plows do we have to own to get OUR driveway plowed?"

I chuckled and told her to call one of the gobs of "telephone post plowers" in our area and give them the $25 to plow it.


----------



## theplowmeister (Nov 14, 2006)

So your telling me you dont do resi because your a lousy plower?


----------



## quigleysiding (Oct 3, 2009)

Looks fine to me . Mine only gets done if we get a lot of snow . Most times it melis anyway .Why have piles sitting around .


----------



## theplowmeister (Nov 14, 2006)

A guy on the other side of town has a BIG sign at the end of his driveway 
"snow plowing call dave 555 672 5555" his drive is a mess. GREAT advertising!


----------



## Dogplow Dodge (Jan 23, 2012)

The driveway I understand...

Now the front entry / porch / stoop..... that I just don't get. Get the damn shovel out before the wife falls on her arse and cracks her head open. Then you'll be in shots creek....wishing you had.


----------



## quigleysiding (Oct 3, 2009)

The wife does all the shoveling . She loves it . makes paths for the dog and cat . Yard looks like a corn maze by the time I get home . lol


----------



## Dogplow Dodge (Jan 23, 2012)

quigleysiding said:


> The wife does all the shoveling . She loves it . makes paths for the dog and cat . Yard looks like a corn maze by the time I get home . lol


So does my wife. When we get big snows, the backyard looks the same. Funny part is the dogs can't see each other over the piles, so they run around chasing each other through the twisted pathways.

Funny...


----------



## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

theplowmeister said:


> So your telling me you dont do resi because your a lousy plower?


No, I'm a certified plow king!I've invented many modern plow moves such as ,"swiss cheesing" "backup radius backdragging" "circle plowing"and the famous "stacking like a loader"technique. My problem is that I don't care about my own drive!lowblue: Heck,I used to have a half dozen drives that I did in my 4700 with a 10' fisher muni plow.lowred:Only hit a couple cars and ran over a few small domesticated animals.


----------



## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

Dogplow Dodge said:


> The driveway I understand...
> 
> Now the front entry / porch / stoop..... that I just don't get. Get the damn shovel out before the wife falls on her arse and cracks her head open. Then you'll be in shots creek....wishing you had.


 My wife usually does it.She snowblew my moms drive and walks(lives behind me) and quickly did driveway,then she went to her moms and plowed her.We bought a 2015 chevy with an 8 ' snowdogg for her.She cleared 5 of my commercial lots also.She does all the yard work and I haven't touched a lawnmower in years! She had her own landscape/design company and installed aquascape ponds.Our yard has been featured in many magazine articles.Everyone shakes their heads in wonder as to how I ended up with her LOL I'm not worthy .Thumbs Up


----------



## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

quigleysiding said:


> The wife does all the shoveling . She loves it . makes paths for the dog and cat . Yard looks like a corn maze by the time I get home . lol





Dogplow Dodge said:


> So does my wife. When we get big snows, the backyard looks the same. Funny part is the dogs can't see each other over the piles, so they run around chasing each other through the twisted pathways.
> 
> Funny...


 Good deal, now if their work ethic would rub off on the younger generation.I've got friends whose wives wont even cook a meal,let alone get off the couch! I'm not wealthy enough to support a "princess"


----------



## Philbilly2 (Aug 25, 2007)

leigh said:


> My wife usually does it.She snowblew my moms drive and walks(lives behind me) and quickly did driveway,then she went to her moms and plowed her.We bought a 2015 chevy with an 8 ' snowdogg for her.She cleared 5 of my commercial lots also.She does all the yard work and I haven't touched a lawnmower in years! She had her own landscape/design company and installed aquascape ponds.Our yard has been featured in many magazine articles.Everyone shakes their heads in wonder as to how I ended up with her LOL I'm not worthy .Thumbs Up


Giggle... yeah... back in the day my wife used to mow the grass too... then she found out she could call someone from the phone book to do it and watch them from the deck with a cocktail in hand... damn phone book...


----------



## MSsnowplowing (Nov 1, 2012)

I don't do them because most of them in my area want to pay as little as possible.
Last storm we got 10", I get a bunch of calls and tell each one it will be $75 dollar per hour, min. 1 hour and all I got was "oh that's expensive" 
Really didn't care have enough work on the plate without dealing with people who have no clue.


----------



## Meezer (Apr 3, 2010)

We mainly do resis. We use Hiniker C plows which makes it so much easier & quicker do knock them out.


----------



## theplowmeister (Nov 14, 2006)

MSsnowplowing said:


> I don't do them because most of them in my area want to pay as little as possible.
> Last storm we got 10", I get a bunch of calls and tell each one it will be $75 dollar per hour, min. 1 hour and all I got was "oh that's expensive"
> Really didn't care have enough work on the plate without dealing with people who have no clue.


WoW cant understand why some one would complain that you charge 1 hour minimum for 5 min of work.

but then again I would not plow for $75 an hour


----------



## MSsnowplowing (Nov 1, 2012)

theplowmeister said:


> WoW cant understand why some one would complain that you charge 1 hour minimum for 5 min of work.
> 
> but then again I would not plow for $75 an hour


5 minutes work? 
I have yet to do a driveway that takes less than 10-15 minutes plowing, I suppose if I just did one pass and that was it but I don't do that.
Then add in drive time to get to the place takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes sometimes longer.
And you have half hour easy.


----------



## Randall Ave (Oct 29, 2014)

The videos of the guys doing driveways fast, they don't do a great job, half the snow is left in the street. No seasonals here, so your getting out to get paid, hopefully.


----------



## theplowmeister (Nov 14, 2006)

10 to 15 minutes between accounts how can you make $ with all that driving?

I hope your shoveling the sidewalk if you spend 15 minutes there.

if it takes you 1/2 hour then charge for 1/2 hour thats $35 not $70 you might get the next door neighbor at $35 then you wont have to travel 15 minutes between accounts.


----------



## leigh (Jan 2, 2009)

theplowmeister said:


> WoW cant understand why some one would complain that you charge 1 hour minimum for 5 min of work.
> 
> but then again I would not plow for $75 an hour


But many pay 100$ for the 1st 15 mins of a service call to repair an appliance.


----------



## ktfbgb (Jan 31, 2016)

theplowmeister said:


> 10 to 15 minutes between accounts how can you make $ with all that driving?
> 
> I hope your shoveling the sidewalk if you spend 15 minutes there.
> 
> if it takes you 1/2 hour then charge for 1/2 hour thats $35 not $70 you might get the next door neighbor at $35 then you wont have to travel 15 minutes between accounts.


Yep I charge a 1 hour minimum on any service I provide, including snow. That's how you make money. Even if there is a 10-15 min drive in between. I don't give discounts just because something takes 10 min. Either they want the service or not, take it or leave it. And yes it is nice to get the neighbor too and make two hours worth of pay for 20 min work. I just can't fathom charging for a half hour of work. It's silly.


----------



## theplowmeister (Nov 14, 2006)

That is why I have 100 accounts in a 3 mile circle and make way more than $75 hour. But all the power to you, keep *****ing that people wont pay $75 for 15 min of work cause you cant figure how to get the neighbors too

PS I wont drive 15 min for a plow ether.


----------



## ktfbgb (Jan 31, 2016)

theplowmeister said:


> That is why I have 100 accounts in a 3 mile circle and make way more than $75 hour. But all the power to you, keep *****ing that people wont pay $75 for 15 min of work cause you cant figure how to get the neighbors too
> 
> PS I wont drive 15 min for a plow ether.


I wasn't complaining. I have more customers than I can handle. I just never get the sell low so you can get more work, instead of charge more so you can make the same amount but do a lot less work. I would much rather do 50 drives at $75 than 100 at $35, but thats just me. I only have one drive that is 15 minutes off my route, and I charge $150 if there is up to 6.9" of snow, and $200 if its 7" or more. I would never travel 15 minutes personally without charging enough to cover it. I too make vastly more than $75 per hour. I just charge a minimum per drive, and do a bunch of those minimum charge drives in an hour.


----------



## MSsnowplowing (Nov 1, 2012)

10 to 15 minutes between accounts how can you make $ with all that driving?
I hope your shoveling the sidewalk if you spend 15 minutes there.
if it takes you 1/2 hour then charge for 1/2 hour thats $35 not $70 you might get the next door neighbor at $35 then you wont have to travel 15 minutes between accounts.

Okay let's clear this up, I don't normally do Residential 99.9% of my contracts are commercial.
These are the "Oh man there's a lot of snow on the driveway let's call a plow guy" calls.
If I'm done with my commercials and have time then I call them back -(I don't answer my phone if I don't have the number already).

NEXT

But all the power to you, keep *****ing that people wont pay $75 for 15 min of work cause you cant figure how to get the neighbors too
PS I wont drive 15 min for a plow ether.

I'm not *****ing, I could really care less because residential is not my market, just saying one of the reason's why I will not do them because in my neck of the woods everybody and their brother throws a plow on their truck and does driveways for $20 to $40 a pop and I will not touch anything for less than $75 a hour at this point.


----------



## MSsnowplowing (Nov 1, 2012)

ktfbgb said:


> I wasn't complaining. I have more customers than I can handle. I just never get the sell low so you can get more work, instead of charge more so you can make the same amount but do a lot less work. I would much rather do 50 drives at $75 than 100 at $35, but thats just me. I only have one drive that is 15 minutes off my route, and I charge $150 if there is up to 6.9" of snow, and $200 if its 7" or more. I would never travel 15 minutes personally without charging enough to cover it. I too make vastly more than $75 per hour. I just charge a minimum per drive, and do a bunch of those minimum charge drives in an hour.


You get it, in the beginning I didn't but now having experience I'm the same way now.
This is the price and it goes no lower because my time, experience and equipment is what dictates it.


----------



## Philbilly2 (Aug 25, 2007)

leigh said:


> I wouldn't hire myself to do drives!What a mess.
> View attachment 169640
> View attachment 169641


Look what you started... :laugh:


----------

