# Charging $ for Plow stakes



## TazLandscapes (Dec 10, 2006)

I am getting ready to start staking out my lawns for winter and would like to know is it alright to charge customers money for staking there yard out.I am not talking $100 here.
I am thinking between $20-30 for them maybe even $15 for the small yards.ANy help is appreciated.

Thanks
Mike


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## mike33087 (Feb 9, 2005)

lol not this again!!!!!!


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## bribrius (May 5, 2007)

TazLandscapes;424193 said:


> I am getting ready to start staking out my lawns for winter and would like to know is it alright to charge customers money for staking there yard out.I am not talking $100 here.
> I am thinking between $20-30 for them maybe even $15 for the small yards.ANy help is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks
> Mike


i wouldnt. maybe in mass but we live in maine. dont know if that would fly well. mainers might look at like "im paying you to plow the snow not stick stakes into the ground. if your worried about hitting something then its your choice to use the stakes thats your thing.".

what do i know though. try it and find out.. might go. might go over like a lead balloon.

thats kind of like when people charge for estimates. not many charge for estimates in maine because mainers dont like paying for estimates.


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## Mick (May 19, 2001)

No. Unless you and the customer agreed to the charge beforehand. The stakes are actually for your convenience - to avoid any damage and resultant expense in the Spring. Or to avoid hazards - which is still for your convenience. Any way you look at it, the stakes are not there for your customer's use.


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

bribrius;424202 said:


> what do i know though. try it and find out.. might go. might go over like a lead balloon.


That's the same quote Keith Moon gave to Jimmy Page. So the band "Lead Zeppelin" found a new name! 

PS Don't charge for stakes like everybody else said. You put them there for your benefit .


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## JD Dave (Mar 20, 2007)

I agree with above posts. Stakes are for your benefit, you can't charge for them.


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## powerjoke (Nov 13, 2004)

i am curious to hear everyones answer, i don't think this has ever been asked before lol snofarmer or mark o may be able to help you out why don't you pm them

stakes cost from $.00-$.49 how many were you planing on useing for $30? 

alot of people charge for stakes but i am not one of them but as you all know i don't hardely do any resi's


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## Crash935 (Sep 3, 2003)

powerjoke;424292 said:


> i am curious to hear everyones answer, i don't think this has ever been asked before


OH YEAH IT HAS!!!!

Hey Mark, want to handle this one?


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## ECS (Nov 11, 2005)

Oh, I just love this topic. Do a search and you will be reading all day.

Out here, it is up to the customer to mark there drive. *Any* damage done to *anything* that is not marked is not the plowers responsibility.

Most of my customers are not here after August or September which means I get to stake all the drives. I charge a fee to stake them and $1.00 per stake.

I do not agree with the posts above about not charging the customer. It is my time, money and fuel to go pick up the stakes and stake the drives and I believe in getting paid for my time, the cost of the stakes and the use of my truck & fuel to get them and go to their property to put them in.


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

You could always bump up your price if you want to charge for staking and just tell the customer everything is included .


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## Mick (May 19, 2001)

And here I thought we'd all come to agreement on the subject of staking   .

Yeah, I was thinking of that other thread when I read this, too.


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

That's it! Everybody goes vegetarian and no stakes for anybody!


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## MB3 (Oct 11, 2007)

*Price*

I agree with all of you, you should not charge an EXTRA price for putting in stakes, but I do put IT into my prices for plowing. Especially the commerical on an hourly rate, they all have them in there.


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## TazLandscapes (Dec 10, 2006)

I hope i didn't make anyone mad about this question.I have been thinking about this for a while now and last week alot of companys up my way were out staking yards out.One company i talked to charges $50 hr just to stake out a yard and he said that it doesnt bother there clients.So i just wanted to ask and hopefully not piss anyone off.

Thanks
Mike


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## Mick (May 19, 2001)

No, I don't think anybody got mad. There was another thread about the same topic awhile ago and a couple members got to picking at each other. Nothing you did.


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## Plowtoy (Dec 15, 2001)

I make it avail. to the customer on the contract, If they do not want me to put in stakes at $1.50 each, than we are not responsible for repairs in the spring


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## Jay brown (Dec 26, 2005)

might as well charge them for new brighter headlights for your truck, or how about a new set of glsses/contacts too.


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## bribrius (May 5, 2007)

Jay brown;424752 said:


> might as well charge them for new brighter headlights for your truck, or how about a new set of glsses/contacts too.


too funny. thats kind of how i see it too jay.


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## CrownLawn (Oct 26, 2007)

TazLandscapes;424193 said:


> I am getting ready to start staking out my lawns for winter and would like to know is it alright to charge customers money for staking there yard out.I am not talking $100 here.
> I am thinking between $20-30 for them maybe even $15 for the small yards.ANy help is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks
> Mike


How do you justify charging a minium of $15.00 for a small yard, when my small yard my take only 2 stakes @ .15 apeice and I am there only 1 minute? $15.00 x 60 Minutes= $900.00 per hour (gross profit). WOW thats a profit I should give up snowplowing and just stake yards!! Its all in the numbers in how you want it to look. You can bill it into your quote or line item it. It matters not as long as you make a profit. That way you can pay Uncle Sam his share. We all know he never gets enough.LOLpayup payup payup


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## SnoFarmer (Oct 15, 2004)

Where is LLM? 

lol Mick, when did all of us agree on anything?

Ecs, Are you jumping ship?
( How was your summer?)

I agree, you should be paid for your time.
But,,, The markers are for your protection.
To save you from damaging your clients property.

You could itemize your service OR include it in your price.

What if someone does not want your aesthetically pleasing markers on there property?

We do not put in markers, we do take pics of all properties before the season starts.
We also take pics of the landscaping and any damaged areas.

cya,, cya..

P.S.Putting in markers would require someone to get out of there truck and work. I'm just too lazy....lol


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## Flipper (Nov 1, 2001)

I don't stake yards on my own. My customers can, or they can have me do it at a hourly rate.

Its in my contract that we push everything back, we are mindful of walks, wall, plants, but the guy who puts 20 stakes along the only 50ft of grass meeting the drive usually wakes up to find them all buried 10 ft off his driveway.


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## MileHigh (Nov 6, 2007)

TazLandscapes;424193 said:


> I am getting ready to start staking out my lawns for winter and would like to know is it alright to charge customers money for staking there yard out.I am not talking $100 here.
> I am thinking between $20-30 for them maybe even $15 for the small yards.ANy help is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks
> Mike


Of course charge them for it...why wouldn't you? What you need to do is to just add the cost of the stakes and the time it takes to stake, and just add it to your bid. It's as easy as that. Don't let them know your charging them for some plow stakes, just put it on your bottom line costs.

98 Ford F150 4x4 w/ Timbrens
Meyer St 7'5"
Troy Bilt Storm 1130


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## Diesel Sniffer (Sep 21, 2007)

Maybe I do things azz backwards, but I stake the yards at no charge to the customers. I do this for their protection and for mine. I look at it as good customer service. I put them out so I don't bulldoze their favorite flower garden or take out their landscape lighting. HOWEVER, if at the end of the season when I go to collect all my fiberglass stakes they had better be there. If not, the customer gets a bill for them. I put that in my contract and I verbally tell all of them that also. So far it has worked out great and everyone is very understanding. And, I always get my stakes back...


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## Flake Chaser (Dec 17, 2006)

I too can see charging and I'm going to offer it to customers. For $10 per driveway (more on bigger) I don't think it'll be to hard to sell. I don't work for free and putting it in the bid would work for the first time but what would ya do next year go up ? You can only charge so much before you price yourself outta work. At least in my area you would. A lot of outta work construction/contractors in the winter time. Just my 2 cents worth


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## Mick (May 19, 2001)

This brings up an interesting question. For those who do stake properties; how many go around and retrieve the stakes in the Spring? I don't, for two reasons:

1. It's not worth it. It takes more in gas than the stakes are worth.

2. I generally keep the same customers from one year to the next. Around here, stakes stay up year round. Then each Fall, I go around the route and put new ones out to replace the ones that disappeared. 

I got them for something like .04 each for bundles of 100. I can't even start my truck for .04 and generally use two or three per property. So we're looking at a dime each place. If ten cents is cutting into your profit significantly, you have bigger problems than a few stakes.


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## CUCV (Apr 9, 2007)

Around here it seems like most commercial contracts require them. I can't seem to find them for less than $0.43 each. We did some staking yesterday and did about 100 stakes per man hour.

I picked up and account mid season a few years back, ground was frozen and the driveways had not been staked. As I plowed one unit I watched a guy from the next unit back his lexus out of his garage, down his "driveway", right off his retaining wall. I bet he wished his driveway was staked.


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## Snowpower (Sep 2, 2007)

Mick;425725 said:


> This brings up an interesting question. For those who do stake properties; how many go around and retrieve the stakes in the Spring? I don't, for two reasons:
> 
> 1. It's not worth it. It takes more in gas than the stakes are worth.
> 
> ...


Says clearly in my commercial agreements that I will install in fall and remove all stakes in spring. Its communicated to any resis I apply them at. But I drive my route area all the time. Im not going out of my way picking them up and do it as part of a complete service.

Honestly though I dont use a lot of stakes.


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## ppandr (Dec 16, 2004)

Have been staking our residential drives since the day I started. We have a fullscale wood shop so stakes (scrap cedar) are free and the customers hate them......therefore many of them put their own in each year. We do 80 plus drives and I have the drivers (my full time employees) stake their own so they know where the problems lie, etc. It takes about half a day for each to do this, which I pay them for. Believe me it costs much more to fix a busted plow in the middle of a storm or patch up someones lawn in the spring.


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## A Hero Lawn Care (Mar 29, 2016)

Ok guys I hate to bring this back from the dead, 11 years later but I just got another church this year and it is my biggest contract yet. Just under 70k sq ft or just over a 1.25 acres. My experience with this is last year, when I got into this business, I went to all the commercial accounts to collect my stakes after the landscape season started up to collect my stakes. To my surprise I was unable to retain the stakes I put out. My stakes run $2.28 before tax and reflectors run me around $3.50 at Lowes. Since I just landed this contract last week I was in a bit of a scramble to get it staked out as our first real storm is moving in as I write this. Anyhow, idk what my loss on staking was last year, but today I used 30 stakes and 20 reflectors (I had ten reflectors left over from last year) tonight when I was prepping the site. 

So my out the door cost was $105

The lot is like 100' from an old elementary school so I know some kids will be playing pirates and seeing my stakes as ideal swords... that and the stake monster will take them and the list goes on and on... 

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. I worked hard for my money and even though it's a church, I am not a charity. I plan on billing out for it this time around because it's just kind of not a fun thing when you have hard earned money walk off the table because you were doing your job. I mean I read the post about charging for new truck parts and contact lenses and glasses... I get the satire in the post but my feeling is 100% the opposite. I am providing a professional service, and taking the time to stake out a clients property attests to my professionalism. I the contractor am caring enough to protect my clients property. And yes it does help us while plowing.

HOWEVER...

It is an investment for a client's time, property and money. And I'm sure my insurance provider appreciates the time we take to cross our T(s) and dot our I(s). 

Anyhow I am super excited for this event and it is supposed to be a full 24 hours of accumulation. I only got 5 events last season and this is only number 2 for plowable snow this season. Think colorado quit snowing the day I bought my plow. It's funny when dry times force you into tough decisions. I'm even thinking of of requiring ice melt or sand next year for all of my commercial accounts. It gets too dang slick with all these freezing temps. Right now I just have an indemnification clause that states if ice melt is not a chosen service, I will not be held liable for slips and falls. 

To me that is super unprofessional of me. It's just a clause that allows me to wash my hands free of lawsuit when in reality, it is safer for the contractors businesses themself and their well being, safer for pedestrians and other foot trafficers as well as protecting the businesses/institutions from lawsuits.

Same goes for staking and prepping a property. It protects equipment and it protects the property. That should be well worth it to everyone.

My only deal is this contract came to me so quickly I didn't add it into the contract that I copied from last year. Meaning it wasn't in the contract to charge for the stakes. So I am just going to invoice for 1 man hour (1/2 hour for me an my helper *who also has to be paid for his time*) and 50 markers.

To me it's like throwing money out the window if you don't. I screwed up by not laying it out in the contract but then again this is my 2nd year. We live and learn and I'm trying my best to figure things out on my own. I guess I will find out how it turns out after I send the invoice out. 

Professionalism separates the boys from men in my opinion and if the pregnant wife finds out I'm giving away $100 worth stakes instead of bringing home a truck full of groceries or paying down credit cards or making rent, I would probably get an ear full, let alone feeling like I threw out money. 

It's not just to help the plow operators job go smoothly. They are there to protect assets. Sure we have 2 mil aggregate insurance policies but it is always better to be safer than sorry. And insurance claims cost you in the long run anyways with deductibles and increased premiums and truck and plow damage as well all know can eat up the old bill fold as well... and EVEN with markers and stakes, accidents happen. It's (staking is) preventative behavior and I would rather deal with explaining this to a client rather than dealing with the headache from damage, insurance claims and other user error accidentals that will occur.

If I were to have laid this out up front I would feel better about myself, no doubt. BUT after losing everything I placed last year, it was a no brainer to charge this go around.

Now before I get flamed for my post and waking up the reading dead, understand that I am still growing and learning in this industry. And if snowfarmer, Mark ooamks, Buff or any of you old timers (cough cough) *jk* get a chance to read this, I want to say hi and wish you and your families all well. . . I have a baby girl coming into my life this June. Maybe having a baby can make me a little more cynical? Lol again jk 

I only lost 1 commercial account due to a change in ownership. So I either did a good job last winter, or I'm too cheap to pass up lol... I'm hoping not the ladder


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## iceyman (Mar 1, 2007)

Discountsnowstakes.com


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## Mitragorz (Oct 11, 2013)

First off, only saps buy stakes at Lowe’s or HD. No way should you be paying $2+ per stake. 

I buy mine in bulk from eBay seller “stakemaker1”. Not as cheap as some of the guys say they get theirs for, but for the amount I need each year it’s cheap enough for me. The last hundred I ordered a few years back, I think it ran about 60 cents per. 

I even offer them for sale for $1.50 each. Only sell about 20 per year, but if someone wants to come by my place and pay me 3x what I paid and all I have to do is walk with them to the shed, that’s fine with me.


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## NYH1 (Jan 10, 2009)

I bought 100 4' 3/8" orange w/white reflective tap (on top) stakes delivered for just under $100.

NYH1.


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## A Hero Lawn Care (Mar 29, 2016)

Mitragorz said:


> First off, only saps buy stakes at Lowe's or HD. No way should you be paying $2+ per stake.
> 
> I buy mine in bulk from eBay seller "stakemaker1". Not as cheap as some of the guys say they get theirs for, but for the amount I need each year it's cheap enough for me. The last hundred I ordered a few years back, I think it ran about 60 cents per.
> 
> I even offer them for sale for $1.50 each. Only sell about 20 per year, but if someone wants to come by my place and pay me 3x what I paid and all I have to do is walk with them to the shed, that's fine with me.


Whoa there big guy.... saps?? LOL I thought that came out of trees....you must not of read the entire post. I just landed this contract and barely had a signed contract in hand last night. I had less than 3 hours to get prepped. So I guess the true sap would be they guy who plows without them while his stakes are being shipped out...

I get what you are saying but everything is relative to everyone's unique situations. It was the only new contract I picked up. All the other lots I have done for a year so I know the areas fairly well. We do the maintenance on all our properties in the summer too. So no big surprises. Just saying.


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## A Hero Lawn Care (Mar 29, 2016)

iceyman said:


> Discountsnowstakes.com


Thanks man. I appreciate you sending me some info. Another opportunity to learn and cut costs. Much obliged


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## iceyman (Mar 1, 2007)

A Hero Lawn Care said:


> Thanks man. I appreciate you sending me some info. Another opportunity to learn and cut costs. Much obliged


payup


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## Avalanche 2500 (Dec 31, 2015)

@ Job Lot 6 4' for $6.00


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## Mitragorz (Oct 11, 2013)

A Hero Lawn Care said:


> Whoa there big guy.... saps?? LOL I thought that came out of trees....you must not of read the entire post. I just landed this contract and barely had a signed contract in hand last night. I had less than 3 hours to get prepped. So I guess the true sap would be they guy who plows without them while his stakes are being shipped out...
> 
> I get what you are saying but everything is relative to everyone's unique situations. It was the only new contract I picked up. All the other lots I have done for a year so I know the areas fairly well. We do the maintenance on all our properties in the summer too. So no big surprises. Just saying.


Oh relax, I'm just giving you a hard time. :dancing:

The real sap is the guy pulling out some other guy's stakes bc he's short.

But really, check out that eBay seller I mentioned. 3/8" stakes w/ reflectors at a good price. It was cheaper than discount snow stakes, last time I ordered.

You have to search through his listings to find the best per unit price. I've noticed he'll list the same number of stakes in different listings for different prices.


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## NYH1 (Jan 10, 2009)

I ordered mine *here*.

Good luck, NYH1.


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## A Hero Lawn Care (Mar 29, 2016)

Mitragorz said:


> Oh relax, I'm just giving you a hard time. :dancing:
> 
> The real sap is the guy pulling out some other guy's stakes bc he's short.
> 
> ...


Lol I know. Same here man. More bark than bite here.

I'm definitely not using Lowes again. I'm thinking of just grabbing them in bulk this spring when that clean up money starts coming in. Thanks for the reference, man!Thumbs Up


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## A Hero Lawn Care (Mar 29, 2016)

NYH1 said:


> I ordered mine *here*.
> 
> Good luck, NYH1.


Holy stakes Batman, they've got me surrounded.

500 plain orange for $300... Nice.

Now that we are on the subject, does anyone have a connection on bulk steaks for discount. I have a feeling I've been getting this wrong this whole time LOL


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## OneBadDodge06 (Sep 22, 2004)

I drive around at the beginning of the season in the middle of the night and get brand new stakes for my lots :dancing:


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## redclifford (Aug 10, 2015)

We stake all of our properties, for a fee. I'm not sure why anyone would do something for free....It's incorporated into the price


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## A Hero Lawn Care (Mar 29, 2016)

OneBadDodge06 said:


> I drive around at the beginning of the season in the middle of the night and get brand new stakes for my lots :dancing:


Now I know where my stakes have been going


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## A Hero Lawn Care (Mar 29, 2016)

So I wanted to share with you guys that I went back to do a site visit after the first event there to note any damage see if we missed anything etc etc....

On one of the larger piles I had, the elemantary kids hiked up right to the top and turned my snow pile into a giant white porky pine... it was a sight to see and like they were intentionally giving me an artful middle finger (jk). you could see their little paw prints in the snow. They started right from the school's front doors straight to my little mini mountains LOL

And I'm pretty sure sword fights were taking place due to busted reflectors. I was going to go back later that night to pull the stakes and hang on to them until the next event (lazy at the time and didn't think of it while on site)... when I went to go get them, no more porky pine. Not sure what happened to them but I was only able to salvage 30 out of 50 of them.

Ended up browsing plowsite and Snofarmer made a good point. He said something along the lines of customers pay for everything he does. His customers pay for the food on his table, plows, trucks, stakes etc (drastically paraphrased but same point) I ultimately agree with this. I only charged $125 for 10 reflectors and 40 stakes. This covered the stakes and the labor for my helper. I broke even. Which was dumb on my part, I won't dok that again. But after seeing what you all paid for stakes I thought I'd be over the top trying to turn a dime. :hammerhead: but in the future you better believe I will be charging to #1 cover materials #meet my labor burden #3 make some money. And the church said absolutely nothing about the charge and that they understood. 


THEN after I took the stakes, someone from the church called asking if i knew what happened to the stakes because they were worried due to a high theft rate. Hahaha

It just a bit defeating to know that under our terms, if I value the stakes I have to pull and put up the stakes before and after every event. Either that or leave them up and tough luck if they go missing.

Again I'm still green in this business so, live and learn. But next year Its going to be upfront and in the contract. 

Just thought I'd follow up with an update since I went to all this trouble in waking up this dead thread


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