# Thinking of a sweeper.



## forestfireguy

As time goes on I get more and more people asking for sweeping as part of a landscape maintenance proposal. We do everything else in house already and currently sub our sweeping. BUT is sweeping worth the investment in a 60-70-100K unit ? I really haven't a clue as to price. Few questions for those with expierience.

I assume you price hourly, meaning in you think it'll take 45 mins to service a site it's X times hours for the price?

Noise ordinance issues? How many face problems with this working in mixed comm/residential areas? Are fines huge?

We're looking at this as a way to look more attractive to larger clients who want one stop shopping and a way to keep our trucks seen on our properties, not a subs truck. We'll never be a sweeping company as a main business , we're happy to be landscapers and snow professional, but maybe being a landscaping,snow AND sweeping operation isn't a bad idea??


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## srl28

We were in somewhat of a similar position this spring with that. New bids requested sweeping and what not. Couple problems we found that kept me from offering sweeping. Now these may be region specific or even client specific but most seemed pretty across the board

1. Not much profit in it. Pay for a very expensive truck with a ton of moving parts an equipment as well as a driver working odd hours. Was hearing prices of less than 100.00 per lot every other week for large big box store lots! 

2. Hard to find employees- Not always the case, but its not always easy to find someone willing to drive in circles all night at midnight to 6 am.

3. Many of the bids that requested parking lot sweeping also requested parking lot maintenance. Not all but most. This, we found, included pot hole repair, patching, man hole cover repair, line striping, etc. Now your getting into numerous different things.

I passed on it, and dont see us offering it ever really. There were a couple of other little bugs in the system that I wasnt too crazy about and further reinforced my decision to nix the idea of sweeping. Not sure if that helps ya any but I'm sure others will chime in here as well.


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## forestfireguy

Thanx SRL. Where in Nj are you? We do some lot maintenance already, patches, basin repairs etc, but not at all on a large scale, more as a paid favor to building managers we deal with often to save them having to look for prices.


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## chuckpeterson

*sweeper price*



forestfireguy;966047 said:


> As time goes on I get more and more people asking for sweeping as part of a landscape maintenance proposal. We do everything else in house already and currently sub our sweeping. BUT is sweeping worth the investment in a 60-70-100K unit ? I really haven't a clue as to price. Few questions for those with expierience.
> 
> You don't have yo spend that much money on a good running sweeper! I have an '89 with remanufactured 8.2 Detroit that has VERY LOW HOURS and is clean. Rides like a Cadillac and looks near new, sweeps better than new (slight but important modifications).
> $20,000. Like pics or more info? [email protected]


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## John Nelson

Power sweeping of commercial retail centers is a great tie in to Landscaping and Snow plowing for the simple reason that it plays a extremely important part of pavement maintenance for the retail center. Studies have shown that cleanliness ranks as a top factor in determining where people shop, and external cleanliness is seen by many as equally important as that of the interior of the building. Power sweeping is also shown to be the most cost effective way to keep pollutants from entering storm drains and the local water supply. Today and especially because of the economy many retail centers are looking to use a contractor that offers everything under one roof. If you are currently subbing out the sweeping pulling it in house will offer some benefits. Most importantly you can control the quality of the job better for the center. Equipment designed for sweeping parking areas does not have a lot of moving parts. A parking area sweeper uses air to move the debris and suction to pick it up. 
I am with Schwarze Industries, Inc. the nations leading power sweeping manufacturer. We build the widest variety of power sweeping equipment from Mechanical broom street sweepers, Regenerative air street sweepers and Recirculative air parking lot sweepers. I understand all of the issues you face in the field. I have the tools to control noise and my standard unit complies with most ordinances. I have resources available to assist you with bidding and knowing your operating cost. Please give me the opportunity to assist you further with any other questions you have. I am available anytime at 1-800-879-7933 ext. 1132


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## kcress31

We are just starting our sweeping business this spring. We added a Bobcat A 300 to our fleet for snow and purchased a 7 ft containment sweeper with water and a 12 inch gutter brush. We are hoping to sign up about 30 customers in the next 2 weeks.


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## kcress31

forestfireguy;966047 said:


> As time goes on I get more and more people asking for sweeping as part of a landscape maintenance proposal. We do everything else in house already and currently sub our sweeping. BUT is sweeping worth the investment in a 60-70-100K unit ? I really haven't a clue as to price. Few questions for those with expierience.
> 
> I assume you price hourly, meaning in you think it'll take 45 mins to service a site it's X times hours for the price?
> 
> Noise ordinance issues? How many face problems with this working in mixed comm/residential areas? Are fines huge?
> 
> We're looking at this as a way to look more attractive to larger clients who want one stop shopping and a way to keep our trucks seen on our properties, not a subs truck. We'll never be a sweeping company as a main business , we're happy to be landscapers and snow professional, but maybe being a landscaping,snow AND sweeping operation isn't a bad idea??


Do you sub out enough $$$ do justify getting a sweeper? How many sweeping contractors are in your area? What type of machines are they using? Part of the reason we got into sweeping was that we usually have a dead period of about 3-4 weeks in the transition between snow and construction. It is a perfect time to sweep while waiting for the construction season to start. In my area I only have one other competitor and I think I can get about 90% of the market.

I also found some good info on this thread

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=89689


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## salt guy

i have 2 t-500 sweepers that i will sell cheep one is a 2008 and 1 is a 2009. please call me at 513-678-1597


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