# rough idea?? 2-4? 4-6? 6-12? 12+?



## mikemash14 (Jan 26, 2011)

im bidding a building and they want me to bid it 2-4, 4-6, 6-12, and then how much an inch after 12+. the lot is about 100,000 sqft and a pick up truck 8ft blade or mason truck 8 1/2ft blade will be there, sometimes both. can i hear some of your ideas and how you got them?


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## dayexco (Oct 30, 2003)

how long will it take for you to do this lot with the equipment you have?


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## mikemash14 (Jan 26, 2011)

i would assume 2-3 hours depending on the snow and neatness


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## dayexco (Oct 30, 2003)

okay, what is your hourly cost of operation, and how much profit per hour do you want to make? take cost of operation + profit....x 2 or 3 hrs....there's your price! nothing to this silly game, huh?


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## mikemash14 (Jan 26, 2011)

what % profit is the average everyony is getting? if you bidded it with those two trucks what about would your 2-4, 4-6, 6-12 and then 12+ be?


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## dayexco (Oct 30, 2003)

i can't tell you that, i have no clue what your overhead is...only you know that...and % of profit, is pretty much based on whatever the local market will bear and you feel comfortable with


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## blizzardsnow (Feb 3, 2009)

Start with the 2-4" push. If it takes you 3 hours to push, and doesn't have a ton of islands or something crazy- around here the price would be 300-400 per push. No salt. It is important to know your costs because then you can bid accordingly. Remember, its better to lose a bid than to get it and lose money.


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## peterng (Apr 13, 2006)

mikemash14;1215033 said:


> im bidding a building and they want me to bid it 2-4, 4-6, 6-12, and then how much an inch after 12+. the lot is about 100,000 sqft and a pick up truck 8ft blade or mason truck 8 1/2ft blade will be there, sometimes both. can i hear some of your ideas and how you got them?


I find it is somewhat linear. 4" takes me 1.75-2 times as lone as 1, 6" takes me 1.5 times longer than 4", 8" takes me 2x longer than 4" etc.

that is all variable depending on wind speed and light snow fall vs. wet accumulation.

I'd say pull numbers out of your ars, do a wicked job, collect lots of data on production rates and know better for the next job.

No other way to break in.
Good luck with it ! (it's all luck and timing starting off 
Pete


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## bskiball (Sep 5, 2009)

If you do 2-4 and 4-6 what do you charge for 4 inches? It is in both catagories. Maybe try 2-4 and 4.1 to 6 or some variation of that. If you do what you suggested and get four inches and charge the 4-6 rate the client may complain it shoud be the 2-4 rate. Good luck


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## South Seneca (Oct 22, 2010)

We have customers around here that want us to wait 'til after it stops snowing to plow. Then we are faced with 3 ft drifts to push through. I won't do it. A friend of mine does and gets stuck and tears up equipment.
Some how you need to get across to clients that plowing with a reasonable trigger is the way to go.


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## lawnkale (Dec 4, 2008)

mikemash14;1215033 said:


> im bidding a building and they want me to bid it 2-4, 4-6, 6-12, and then how much an inch after 12+. the lot is about 100,000 sqft and a pick up truck 8ft blade or mason truck 8 1/2ft blade will be there, sometimes both. can i hear some of your ideas and how you got them?


i have a few properties like this. we raise our prices 50% for every level of depth. so 2-4" $100 then 4.1 to 6" would be $150.00. 6.1 to 8" would be $200.00 and so on...

I hope this answers your question


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## Brant'sLawnCare (Jun 29, 2007)

I would be around $225 or so for 2-4". But everything gets bid so competitively around here. In order to get the job, I would probably have to be around $180. FYI, my trucks cost me right around $60/hr to run.


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

Your talking like 2.25 acres. So on a 2" your probably talking 2.5-3 hours worth of plowing, 4" of snow your talking probably 4-5 hours. I personally would probably bid that 2-4" push at around 3.5 hours, in my area somewhere around 230-250$ for that push. So you can kinda base it like that, for every 1-2 inches of snow thats going to fall your probably talking like 2 hours worth of work for it. Now are they letting you do that price on the amount of snow fall or the amount of snow at the time of the push. Becasue obviously say you get a 5" snow fall and your price for 2-4" is at $240 and 4-6 is at $360. In the morning you push 3", and then in the after noon you push another 2" thats 2 pushes which should get you $480, or are they wanting you to price for the total amount of that storm?

Every inch after 12" i would figure 2.5 hours worth of work for it. So if your getting $60/hour for the truck then Id say $150 for every inch there after or something. 

Any salting? If so your talking 1400-2250lbs per application. Id figure average of 1800lbs per application or so if there is salting.

Hopefully you have a large piece of equipment available in the event of a big storm where you get a quick dumping of 8-12" of snow on it. Those two trucks will defenitally struggle depending on the length of the push


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## dayexco (Oct 30, 2003)

Brant'sLawnCare;1215576 said:


> I would be around $225 or so for 2-4". But everything gets bid so competitively around here. In order to get the job, I would probably have to be around $180. FYI, my trucks cost me right around $60/hr to run.


and i'd be around $675.00 ............... do you know YOUR costs yet? or are you going to "average" what you've seen here? nobody is doing you favors here by telling you what to bid...


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

exactly, the times being spit out are acurate, but you just need to know your cost becasue we have 3 different price ranges on here you might be getting 75/hour putting you at 300-400/push or 100/hour getting 400-500/push.


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## shovelracer (Sep 3, 2004)

This is exactly why it is pointless to give prices over the web. Some of these are rediculously low for the area, some much closer, nor can we make a claim as to how long it will take. I will say that if it takes you 25% longer to clear 4" over 2" you need a new line of work. Initially I see a problem with the 6-12" margin. There is a huge difference in clearing 6" over 12". Especially in one pass for the same price. Come to us with your numbers so we can pick them apart, then maybe someone can help you see what to charge. Using someone elses numbers is always a loosing game for you in the long run.


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## mikemash14 (Jan 26, 2011)

thanks everyone and i understand its just rough idea but im use to hourly rates. so just wanted an idea for per inch/push. how does everyone figure out for salting just to see if im doing the same?


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

you can do salting 1 of 2 ways. Either by the pound spread which basically you make money off of what ever you put out. Or per application. Like i stated in my previous post your going to be anywhere from 1400lbs to 2250lbs per application. So if you bid it at 2200lbs per application, and you only end up needed to put down 1800lbs your making money on 400lbs not put down. The down side is, when you have a cold day and you need to put down 2500lbs of salt instead and you loose some money. 

What I do in my agreements is this for salting. Say for that lot.

Salting: $425 per application. In all day events we will salt the lot as needed, contractor will charge the client a rate of $.18/lb of salt applied, until the amount of salt reaches xlbs in which the customer will then be charged for the application price. 

That saves you a little, but usuall we dont need to do that, unless it continues to snow after the place has closed.


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