New guy here but been in biz for 2 years and have 20 years maintence on golf course.
About to bid on cemetery job any thoughts
#2
xp14629
How big, how many stones? Are plastic flowers allowed there? How many guys do you have doing it?
Remember that every stone has to be walked around to weed-eat it. Also, who will be responsible if a stone is chipped or damaged in a way the it may have to be replaced. The plastic flowers are the worst, if you guy hits them thinking they were real, a lot of time the metal stem will get wound around the blade spindle, or becomes a very dangerous projectile. Also check with you insurance provider for other issues they have seen.
Ok thanks that's good stuff. My main concern is man hours. Have the insurance covered checked on tht today. There r about 2000 head stones and we r talking about 80 acres so I am all ears
#4
reynoldston
never mowed a cemetery but it sure sounds like a tedious job.
#5
xp14629
That's a lot of area with very few stones. I do one that is 25 acres with over 12,000 stones. Yours sounds much easier. I have a buddy that does a large one like that where the stones are spaced so it looks more like multible cematerys. The large area are left to grow and knocked down once a year for hay. He just cuts the areas of the stones.
I kind of fell into this and I do not wanna mess up on both sides. Don't wanna bite off more than I can handle but I am defiantly taking my time trying to figure out how to bid it right.
My first thought as far as weedeating is 2 bucks a stone then factor in time mowing plus maintence and gas. Every time my guys have to reach down and pick flowers or sticks Well u get my drift. Have 4 guys who work for me but have access to 6 more if need be
Hi Lawn-Pros,
My wife and I and several other famlys are involved with a small local cemetery.
This cemetery association owns the equipment which includes two rear discharge ZTR machines. The cemetery is 200 years old and in two parts is 18 acres total. There are old and new sections, the old section is sold out and except for dirt roads formed in basic square sections has no regularity to its layout. The new section except for the first two rows has been layed out in line to make mowing etc easier. Of the total 18 acres about six acres had been hayed but that stopped three years ago. We mow this section when needed with an old Gravely Convertable/sulky and pay for it when done.The rest of the cemetery gets mowed and trimmed 3-4 times a season. The cemetery pays the mowing crew $1,200 for each mowing and as I said the cemetery association owns the equipment and I maintain the equipment. We periodically fertilize both sections and I do it with a garden tractor with the mower deck removed and a tow behind 150 LB spreader. I charge the cemetery $40 per hour to do this with my own machine and I usually spread 1,000 LBS from 75 LB bags. This usually takes me 2 hours and I do wear a dust mask, very important!!! I have no idea how many gravestones there are, but in the new part we only permit flat ground plates and no more gravestones. We initially thought that this would reduce maintenance costs however the overgrowth on the ground plates has become a problem and possibly not the cost savings that we initially anticipated. Each row of ground plate marked graves has a stone post marker at each end that are easily seen and identified but there are some that will drive over this area as if it was a Walmart parking lot.
Mad Mackie in CT:biggrin::laughing:
This pacific cemetery is family owned and operated. They ask that it be mowed every week so this is a game changer for me so as I said I'm taking my time to figure this out. Another withdraw is anytime there is a funeral we have to stop so that is another factor.
Figure how much you need to do this and double it.You will find out that this will get you closer to the correct price,and never fear not getting the bid there will be more down the road.Bid to low to get it you will lose your butt
Figure how much you need to do this and double it.You will find out that this will get you closer to the correct price,and never fear not getting the bid there will be more down the road.Bid to low to get it you will lose your butt
Thanks that's a good idea. Ur right I will not get hung up on it to much. I have told the owners that I can only do this if I have a decent profit margin.
There reply was nice to hear they said they r willing to pay good as long as the work reflected it.
The people that were doing it just flat did a crap job and then they would only show up 2 a month and the contract they showed me from that particular company said minimum 3 mowings a month so that tells me that they under bid the job to begin with. Thanks for the advice and if u have anymore please share. Thanks
