End of an era, thanks Terry. Charged me $40 to cut a lawn at my units in Algester every 3 weeks. His replacement says the going rate is $95. Sound right?
What’s the sqm size of the lawns? I dare say your old mower was doing it at a loss/to keep himself busy before retiring. New rates are generally $60-100 just depends on the lawn size & how well its kept.
I’m a landscaper but do some body corp maintenance work as well. I took over one village few years ago when an old bloke retired, he charged 400 to mow the whole thing, I got the gig on a 960 quote and I was the cheapest quote at the time. The only way to know what the going rate is, is to get a few quotes.
Makes one think- $40-00 once you take out travel time insurance and maintenance on equipment there would not be much left profits wise at the end of the day.. That quote is about in the normal price range--If you look at some of the big brand names in lawn maintenance and the contract they use then the costs maybe will be higher then $90-00..
Looks like we had a good run, Terry did a great job too! Property Mgr said “all good things come to an end”
Minimum for sole trader these days in any line of work has to be at least $75/hr ex.gst otherwise not even worth getting out of bed.
$95 seems reasonable if it's not a huge lawn, unfortunately for most sub-$150 jobs the majority of the time is in travel.
We pay around $70 + GST per hour at the moment. From memory - it was around $35 - $40 per hour only a few years ago. This is in SE QLD. Cheers Jamie
It also depends on the equipment they have. Some equipment is EXPENSIVE, but it saves me time I've got a $25,000 zero turn 35hp mower, blades cost $50ea and it takes 3. I might quote a large job at $350 with the zero turn, when they baulk at the price I offer the push mower for $75ph and more often than not they jump at it, right up until I say the job will likely take 8-9 hours I've seen other contractors take 1.5 hours to trim a hedge with small electric shears, yet the same job would take my big petrol set 15min Honestly some in the industry take the customer for granted when they quote a relatively cheap hourly rate and then take all damn day to do a 2-3 hour job Don't get me wrong, some customers are no better, having the best equipment and being able to knock a job over quickly many customers don't feel that they're getting value for money either They often don't even notice me going flat out without breaks (I can eat and check voicemails in the car between jobs) or taking the time to answer calls and check my phone, they only see a $150 quote done in an hour and feel like I've made a great hourly rate (I work twice as hard and fast as anyone I've ever employed or met ). We don't charge call out fee's of $150 and invoice at $45+ per 15 min increment, yet people all too often expect full horticultural analysis and advice for peanuts I'm retiring also, mowing and landscaping is hard physical work and then I go home to do quotes/invoicing/ordering/BAS/equipment repairs...... It's so much easier on my poor old bones to earn $75,000pa shuffling some paperwork in an office job where if I stuff up I don't lose a finger (and likely can't be sacked for stuffing up either)
Just recently employed a lawn guy, 700 sqm block, $60, poisoning weeds additional $20 as required. This is cheap Another quote was $100 for about 400 sqm. I am sure Price can also vary dependent on suburb.
This is the only guy to show up. He usually appears once a month. The others quoted but were then too busy. 2023, it’s a new paradigm
