Calculate Your Rate When You Have Employees
Employees can speed up your operation tenfold. But, theres an art to pricing out their labor.
Jason explains that when including labor in your price, you should consider how much effort is required per person.
When I say $60 per hour, Im talking about the rate per person. So if you have a two-man crew, youre looking at $120 per hour. If you have a three-man crew, $180 per hour. If Ive got a two-man crew and were cutting grass and it took us 30 minutes to cut, thats a $60 lawn. Although it took half the time to mow this lawn, it required two times the effort for labor for Jasons team.
Or, you can take Edwards approach:
We bid per hour. I like to walk the site, get the job requirements, and decide how long and how much labor it will take. For example, a job might take an hour and a half with three people. So Ill bill three people on the site at $45 an hour, $45 per employee, so that $135 for labor alone.
Notice that this price doesnt include overhead, equipment, and materials costs yet.
How To Calculate Your Lawn’s Square Footage
This page is a general guide to calculating your lawn’s square footage. Using the methods or tips suggested, you can accurately measure and determine how much product to use in your residential or commercial property. Follow this guide and use the recommended methods or products and we guarantee 100% accuracy in measuring your lawn.
When beginning any treatment application knowing the size of your property is important to know. By understanding the property’s square footage and dimensions you can save time and money on the appropriate amount of herbicide, fungicide, or insecticide to purchase.
Simple Steps To Correctly Measuring Your Lawn
Star Tips
Youre about to drop some fertilizer, spread some seed, or treat your lawn for weeds, so you head out to pick up the product you need.
The problem is, youll quickly learn you needed to figure out how many square feet your yard is to know how much product to toss in your cart.
Making a guessing game out of this process can lead to 15 trips to the store to restock and listening to the cashiers attempt at humor each time. Worse yet, you could overestimate and be that guy standing at the customer service desk returning all of the extra fertilizer he didnt need.
With the right forethought and a little basic math, you can correctly measure your lawn and know precisely how much product to buy and the rate in which to spread it.
No, this isnt Ms. Zanders sixth-grade algebra class calculators, fingers, and toes are all welcome to get the right measurements here.
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How To Calculate Your Lawns Square Footage
Many homeowners are not aware of the size of their lawn area before visiting the garden center in order to purchase fertilizer and many other lawn care products. Oftentimes, this lead to a very helpless feeling about making the purchasing decisions, buying the wrong product amount, inconsistent results, and misapplication. Knowing the lawn size is the basic principle of the measure of fake grass. Keep on reading to find out how.
Account For Odd Dimensions
Sometimes you will have to account for odd room dimensions or additional areas that don’t neatly connect with your main room. In this case, to calculate the square footage accurately, you may need to divide the space into separate areas.;
- Divide the space into smaller sections.;
- Measure each section separately and calculate the square footage of each.;
- Use a calculator to add the numbers together to get the total square footage.;
For example, assume you are trying to buy flooring for a rectangular room with a nook. The shape is of a large rectangle and a smaller rectangle.;
- Find the length and width of each section;, then calculate each square footage:A: 3 ft. x 7 ft. = 21 sq. ft.;B: 12 ft. x 10 ft. = 120 sq. ft.;
- Then, add the three values together to get the total square footage youll need:120 sq. ft. + 21 sq. ft. = 141 sq. ft.;
- Therefore, youll need 141 sq. ft. of flooring materials.;
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My Pick For The Best Tool To Measure Lawn Size Online
When it comes to convenience and ease of use, the Global Syn-Turf app checks all the boxes for me, and its my favorite tool out of the four Ive listed here.
Google Maps is probably a close second, and its worth noting that none of the other apps would work without the Google Maps API.
With how rapidly Google is improving all of their tools for users, it wouldnt be surprising to me if it becomes the strongest tool of the bunch very soon, but for now try the Global Syn-Turf app for free. I think youll find it helpful.
How To Estimate Sod For Your Lawn
Growing a lawn from scratch is very economical, but it can be tricky and time-consuming as well. If you are considering seeding your lawn, you can use our grass seed calculator. However, laying sod provides many advantages over direct seeding.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of sod is that it provides an instant lawn. You dont have to wait for the right season for planting, or germination and growth, or contend with competition from weeds.
You can install sod in nearly any season as long as the ground is not frozen and it is delivered fully mature and weed-free.
Establishing sod uses less water than growing seed, too, which is good for the environment and your pocketbook. Finally, sod is fast to lay down, giving you beautiful landscaping in a matter of hours instead of months.
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What Else Does The Area Calculator By Lawn Crack Do
We will go over all of the new features you can now take advantage of with Lawn Cracks area calculator.; Some of the more basic features are available on some of the other map, but Lawn Cracks area calculator gives you the ability to give custom names to each section you create, create multiple sections with individual and aggregate output totals, color code each section, toggle the makers on and off, draw on the map, leave notes on the map, and print the map or save as a PDF.; We will go over how each of these features and how you can make the most of them in your business.
- Give Custom Names to Each Individual Area Some maps, such as FindLotSize.com, do not even allow you to make more than 1 area per map. You can create as many individual areas as you need on a single map with Lawn Cracks.; On top of that, you can re-name each area so they make sense to your employees.; Use Case: Lets say you have a perspective client with a larger property and they want the main part of the lawn mowed weekly and the outlying areas mowed every other week.; Your first shape will have the default label of Shape 1.; Simply snap off the weekly mowing area and click on Shape 1 to rename it whatever you would like.; In this case, weekly mow may be a great label anyone would understand.; Then, repeat this for Shape 2 and so on as needed.
The Best Option To Measure Your Lawn Area
Please take 5 minutes to get the app below, it might just save you from a costly mistake on measuring.
If you have an iPhone under utilities is a measure app that can be used to calculate distance or a great app that we use is:
This app simply walks you around your yard as you click on points and gives you a total square footage. Ive used it hundreds of time with almost perfect measurements.
After you have your measurements, visit the link below to get an instant price on your sod or an installation estimate:
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How To Calculate Square Footage
Square footage is area expressed in square feet. Likewise, square yardage is area expressed in square yards.; Square meters is also a common measure of area.
Assume you have a rectangular area such as a room and, for example, you want to calculate the square footage area for flooring or carpet.
The way to calculate a rectangular area is by measuring the length and width of your area then multiplying those two numbers together to get the area in feet squared . If you have on oddly shaped area, such as an L-shape, split it into square or rectanglualar sections and treat them as two separate areas. Calculate the area of each section then add them together for your total. If your measurements are in different units, say feet and inches, you can first convert those values to feet, then multiply them together to get the square footage of the area.
Apply The Square Footage Formula
The next step in;how to calculate square footage;is to plug your measurements into the square footage formula: L x W = A;.
To find square feet, multiply the length measurement in feet by the width measurement in feet. This yields a product called the area, which is expressed in square feet .;
For example, if you are buying carpet for a room that is 12-feet long and 10-feet wide, multiply the two dimensions:;
- 12 ft. x 10 ft. = 120 sq. ft.;
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Know Your Lawn Size Lawn Size Calculator
Knowing how much grass youve got to mow is key to finding out which Ambrogio robotic lawnmowers may be suitable for you garden. Use our lawn size calculator to find out your lawn area and perimeter length.
Working it out couldnt be any easier:
Lawn area, perimeter length and recommended models are displayed below the map.;;
Remember you only need to measure your lawn, borders, ponds, patios etc can all be excluded.
Note: This tool is only a guide to help you establish what model or installation kit you may need for your lawn. Other factors like slopes and layout may also affect which model is most suitable. For more information take a look at the full model range, get in touch or talk to your local Ambrogio dealer.
Measuring A Lawn Using Your Phone
As the well-worn saying goes, theres an app for that. Similar to Google Maps, these will calculate the area for you so you dont have to. Simply download your chosen app . From there, depending on the app you choose, you can either stride out the distance with the device in your hand, or mark it out on a map, similar to the Google Maps method .
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Measuring A Lawn With A Measuring Wheel
If using a wheel, make sure you zero it first (which means making sure the small dial on the top reads 0000;before you start. This will ensure an accurate reading. Many of these click every time you wheel a metre, but the dial will show you how far youve walked. Remember to always walk in straight lines, and also to zero the top of the wheel before taking each reading.
How To Do The Calculation Properly
In order for you to define the right amount of synthetic turf needed for your project, you should first calculate your lawns square footage. To get the square footage, simply multiply the height by the width of the area to be covered in your project.
If your lawn isnt a perfect square or rectangle, be sure to measure the widest area of the lawn as well as the longest part in order to ensure that you will get enough products to completely cover your lawn. In terms of your golf turf rolls, keep in mind that most of our products are 12 ft. wide instead of 15 ft. wide. To compute the entire cost of the artificial grass, just multiply the overall square footage of artificial turf required by the price per square foot.
For example, a 600sq. ft. the lawn will cost $1,386.00 at $2.31 per square foot. . If you need any questions or help to measure your lawns square footage, you may contact Synthetic Lawns, the leading turf supplier in Sydney and surrounding areas.;
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Factor In Overhead And Equipment
Once youve got labor sorted, its time to add the cost of general supplies and overhead.
Overhead can include phone bills, office space, internet, vehicle payments, and gas. But, one of the most overlooked costs is maintenance and equipment.
Equipment should be factored into each job as an expense. Its expensive to purchase and maintain equipmenteven a basic mower needs its engine repaired, spark plug replaced, and oil changed. If you have more expensive equipment, then costing this into your price is critical.
Edward explains, the fact is that equipment has to drive revenue. It could cost you $20,000 to buy, and thats $20,000 to replace down the line, plus maintenance. We include all this in our final price.
So, how do you cost that into your lawn care pricing?
Edward explains, I think of it this way: I need to be making $100 an hour to use expensive equipment to make it worthwhile for commercial and residential work.
Youll want to buy something new again eventually, he says, so you do need enough profit to do thatmaybe its a couple dollars a job over the course of a year. Maybe its a percentage of all jobs, or the jobs you use that equipment on. The rule of thumb for me is that I charge two times the hourly rate of labor just to have the equipment on the site.
Pro tip: some professionals tack on an additional 15%-20% on top of their estimate to account for overhead costs.
Determining The Size Of Area
Step 1: Inspect the Area
The first piece of information you need to know is the shape and dimensions of your lawn, particularly the width and length. You will want to measure and multiply the area length times the width in feet until the square footage is 1,000 sq. ft. and mark off this area with the help of a marking tool like washable paint or objects to distinguish the treatment areas border line.;
Step 2: Convert Measurements
If your yard is rectangular or square, measure the length and width then multiply together . For example, if your yard has a length of 10 feet and width of 8 feet, you would multiply 10 by 8 to get 80 square feet.
Be aware for triangle shaped lawns, you will measure the length and width, multiply together, then divide by two .
If your lawn is a not a perfect rectangle, break the lawn into different sections to measure more easily, then add measurements together to get the area’s total square footage.
For treatment areas with flowerbeds and other obstructions in the yard you will measure the square footage of the object and subtract from your yards total square footage.
Example, you have a property that is 12,000 sq. ft. and in the middle you have a landscape bed with a length of 3 feet and width of 2 feet. You will multiply 3 by 2 to get 6 feet, then subtract from your yard total.
- 3 ft. X 2 ft. = 6 sq. ft.;
- 12,000 sq. ft. – 6 sq. ft. = 11,994 sq. ft.;
Therefore, you will treat an area with 11,994 sq. ft.;
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Measuring The Area Of A Home Lawn
Factsheet | HGIC 1220 | Feb 28, 2018 |
One of the most crucial steps any homeowner can take to properly manage their lawn is to measure its area. The proper application of fertilizer, lime and pesticides is based on knowing how much is needed per unit of area. If you dont know the size of your lawn it is very difficult to properly apply fertilizers and pesticides. This can lead to severe damage to the lawn and environment, not to mention the monetary loss by applying too much of an expensive product, or the loss of turfgrass due to the ineffectiveness of the application of too little of a product. It takes years of experience and a lot of luck to accurately guess the number of square feet in a given area.
The following is a short guide to accurately estimating the square footage of home lawns. First, make a sketch of your lawn. After measuring the area of your home lawn, make a more detailed sketch of each area and write down the square footage to keep for your records. It is quite easy to forget how many square feet are in different areas after a few months.
Sizes Of Sod Rolls & Slabs
Sod comes in pre-cut rectangles that are rolled up and stacked on pallets. The size of the rectangle depends on what type of machine the grower used to harvest it.
The rectangles can range from 16 to 24 wide for rolls and up to 4 wide for slabs. Lengths vary as well and can range from 3½ to 6 long.
Regardless of rectangle size, a typical pallet will contain enough sod to cover about 450 sq. ft. or 50 sq. yards. If your turf supplier uses non-standard sizes, they will be able to give the coverage of a roll or slab in square feet.
Follow the example above to calculate the number of rolls by dividing the total square footage by the square feet per roll.
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