Charging for plantings

[STLPONDS]

How do you guys charge for plantings? Double the price of the plant, or based on T&M?

[mckeeland]

every thing is always based on costs. how can you double a a Japanese maple at $300+ that only takes 15 min to install and then double a 2.5-3" maple that cost $115 and could take close to an hour to plant by hand in pour soil.

take your total costs, add overhead and profit and you have your price.

[STLPONDS]

every thing is always based on costs. how can you double a a Japanese maple at $300+ that only takes 15 min to install and then double a 2.5-3" maple that cost $115 and could take close to an hour to plant by hand in pour soil.

take your total costs, add overhead and profit and you have your price.

I charge based on my overhead etc.

I was talking with another contractor this morning about planting and he charges 125% markup and does well. I was curious to see if this method is used very often. This question has variables also..... I pay half of what you pay for your Jap Maple.

[mckeeland]

i have paid half of that price too, but i paid $300 also. if depends on the size of the tree. jap maples just like every tree come in multiple sizes and prices.

the doubling materials price method is flawed and will get you burned on a job. some guys like to live by win some loose some and that's fine. i prefer to know what my costs are and how much i going to make. in all honesty its a lazy way of estimating.

[dclandscaping]

I sell the plants at retail (my cost is roughly half) and the installation charge depends on the common factors such as site access, hand digging/auger.

Fortunatly with a 30" auger on the dingo not too many places are a problem.

On a job I just landed, the plants/trees were quoted at $2351 and actual cost is $1150. I added 1.5 days of labour to the job for the planting plus company overhead.

[JZap]

I worked for another nursery that priced all installs at 100% of retail prices. I agree with Jason that this isn't the best method, bt it worked for him b/c he was a grower. If a Jap. Maple is $300 retail it might be $200 wholesale. He charged $600 to install with a one-year warranty. I guess his idea was that if he needed to replace it he covered his costs. I don't recommend estimating this way, but at the same time. If it only takes 15 minutes to install... it's still an hour labor in my book.

[Andrew Hardscape]

Planting is based on time and materials. Then I mark up plants solely for warranty purposes. Plant mark up may be 15% or it could be 100%. The percentage is based on the likelyhood of dying during warranty period.

For example, I started this company out of high school. To this day we have never had to replace ANY Oaks or Maples. So.....Oaks and Maples will only get a 50% mark up. We have replaced hundreds of Azaleas, Leylands, and Nandinas. So those plants get a 100% mark up.

My method is VERY different than most others. It works for me. And thats how I do it :)

[JZap]

This brings up another point. If you warranty your material... you really have to have a clause in your contract "provided the customer gives appropriate care" include watering instructions etc. This helps cut down on loses. It's not to stick it to the customer, but I can tell you last year we replaced less than 1% of all the installed plant material. It's important to have the understanding from installation that it their responsibility to take care of the materials. Then you have cases (we had 2 last year) where a customer calls me up and says she had some dead shrubs... 25! almost 50% of what we installed. She asked us to rush and install in July, then went on vacation for 2 weeks without having anyone water. Who's to blame there? She knew it was a long shot to have them replaced. We ended up replcaing the shrubs, but charging for labor to meet her half-way. I checked the shrubs a week later too.

[mckeeland]

here is our jargon.

Guarantee period for B & B trees is 1year and 90days for potted plants. In all cases with living things, owner must notify landscape contractor within twenty-four hours of noticing a problem. Allowing plants, lawns, ECT. to die or reach an advanced state of decline before notifying landscape contractor automatically and without recourse voids all guarantees on that portion of the project. In no case shall landscape contractor honor any guarantee when evidence of abuse, gophers, insects or other damage, misuse, improper care, poor soil or drainage conditions, or any other and will be effective only if the owner has complied with all the terms and conditions, payments, and other provisions of the contract.
In the case of lawns, plants, and other living things, no guarantee of survival, vigor, ultimate size or appearance, or suitability to site conditions is made. Plants that die will be replaced one time at no expense to owner, provided owner’s responsibilities for care and notification are fully met. Seeded lawns are not guaranteed to germinate and grow, as success of a seeded lawn is chiefly determined by the watering and care given by owner and is beyond the control of the contractor. Sod lawns are guaranteed for fourteen days against infestation of pests and diseases; otherwise no guarantee is made, because watering and care are beyond the control of the landscape contractor.