Litter Sweeping

[SLC1]

Litter Sweeping: I know that this isnt plow related but I need some advice and since it has to do with pavement. I figured that you guys would be the one to ask.

We have been in business for over 10 years and have a good commerical customer base. One of our customers has asked us to provide a price for sweeping a parking lot for them. It is a large lot about 30 acres of asphalt, we do the landscape and snow plowing, but we are at a loss how to price the litter sweeping. Job requires to sweep the lot:
Sweep all litter 7 days per week at night
Empty 25 trash cans 2 days per week
Handpick litter out of beds and lawns 1 day per week.

The prices that we have been coming up with seem to high. Wasa wondering if any of you guys do litter sweeping as a business, any tips or tricks to know how to price. Thankyou for your help.

www.schmidtlawncare.com

[cat320]

I would like to say I have heard $95 and hour for a sweeper .

[snowplowjay]

I know just the lady that you'll want to talk to:

Karen Shackles

http://www.whistlewhileyouwork.biz/


Shes a Member of SIMA and im 90% sure shes a member of our site here also.


She runs a Sweeping business in CO and I am sure she could give you some good advice.



Jay

[festerw]

If your cleaning you want a Tennant machine, all you need to figure out is how big of a machine you want. For emptying trash for 25 trash cans 1.5-2 hours depending on how far they are spaced apart as for hand picking, who knows that will vary depending on how much trash. If there are any sidewalks that have to be cleaned also a backpack blower will work great for that and may save some time for the hand picking islands and lawn, basically blow everything into the parking lot then sweep. Don't forget also there is a learning curve, you'll figure out better ways to do things. Our company did the 6,000 seat stadium in town, when we started it took ~60-70 man hours when we started by the end of the baseball season we had it down to ~45 man hours.

This one will do up to 200,000 SQ.FT an hour

http://www.tennantco.com/images/products/global/tennant/800.jpg

or this one but for one parking lot it's probably overkill.

http://www.tennantco.com/images/products/global/tennant/Centurion.jpg

[JCurtis]

Thirty acre parking lot, either a mall, or Large corporate office.


Have you considered getting a sweeping contractor to sub for you? Have you alos considerd that you most likely will have to do this on off hours? since the lot will be filled during the day and part of the evening.

The expense of a sweeper for one job the size you are saying may be quite a large chunk of change.

By nature, sweepers are a high maintenance piece of equipment, so buying a used one may bring its own set of problems.

Then what happens if the one sweeper you buy breaks down.

You also have to seriously consider transport and disposal of the debris. In some cases you may have to get DEP involved
( because of possible contaminaints in what you sweep up)

As much as I would love to get into the business, If It were my choice, I would hook up with a sweeping company, and sub it out to them. let them deal with the difficult issues, they quote you a price, you add a small profit markup and let them worry about the headaches, and you bill the customer.

[SLC1]

It is a Super Stop& Shop, Friday's Restaurant, Pepboys, Old Navy, Sears Hardware, and a bunch of other stores. The sweeping will have to be done either after 10pm or early in the morning. I know that going into but they want one contractor to do it all, and the way I figure it if we sub it out there goes all the profit, Sweeping must be done 7days per week, 365days per year, and you get paid everytime you go there, so that is kinda nice, The litter will be disposed in a dumpster on site that is supplied by us. The bid was already put in and we should know by next Wed. I will let you guys know if we get it.

www.schmidtlawncare.com

[urethane dino]

There is a 94 1 ton mounted sweeper in the truck trader this week for 5500.00. There was also a tow behind unit for $ 1000.00. Both looked to be in decent shape.
Dino

[cat320]

I think for all the places said you need a very mobile and fast machine that can be driven from site to site.