How WE Price SNOW REMOVAL! *100% TRANSPARENT PRICING*
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2023
- Today, we're sharing exactly how we price our snow removal services. This includes snow plowing, sidewalk shoveling, bulk salt, and ice melt.
This conversation is based on two important factors: a 1-acre site with 100 linear feet of sidewalk and 45" of average annual snowfall.
A quick note: if you bid on larger sites with more than one acre or more than 100' of sidewalk, adjust your prices accordingly! If our base scrape is $245 an acre, and you have a two-acre site, your price would be $490, and so on and so forth.
Hope these numbers help with what we are charging and getting here in SE Michigan! Love to hear what you guys are getting for all of the above!
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Hope these prices help you guys with bidding your snow!
Man I can’t imagine how dumb I would be without the internet.
Thank you, and thank God.
So that's your rate from 1" to 3". How much does it go up from 4" to 6" then? 6" to 8"? Thanks Brian. 😊
So I used your formula and I'm getting weird #'s I'm from the east coast. We get on average (last 5 years) 98.9" (November to March) @ 19.4" per event which comes out to 5. 09 events per year. Seems low. Am I missing something?
@@yardsaway1also what if it's a "state of emergency" I'm guess price goes up?
Thank you bro this really help🎉🎉
In Denver we charge $155HR for Plowing, $115 HR ATV, $65HR Shovel, $49 Per 50LB BaG OF Ice Melt.
Run 5 Trucks, 2 ATVs, 12 Shovelers, Normally 100 - Bags of Ice Melt per event.
Normally Average billing $20K per event.
My true cost per event with no overhead is $4K.
We run for about 12Hrs - 16Hrs per 4"-6" snow.
I feel you want to have at least 50%-60% Gross Profit Margin (Prefer 75%), if you even want to attempt to get into commercial plowing.
Brian’s lawn maintenance included snow removal, talk about a company that can do it all! Love it!
It’s kind of a nobrainer though. If your running equipment in the winter, what are you going to do when the snow stops flying. Where are your employees going to go if you’re running more properties than you personally could handle and you have employees.
Well you’re going to move right into lawn care because if you mow the snow in the winter, you mow the grass in the summer. Along with that goes sprinklers, landscaping, aeration, if you have the skills and the equipment to handle it.
Many landscaping companies are the only go to for snow removal.
And yes you are right, Brian’s Lawn Maintenance is pretty rad from what I can tell. Got to love this treasure trove of a video.
Thanks for the info on snow removal, definitely a fan of upfront pricing.
This is great information we just had to renew contracts and did almost the same thing to break down our pricing. Thanks Brian💪🏽
Thank you brian this is the information we need🙏🏼
My pleasure!
Very well thought out pricing structure, to me this stuff is gold. Sent 2 commercials quotes out today using this method, I'm in MA so I used cost of living difference to estimate my base rate based off the $245, , need to figure out my personal hourly recovery but I think I'm close. The proposal documents are excellent as well, no brainer for me to buy it. I did a hybrid with some of my own verbiage, it's a solid plan I have in place, I was floundering a bit before I came across this content, I had 2 bigger commercial bids to put together and this put the puzzle pieces together for me Thank you Brian
Glad to hear that brother!
Thank you for the information. Appreciate you 🙏🏼
Great Video Brian! This really helped me a lot with getting my contracts together.
Perfect!
Great info Brian. Looking at getting my 1st plow truck up here in Central mn.
I wish we as a profession would get together on prices. This is great. Would be great if you did one for leaves and fall clean ups
Collusion 😂
Sure thing brother let me see what I can do
Try getting normal folks who never had any snow removal other than a kid down the street shoveling for 20 bucks to pay anything more than $40
price fixing this would count as then... (a few laws to look into)
Industry standards is not breaking the law or communism. Ever call an electrician plumber glazier. They have industry standards. Their prices are not the exact same but are relatively close. If using a loose industry standard your business may be higher or lower depending on the services you include and the client needs. I’m so glad you guys are accepting of this happening in every other business or service just not for lawncare
Brian, I do residential snow removal. Mainly my mowing customers. The last 2 years I have found that the Stihl 800 backpack blower has been a great way to clear snow. When the snow is not super heavy the blower can clean up the snow without any issues. And even if it is somewhat heavy the blower does wonders. It might take a few extra minutes but the amount of pain it saves you is worth it.
Also, Blake from B & B did a video on using a blower on snow.
Love that idea!
Yea a lot of times in central pa we have used back back blower. It works great and fast and easy.
Some residential folks absolutely hate leaf blowers outside their house at 3am
I’m still sleeping at 3am
My company only does residential snow removal, meaning that I only do my lawn care customers. The past couple of winters here in Central Illinois I only had to use my backpack blowers to clear driveways and sidewalks. My rate is $45.00 for a single driveway and sidewalk/entrance walkway.
My head is spinning from all these numbers! 😵💫
Great breakdown!
Appreciate it!
should do a video like this one for residential.
Thank you sir god bless
Love all the information! How do you price roads? I have my first bid request for a residential dead-end road thats half a mile long.
Great video. 24 properties x $12,450 is a nice chunk of 💰. Granted not all do salt and sidewalks. Very informative. Thank you
Amen! Not all are "home run" sites like this example, but a half dozen core sites are and another 15-18 are a variety of the above. That plus residential guarantees a decent pay day.
For the industry.
Great info for those in the business.
I moved to FL after we got 157" total yr. in Indian River, MI
Of course, I had to hand shovel it all...🤣
Lol that’s wild!
Good video, wouldn't mind seeing on on residentials too
Will do mate!
@@BriansLawnMaintenance thanks you're the best brian
Residential video would be great. I second that as well.
Would also love to see a residential snow pricing video!
Best explanation I've seen and the closet to what I've come up on my own but I couldn't explain it haha my numbers are exactly this method and very close
I do have 1 question when you have per push
3-6" for an acre say 300. For the 1st 2 clearing.
? What's the next 2 push clearing for price? Same rate or half rate? So $300 next clearing $______?
then final clearing push $_______? Thx much!!!
Here in North Dakota I got started in snow removal last winter and then lawns this summer. Anyways I learned a lot from last winter doing just one flat rate and learned the hard way and now going into this winter I have two price points based on snowfall based on under 12” and over 12” per day. And my pricing includes clean sidewalk, mailbox of on the boulevard, fire hydrant if if front of the persons home, and clean up to the front door. And I hate to give my pricing out publicly and it’s also based on size of the driveway. So Brian if you would like to and ever have time shoot me a message and I’d like to give you my pricing to see if I am in the ball park or if I am still selling myself short. Thanks and I take most of your advice and Kieth I think his name is advice this summer from the videos and it’s been helpful.
That's awesome brother. Keep it going!
In Wyoming we do 300 pre 3”
So that’s for 15 snow events at 1.5-3 inch. What happens if you have 14 events at 1.5-3 and one event away 5 niches, you charge the additional amount of what a 3.1-6 would be on top of the seasonal? Great information btw!!
Planning on charging $115/hr this season, $70 minimum per push. First year in plowing business so hopefully all goes well.
That’s great. I’d personally try to get your hourly rate to $150-200+ or even by the job instead, but you’re headed in the right direction.
Hey man Redmax is coming out with a new redmax ebz 9000 backpack blower next year and I hope they have a at equip expo this year because I’m thinking about getting one next year when it comes out
Thanks Zach!@@zackeryarnett9454
When you say 150-200 per hour is that your rate to sub out to another company?
I currently sub for a company and have often wondered if I’m getting paid enough. What do y’all charge to work as a sub?
Salt is my $$$ maker. $1 per lb. Never had an account bat and eye at it.
I would love to get into doing more snow. So many commercial business owners have asked me to do their plowing. The problem is insurance, they are quoting $20000 to start and 32% of revenue as you make more.
Screw that I’d shop around for ins
Nice video, you made it easier for me to figured out pricing. I'm in Washington by the way,
how much do you think is good price for residential plowing, base of the average driveway ?
$1250 for 1k sqft!
So if im doing the math correctly; If your basing your $245 price on 1 acre of plow surface, that would equate to $0.0056/ sq. ft. So for a smaller lot, i.e. 6,500 sq. ft., would equate to roughly $36.00/push. Do you have an equation / calculation you use for smaller lots under 1 acre? Thanks!
I need a the most effective way to do snow removal for residential properties. Plow truck or toro multi force?
Do a fall cleanups video!
Can do!
Yes. Agree !!! Fall cleanups video would be great.
@@BriansLawnMaintenanceyes please!
Wow I need to get a salter
I like 5 or 5.5 or 6 monthly payments. If it’s a customer that entertains spring and fall cleanups and spring mulch work will bill them 5 months because they’re giving us other business to fill our bucket. Snow is scary when the winters are lean if you’re on a per push and per app basis. Also annoying when you lose money in Nov, Mar, April on those contracts and you don’t complain to anybody but the min the customer gets January’s bill that has 7 pushes and 19 salts you get accused of service stealing or being greedy. Hate hate hate per push per app. I think all snow should be billed out like insurance coverage is billed to us.
Are you considering a waiver deviation for salting only some days? Your insurance will not cover if you did not salt
Can you do a residential pricing video? Located in central mn and I’m trying to figure things out for my first year
Sure
What about residential plowing? How do you charge for that?
Can you do a video on tips on how to not tear up lawns on residential plowing when your pushing snow on the lawn
I can try yep. Just tap up twice as you go over the curb or grass and it’ll ride up so it doesn’t shear off the grass.
@@BriansLawnMaintenance thanks yes I’m snow clearing for my second year this year and sometimes i accidentally tear up the sods so I’m trying to avoid that
After watching this for the second time through mostly because I was painting my trailer the first time, I love the concept of your pricing business model.
I appreciate all the information but I’m kind of stumped with the average situation because just like some of the other Midwest states and north east areas last winter was a doozy.
I live out in Utah, and we saw one of the craziest winters ever, I remember shoveling snow late into early April. And not just a little bit of snow a lot we had some 20 to 30 inch dumps.
So with that said, and considering the infrequency of Weather over the past three years, how do you leave an ample buffer and how do you approach making bids for upcoming commercial contracts?
This answer could be simply do it off of the 20 year average and everything after that is per push. I’m just not sure if the billing and pricing here in Utah is similar to the formula that you are using so I’m gonna have to do a little bit of research.
Ultimately, I am not set up for a commercial operation though I have made a connection with a homeowners association small private community with approximately 40 houses in a circle and I did driveways last year and made great connections see a potential to utilize that network in and cultivate a business relationship.
I am opening up a handyman business, and my concept is to dedicate my resources to this one neighborhood and general area because it’s isolated and In need of people to do some work for this area.
Like fixing many different things paint drywall small electric work outside landscaping but I have a bug inside me that loves snow by the feet and I enjoy clearing it. I actually like being out in the snow so if it’s one of those things that I could still do I’m gonna be moving snow for a while.
Thanks again Brian for the videos, and sharing your knowledge.
Hey man, you bet! Easy, if it’s per push, you’re covered bc it’s a la carte. If it’s prepay, ours is only covering through 45”. After that, it reverts back to per push pricing.
That being said, if you do a seasonal prepay for commercial with a flat rate monthly, just have the 10 year seasonal average as your cut off.
I’ve been asked for seasonal pricing. Which I would oblige only under a 3 year contract. My problem with seasonal pricing is AVG’s are great. Every season someone gets screwed one way or the other. So a 3 year contract a snowy year and a mild year can avg out. Just my opinion anyways
Great video. I just had 1 question unless I missed it in the video. What size lot are you charging almost 13k? Is this half acre? Full acre?
That’s a 1 acre site on average yessir.
Hi Brian, I really enjoy watching all your videos. I own a sprinklers company and I’m trying to get into the snow removal business. My question is, How do you pay your guys during the snow removal season since it doesn’t always snow? Thanks
Thanks man! We keep our guys salaried through the year.
Can you make a video on how to pay employees throughout the year? Like a breakdown on the salary every it’s doesn’t snow a lot. Thank in advanced
Excellent video! Just to make sure I understand the $245 for plowing is only up to 3 inches in this example. So say you get an 8 inch event it would be $345 multiplied by the 15 visits for a $5175 plowing total for that winter?
An 8” event would fall under our 6.1-10” tier. So that would be $550 I believe on our contact, I’d have to look. Or, depending how you did the scrape, maybe two visits, a 1.5-3” charge and another 3.1-5” charge, if that makes sense.
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Thanks, that makes sense now
Is 135.00 a per to low if your driving an hour to get to the site?
@@MrSaltycity801yes
I run all my properties on flat rate monthly, due to the increase in warmer weather and ice issues up here in canada, im separating out my ice melt and salt this year because its very difficult to price the last 2 years, i am out on average 15 times and during december and january, been out to as much as 26 times and again about 15 times min in february and march.
Where are you based out of in Canada ?
Alberta@@citizenxxxx
Any thoughts on hourly rates for Northern Virginia snow plowing and salting?
I don't have anything for that market, but I wouldn't deviate much from what we suggested here.
Up front black and white pricing!!
Hey Brian, love the videos, I will be starting residential snow removal this year, what is the rate you charge for residential and what does it include? I am in Colorado and I can't seem to find pricing anywhere online for my area. I don't want to rip people off, but also don't want to leave money on the table, was thinking of charging $55 without deicing, and $75 with deicing. If you can let me know if I should adjust or not, that would be very helpful, Thank you!
$925 for a 1k sqft driveway here and that’s for 45” of snow coverage including the walks.
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Thank you so much!
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Forgot to ask, does your price include de-icing/salting as well?
I'm a little over the halfway point in the video and maybe I missed it And maybe you'll mention it, I'm just curious what you're plowing in bulk salt rates are for in terms of square footage of total area. I live in Northern Maine we get anywhere between 160 and 200 inches of snow per winter. I will convert your pricing put it in comparison to mine on my end but I'm just curious of that.
$240-$260 ton applied. And a ton of salt covers an acre, but the math is actually 800lbs of salt to an acre if you're trying to sharpen the pencil on your prices to be a little more competitive.
Maybe I heard wrong but what size of parking lot is it that you charge $240 for a base price?
One acre plowable site
This will be my first year doing snow removal here in Missouri, what is the difference between salt and ice melt? I'm assuming salt for parking lots and ice melt for walkways? Also say you magically don't get any snow, are you still going to get paid and how? Thanks!
Bulk salt is for parking lots and road ways. Ice melt is calcium chloride and a special blend of chemicals that doesn’t destroy sidewalk concrete or drives.
Can you please make a video of every Booth at Equip Exposition This Year?
I'll film as much as I can :)
@@BriansLawnMaintenanceOkay Awesome!
Hey Brian.... great video. What is the lot size for the base plow cost of $245?
1 acre my friend
@@BriansLawnMaintenance thank you
Without knowing the average size of the lot that you used for the example I can't tell you if it's high low or good.
These numbers are based off a 1 acre site.
Need advice on the type of plow to get. It’s mainly for my own driveway. My driveway is 300’ gravel. I might pick up a customer or two in the future. Should I get a trip edge or full trip? I am going with a Boss plow BTW. Any input would be appreciated.
Boss VXT minimum, I’d get a DXT if you want the nicer option. Gravel driveway is rough. Just being honest. Snow shoes are a scam, don’t get them. You’ll have to plow 1.5” off the ground to not destroy the gravel drive until it’s frozen solid. Just a quick tip there.
Another question. I have a 22 f250. I wired the truck side harness the other day and everything works as it should but I hear what seems like a humming relay when I switch the plow lights on. It happens even when the plow isn’t attached. I had it wired through the up fitter and I tried it through the boss rocker switch. It only makes the noise when the truck is running. No noise with just ignition on. Any of you newer super duty guys run into this?
What cameras do you use? If you have time to get to this question thanks in advance!
Canon r6 and GoPros!
Hey Brian, I just started my lawn care business a couple months ago and I’m about to get a plow , just wanted to make sure I’m not leaving a lot of money on the table, are you charging for a plowable acre or an acre property?
Awesome pal! To answer your question, a plow-able acre.
Thanks Brian! You’re channel is great and really helpful btw
Do you do 245 for any size lot what about residential how much do you do per push or did in the past
1 acre site. Residential we're at $1,250 for unlimited coverage, drive and walks, for a subdivision home
Everytime it snows I make around 2 grand 80$ per house some are little more have 20 accounts and a gas station I pay my buddy 150$ for the day helping me no employees no taxes all cash envelopes -80$ for gas for 2 trucks and plows snowblowers
How does the size of the lot affect the pricing?
For every extra acre we discount it around 10%. To be fair, our company doesn’t focus on any lots larger than 3-4 acres.
Nice , we do
-plow driver fee per job /hourly plow price
spreader fee for the salt boxes. Plus salt per lb
Hand labor price per hr / sidewalk salt lb
Maybe it’s different over in Detroit but here in Grand Rapids they’re predicting a warm winter so maybe no snow this year
Everything I’ve heard has said the opposite!
Same in Chicago. Just bought a $7k plow man im literally prayin it snow
What’s the size of the lot that you are basing your numbers off of?
1 acre
Any word if there is a salt shortage this year or not?
That would be a convo with your local supplier, everyone's source is different. I haven't heard much yet!
Where are you guys getting bulk salt? I'm in Washington
Find your local SiteOne or salt supplier, a quick google will come up with something!
Thanks. I'm just starting out lol and went from 1 to 10 in like a week.
We just do residential
Is 135.00 a push to low if your driving an hour plus paying someone to run your plow?
Ive seen most employees make $25-$35 an hour to drive YOUR truck. To hire out their truck and rig, anywhere from $90-$150/hour seems average.
I’m assuming these numbers are commercial only prices?
Same numbers commercial, churches, strip malls. Anything non residential basically.
What happens if annually snow is 45 inches and you do the contract but this season was a fluke and only get 20 inches what happens then ?
Then it goes your way this season. You're paying to keep $50k-$100k worth of equipment available and not take a vacation for 4 months. Costs money for them to be on the list, regardless of how little it snows. ;)
What day you going to equip expo? I want a picture with you
I'll be there all week my friend.
I know this was 3 months ago but what is a proper pricing for residential?
$925-$1,250 for us for 45” of coverage including sidewalks
What's a "plow event?" Is that the event of snow that falls on any given day/week/month? Is distance calculated in that? I mean if you have a small business parking lot versus a huge condominium complex, the expense difference is going to be significant.
A plowable event. This isn’t rocket science mate. A plow run.
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Just trying to get specifics to help be more precise. "Plow event" could mean each pass you do with the plow. Could mean each time it snows. Could mean each time you plow (I assume this one), and if it's the latter, how do you calculate for area? e.g. small lots versus big lots?
How arw you getting you walk price at $45. Some walks are long some are wide.
Just a standard rate, nothing fancy. Could always dial it down if you want to sharpen the pencil, yessir.
What size lot is this example for?
1 acre site
I never understood not putting any salt or deicer down after shoveling or plowing. I've made the mistake of letting the customer do it themselves more than a few times they call me because they ran out of salt or deicer and now the entire driveway is a block of ice they think my snow plow simply break it up. If the customer does not agree to deicer or salt after service I don't take a job anymore too much headache for cheap clients
I hear you loud and clear, and totally agree.
Those numbers would be financial suicide in our area. Our lowest full service seasonal rate is roughly $20k for 1 acre or less with sidewalks. Lowest per push we take on is $465 (inches dont matter on the small ones), $330/salt, $220/sidewalk, min $50 for sidewalk icemelt.
Where are you located? I'm Eastern Pa and I was thinking similar
Awesome! What market?
Where are you located? And you’re getting $465 an acre per push?
I do retainer contracts money up front non refundable after each event I send invoices until retainer is gone then per hour
How does this work? Do you come up with the number by inch?
@@CerretaniOutdoorsLLC I do it by the size of the lot I strictly do commercial no residential
@@landscapingmaintenancesnow4675 same here my man
I got almost quarter million Sq ft at one of my sites
Sidewalks, parking lots, both needing salt
@@landscapingmaintenancesnow4675 u got a number I can reach out?
You get $245 to plow a residential driveway each event?
I am not sure how you got that from this video? This video is 100% about commercial parking lots.
I’m sorry I missed that.
Everyone that works for a living thinks their wages should be higher!
3” of snow is how much? For like a 60 foot long driveway and 15’ of sidewalk without salt?
$245 is based of what it cost for you to come out there or where is the $245 coming from?
We mentioned that in the video. Our SOR system recoups overhead with the labor hours and production we run through winter. We figured this out with our Know Your Numbers calculator.
Why did you divide the total average of snow by 3? Is that the average snowfall event? You lost me there
Is this canadian
Any advertiser whose add annoys me when trying to watch a video, I will go out of my way not to use your products
Nice
Question: For snow removal if you had to use a skid steer... Would you buy a tracked or wheeled skid steer?
That I am not sure, I don’t run them much!