This is what it looks like when a mowing quote turns into a brush clearing job.
Q: What equipment did you use?
A: TORO BRC-28 brushcutter, TORO 60" HDX2000 mower, HART 40 V string trimmer (did a lot better than I thought, just chewed through TONS of string), and STIHL BR800 blower.
Q: How much did you bid?/How much did you make?
A: I quoted this job sight unseen and gave a ballpark of $60 to $125 depending on the condition.
Thank goodness I had a gut feeling to bring the TORO BRC-28 brush cutter just in case, because it was WAY overgrown. Not just with tall grass, but thick, heavy brush as well that my finish mower would have had a hard time knocking down. So in the end I got $125 for this job.
If you are trying to nail down pricing, this is an example of UNDERBIDDING.
The property was ~15 minutes away, so that is 30 minutes of drive time that needs to be paid for. I arrived right around 9am and left around 12pm, BUT you also have to account that I was making a YouTube video, which easily consumed 45 minutes of time (before and after shots on the gopro, before and after shots on the drone, setting up shots, walking from where the camera is set up back to the equipment, starting up again, stopping, swapping batteries and SD cards, etc). Then there is also non-work time that most everyone would have to account for, a few 5 minute water breaks, calling the client at the end of the job, 5 minutes of chit chat with the owner's son on site, etc.
So all told I invested around 4 hours into this job. At $125, that is ~$30 an hour, which is way too low for this kind of work. I don't mind because I make up money on YouTube if a video performs well, and I also was able to get my foot in the door with this client, who has a beautiful (if neglected) piece of property and I hope to make more video projects on it with current AND future equipment.
Q: Why did it look like the brush cutter was getting stuck?
A: The base of these brush clumps I am mowing are like giant, woody pincushions. They jab and stick and poke and sometimes bind the mower from moving.
Q: You would have been better off using equipment ABC or XYZ instead of that TORO.
A: Maybe, but the manufacturers of ABC didn't send me a piece of equipment to abuse and test, TORO did, so that is what I am using. Feel free to forward my information along to your manufacturer of choice! :D
Q: You didn't pull the plants off the corner of the house.
A: You are 100% right. Plants growing into vinyl siding will get you in trouble MOST of the time. You go ripping and pulling and next thing you know you are ripping half the house off. Better to just tell the homeowner that is something you can't handle for liability.
Q: What is the deal with this property?
A: 30 BEAUTIFUL acres in the middle of nowhere. This place made me jealous. The previous owners let it go terribly, the new owner called me after finding me via google. I told the new owner I would LOVE to bid any future projects he might have at basically just covering my fuel costs in exchange for allowing me to film, because this place is a gold mine of projects that will really showcase the equipment I have and some new equipment I am hoping to get January/February. Nothing is written in stone there so probably no updates on it until I actually have it.
0:00 Chevy 2500 cold start and ME cold start!
0:31 Rolling coal with a brush cutter
1:00 Hitting the road
1:32 The project at hand
4:08 TORO BRC28 brush cutter mowing
5:28 Don't judge me, this is my first real job with this machine that involves brush
8:25 How to mow a septic mound
8:52 Thumbnail
9:59 How to use a brush hog
10:55 I probably got bedbugs
12:42 The TORO barely felt this...
13:06 Cleaning up already down brush is not a rotary cutter's strength
13:40 Less grass over here but the terrain was much worse
14:10 This is how close I came to losing this entire video
15:50 How to clear overgrown property
16:50 What is a septic mound?
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Copper Creek Cuts is a lawn care and landscaping business in Florida with a goal to entertain and educate.
Contact me: coppercreekcuts@gmail.com
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