Raking Leaves?

ThunderChicken · #1 October 11th, 2003, 01:30 AM

Well, the ground is covered in leaves, and I have many houses close to mine (You know, those big houses with the huuuuuge front + back yards, covered in leaves) that need a good raking.

I'm etimating maybe 60-80 dollars CDN for em, but what about the smaller, mediocore houses. Approx. 6 feet by 5 feet front yard, maybe another 6 feet by 9 feet in the back yard..

I was thinking about going for $20.00 CDN money for those houses, raking front and back and bagging the leaves.

Is that too much? too little? What do you think of a nice price for these houses? (Maybe someone can think of a per square foot thing, remember, canadian funds)

lufbra · #2 October 11th, 2003, 02:08 AM

Something that may be worth thinking about, consider what the minimum wage per hour in your area is, then try figuring out how long each garden would take to do, then tack on a little more for wear and tear of clothes/tools used!!

Also, don't forget to declare everything to your local tax man!!

ThunderChicken · #3 October 11th, 2003, 02:19 AM

(8*2) + 4 = 20

I think it's 8 bucks an hour min wagee, a small house maybe 1 1/2 hours and then bagging, I'm supplying the bags, and I may need to buy a new rake everyonce in a while.. so I guess 20 for a small house, and 80 for a big one?

Seems good to me, 'cept no tax man is gonna get my money!!

Any other opinions?

lufbra · #4 October 11th, 2003, 02:44 AM

Let me ask this, are you talking about raking the leaves when they have all fallen, or to just tidy up untill the next lot fall?

Also, are the "big" house gardens, that much bigger than the "small" houses?

Where I live, I do our leaves in two sessions if ever possible, by the time it's done, I've filled 30 biodegradable (brown) bags, the 30 gallon sized ones!

ThunderChicken · #5 October 11th, 2003, 04:45 AM

Well, I've had atleast 3 days of heavy falling and 2 weeks of casual falling..

Enough to fill my yard. Raked the backyard and where the car goes, Filled 10 bags already and I'm not even half done..

I hid in the pile, and scared my sister.. It was funny

Anyway, the big house yards, let me put it this way..
4 of my back yards could fit in their front yard in square feet, estimated.. They're big! (Perhaps I can do one of em digital cam pics, or use my mad paint skills to show you what I mean..)

I went down the residential street next to mine (maybe 2 trees each yard, and then all the other trees on the boulevard..) and made a list of estimated funds from each house, anging from 10-25 so far. I jotted down both sides of one block, and I'm at 405 dollars. However, if they don't want me to rake, or if they don't want to pay (if 15, maybe 10, if 20, maybe 15 etc.) then I got effectively 4 blocks worth of rich houses, plus the big 3-4 story house street may as well be football field yard houses.

Only problem, I have no money, and I'm out of bags, so I gota bum money of my mom and pay her back, so I'm gonna get some more bags tomorrow.

BTW: If they don't want the bags (my employers) I'm gonna collect em into a big pile (already 20+ from my house), and either A) Dump em in a field, and ride my bike/wipe out into em (You gotta try it!), Or B) bring them to my ort of friends house and put em in his yard..

"I don't have any trees so you can't rake my yard." I'll show him

Either way, I got enough to bury myself already.

EDIT: Most of the leaves have already fallen, but a few more may come, and it'll likely be half price or so to finish up later.

ThunderChicken · #6 October 12th, 2003, 04:45 AM

Day one:

I start at my street, and go 3 blocks one way, and back on the other side. "I'll do it myself", "Already have someone", or "No thanks" were the most common responses. Other times I was greeted by 3 or 4 loud dogs.

I go down the next street, 3 blocks then another block the other way. One guy says he'll give me 40 bucks to do his front yard (about the size of 2 normal houses yards and it's the corner including boulevard) but I gotta do it tomorrow at 9 am or so.

I go down the street somemore and and do another 3 blocks before heading home, disappointed. There was even a yard an inch thick of leaves with 2 handicap people living there and wouldn't let me do it :/

However, I have yet to try the rich people. I got high hopes for tomorrow, with my back pack filled with 60 big 121 L orange bags.. (big yards, 3 sotiry+ houses, estimated 80 dollars per house)

Pray to the leaf gods for me.

BTW: The good news is that I got 2 new employers for winter shoveling.