I had a customer ask if I would remove all this Ivy (it’s 1000 + sq/ft down to the dirt (plus the fence, potentially)). My work is primarily in cleaning services (exterior). I’ve done landscaping for a company before, but I’ve never been the one managing estimates, so this is new for me.
Any help is appreciated, thanks.
See included video.
by kainos_ktisis
27 Comments
40-60k. Good luck.
How much is it to rent a goat?
Thousands, I wouldn’t take that job unless I was goi f to be exceptionally well compensated. Also let them know it won’t be perfect because pieces of roots will inevitably by hidden somewhere and sprout again. It’s going to be ongoing maintenance for a while to completely get rid of it.
why would you pay to grow different weeds. it looks amazing
I guess it depends on what they mean by “removal”. I removed my english ivy over a couple years. Ivy is hard to remove completely on the first pass. It tries to come back. Maybe let them know that you will get the majority. Set their expectations that they will see new sprouts for a couple years. The good news is that once the ivy is gone after a couple years of managing new growth, it won’t come back. Unless it invades from the neighbors yard.
I think the real money is made on the return business because that crap will grow back for years.
As someone who just did this in my own yard, and still trying to pull up the runners, I’d estimate around a million dollars.
Be honest and tell them it’s out of your wheelhouse. Tell them you will try it for X / Hour ( I’d do $65/ hour for this) and see what they say. I bet that is a two day job, so probably closer to a grand then not.
I live how the estimates here range from $20 to $60,000
Even if you removed it, it would come back.
I’m sorry to say Ive never had luck with roundup and ivy… also you have plants in there.. so hand pulling it is… but more info are you planting something else in its place? Because if not your removing an excellent weed barrier
If I was asked to bid this it would be minimum of 2500 with little to no digging. Probably 6k to do our best to remove the roots as well knowing we won’t get them all.
Aww but the Ivy is so beautifull 🙁
I would just be sure to detail the exact work in the contract because there’s going to be a huge difference between removing the bulk of the ivy material vs eradicating it by digging up roots and coming back several times to chase down the new sprouts.
If I were you I would write the contract to very specifically say that you will be pulling ivy but you will not be able to remove roots that do not come up with the vines. Write that ivy will take multiple years of persistent maintenance to eradicate and may even require replacing all of that soil.
You’ll never remove it in one go. I would make that clear to the customer. It may take a seasons unless you want to nuke it with round up which may kill other stuff.
Charge by the hour or day. See how much they are willing to invest in removal.
It’s pretty. Why would you want to remove it? It’s also low care.
The only advice I can offer is whatever you decide to bid, add 25%.
All projects like or this are profit eating jobs.
As a landscape contractor for 20 years I am aware that English Ivy is difficult to eradicate entirely.
If we were doing it, I’d do it in stages,
1) spray it with weed killer (2x).
2) till the area, seriously rent a tiller if you need to.
3) hand pull it until it’s gone.
Good luck! It’s a pain in the #ss!
Remember whatever you bid, it’s worth more!
To give the customer a realistic price give them a well advised “solution”. Bring in the gas trimmer, trimmer it all down really low and even impact the runners a bit. Then plant very dense large perennial plants that can compete (some research needed). Landscape fabric the rest between the large dense shrubs and heavy mulch. Always buy the good landscape fabric, the stuff that’s hard to even cut. Alternatively you can opt to not use landscape fabric but if not then I’d recommend heavy AF mulching, I’m talking 3″ deep everywhere.
There is also the option to re-gas trimmer it every week or two where you come back and keep cutting it back. Always options, always break it down. Charge your rate and always charge a few more hours than you think it will take you at your own unique pace (this is something that’s hard for anyone to help you decide/ know). Good luck!
*A lot*.
We have poison ivy in parts of our property and we had someone come out to look at a few problem spots that are near the yard, driveway, etc.
Just for him to get dressed up in a suit and spray poison (which is what we were attempting to avoid) he quoted $7000 — and it was for a few sq feet in 3 places — not 1000+sqft.
If I were you I would research ivy removal techniques including chemicals and how to appy them in a targeted manner and then base your estimate on a few different approachs with the chemical free manual approaching having an extremely high fuck you price that includes a ton of caveats about how many times you will return to pull up regrowth and what the standard for done is.
That is brutal work. I did a 70’ by 4’ removal of ivy at my FIL place a few years ago so we could install a fence. Brutal. I bought a Fiskars hand axe, looks more like a butcher knife, made it move faster. The fence was easy afterwards! Then a year later a massive tree fell on it… I told him he’s hiring someone… not me.
I’m on year 2. I’ve beaten back about 75% of the English ivy. Only problem is that it was replaced by creeping Charlie.
I need a couple goats. Maybe to eat the stuff but probably wouldn’t hurt to start offering animal sacrifices at this point.
However much it would cost to rent goats to eat that all.
It looks like a standard English Ivy. Highly invasive three seasons a year. You can try some localized glyphosate to see what happens. Normally that will destroy the roots but you have so much of it plus if it’s been there for years and years the root system is deep. Second worse only to bamboo for removal. With bamboo there’s only one solution – move.
That property belongs to the ivy. Its “owners” are just borrowing it.
Why? It looks beautiful.
Get the goats!!