Cemetery mowing

Hi there everyone,

I am looking at placing a bid for mowing a cemetery this summer. It is 3.09 acres, and I would be doing both mowing and weedeating. Looks like about 250-300 stones (quite a few of the plots are empty). I would be mowing with my 2020 Cub Cadet XT1 LT46 lawn tractor and doing the weed eating with my Stihl FS56 (straight shaft). I am located in Mo. I think this would be an all day job, and I was thinking about bidding somewhere in the neighborhood of 225$ a job , is this a reasonable bid? Anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts and deffintly advice. Thanks!

If you are doing it to make money, rather than as a work of charity, $225 sounds WAY too cheap, especially if very neat trimming around all the monuments is expected.

What have they been paying in previous years?

Did the last outfit that was mowing it quit or retire or are you bidding against them for the job?

City where I live, all the summer help Hate it. I would charge more.

My only caution is to clearly establish liability if a stone is damaged or claimed to have been damaged. I mowed a local cemetery for several years but only on open ground. The stones were left to a different crew. It can get pretty costly if a stone gets upset and broken.

X2 what wore out said.

Around here, they bid on the cemetary mowing jobs per season, and not per time they mow it. And that leaves a big unknown to the bidders. A dry year, you might not be mowing it that many times. But on a wet year, you might be mowing it alot of times. So, some of the bidders will put in a bid by taking a chance that they won't have to mow it very many times. Or based off of some sort of average. Makes it kind of hard to bid on the job.

In your case, sounds like you are only estimating your efforts for a single mowing, and not trying to estimate how many times you'll be mowing it for all year. That part might make it easier for ya, but who decides at what point you'll be mowing?? Are you at your own dismay on that? Or on a schedule? Or somebody else tells you when to mow? You might want to make things clear on that. Otherwise you might not be mowing it enough times for your liking, or for thiers. Or the same with to much. The cemetery board might not like the idea of you buzzing in there and mowing it every time you feel like making some quick cash. So you and the cemetary needs to be clear on the arrangements of when to mow. And you might want to make it clear that you won't be hauling your lawn mowers over there just because of a single person with a complaint about a couple dandy lions on thier great aunts grave. By the same visitor who incidently hasn't been to the cemetary in years. Maybe not since the funeral. That's what you run into when mowing a cemetary.

Some cemetarys aren't to bad. Tomb stones all lined up, and a good job on the dirt leveling over the years. But other cemetarys are horrible. Sink holes all over, tombstones all out of line, trees and shrubs all over, and flower bushes, and fences. If it's one of them, be sure to bid extra, because it will take longer and be a bigger burden than you think by just looking at it. You won't know alot of things till after you mow it a time or two. Your riding mower won't fit between the stones going crossways, or that wire fence eats off all your string on your weed wacker. That kind of stuff you'll often times find out later. So if it looks like a pain in the b??? job, be sure to account for those things in your bid by bidding extra. Because if you don't, you'll be reminded everytime you ask yourself why you bid the job so low.

There's a couple cemetarys around here, that I just plain wouldn't want to mow.

$368x 1 mow/week

For mowing I think 375-400 would be a better price. Mowing around the stones isn't bad unless there are flowers, or pots in front of the stones, then you will have to move and put back. I have mowed our cemetery a few times. I left mower marks on a stone hidden in weeds one time. Not much was done about it. I don't charge anything, most of my family is there, and I don't mow around the stones, that is done on a cemetery clean up day by the community. Stan

The man who mows the cemetery a mile away, also digs the graves with a kubota backhoe. He's never done mowing. It may take him 3 days to mow. He starts at one end and finishes at the other.
Sometimes he hires his grandsons to help out.
He claims he can only use the weed eater for about 4 hours at a time.
If I were you, I would find the largest grave marker and bang my head against it until the urge to mow a cemetery goes away.
He uses a ZTR to mow and 2 or 3 weed eaters to trim with. He also has to clean up all the flowers left behind by loved ones and trim around them if a holiday is near.

I have been a Cemetery Trustee for many years in southeast MO.
Our cemetery is approximately the same size, but fewer headstones.
In 2022, we GLADlY paid $300 per mowing.
Be sure you understand, if the cemetery you are considering allows plastic flowers placed on the graves &/or headstones on Memorial Day & other holidays and whether you would be expected to remove and dispose of said plastic flower arrangements after each holiday weekend at the next mowing or whether you would be expected to remove/mow/trim and then replace said arrangements. Also, be sure to factor in your bid if the cemetery has large trees that drop branches & twigs that need to be picked up and disposed of prior to each mowing. Too often, folks underestimate the amount of work involved.
Hope this helps.

You say it's an All Day job, so I assume you mean about 8 hours. Your $225 gives you $25/hr for you and your equipment and $25 for fuel including what it takes to get you to the cemetary. Not even close to what it should cost, I would think $500 would be closer. If you can do it all in 4 hours, your $225 might be OK, but not for a full day. You'd be better working at McDonald's

You are half price or less. When we mowed commercially part time I would look at the jobs, estimate the time frame and multiply x $50 per hour. That was 15 years ago and we certainly didn't get wealthy doing it but it kept us in good mowers trailers and put a little money in out pockets. We would get about 30% of the jobs I quoted so we were in the ball park for price. Grounds keeping at cemeterys is the worst mowing work there is IMO. I bid them higher and never got one,, thank goodness!

My wife and 2 sons mowed and trimmed our small town cemetary for 1 year. 1 (one) 1 year. Get my drift?

I'm also a trustee of our local cemetery. Our is bigger than 3 acres - maybe 5 or so. Your price sound way low to me also. I think we typically end up paying 5-6K for the year. Our burial fees and lot sales usually just about cover the cost.

Tim

Surely you must mean 225 for mowing job and 225 for weed eating job. Find out what the liability insurance will cost you because you need lots of it. I think I would submit a bid of 50-75 an hour. Submit a bill at the end of the month. What it is, it is.

first for the job you are way to cheep more like 5 to 6 hundred a time and your mower is not up to the task for something like that you need a zero turn .i have done many cemetery's and they are a pain in the as-. people put all kinds of things on graves and god forbid you chop one thing up they will hunt you down. also ins. is not cheep and you better have it if one stone gets a nick in they will be looking for you

$25 per hr is really only median wages without providing any equipment. Mark.

It will take you much longer to do than you think. Going around every stone will be slow going. I cut lots of grass over the years and with all the trim work you have I would think its 2 days work. Just my 2 cents.

Way to cheap! Who moves all the flower pots and stuffed animals and memorials that people leave?

Can't help you on what to charge. It's been 5 decades since I mowed cemeteries. One thing you might consider is mount a bucket or large trash can on your mower and use a trash grabber. Since we use ZTRs we keep the cans on the floor board. Use the kind that has rubber suction cups on them.