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Worth Getting a Van if Gardening as well?

slippy

Active member
Messages
840
Location
Bournemouth
With a van, (three seats in front for missus and baby) I could get a large water tank for window cleaning, but could I also get a mower, hedge cutter and other gardening equipment? My other concern with a van is you can't take garden waste down the tip for free, and lots of customers expect that, with a van customers expect that. Do the pros out way the cons for a van. There's no gardening from Nov- march and I currently do lots more windows than gardens.

 
personally I would do one or the other.some will say different.there are plenty of add on jobs with window cleaning.you could mix the two but one will suffer.

 
If you are going WFP, then don't bother with the gardening. You are investing properly in WFP, then messing about with lawn mowers in out etc will cause you problems. Only way I would do it is with a kitted out trailer for the gardening gear, that way you can just hook and go when it is gardening days. Just to warn you though, gardening rounds can suck. I was charging £20 per hour and it was still way too much work for the money involved. You'll make much more if you focus on the windows. Just my 2pence for what its worth, I quit the gardening this year.

 
Just as TolishAPurd said. Go all out for the windows. You'll make tons more per hour with a lot less hassle. I used to mix it up with some gardening and other jobs whilst trading but since I've been WFP I've stopped all but the very profitable jobs.

 
I think the simple rule is if you can earn more per hour gardening then do it, if you cant earn as much per hour then drop it and concentrate on the windows and do extras that earn you a higher hourly rate on top

 
If you got a licence to tip from van you'd just add it onto the pricing.

When I did a garden round over a decade ago, the custies only wanted the worst jobs doing, the exhausting stuff like digging out tree roots and clearing bramble areas. I'd literally eat what I made it was such hard work.

I imagine to make real money doing it you'd have to design and build nice gardens rather than clear and dump the **** and mow lawns so need real passion, experience and confidence as well as physical ability

 
As it is at the moment- just do four regular gardens and really enjoy it. I only charge £12/hr, which I guess is too cheap, don't know. I keep my mower in one customer's garage along with my barrels and trolley. This job is ok as the mower and other gear is there and three other customers are on the same street, so I just push the mower from that garage to other jobs. If I was to get more serious I guess I would have to start taking all my gear around with me and like someone said would be best having a tow bar on van and putting gardening gear in a trailor and keeping all the window cleaning gear in the van. I guess thy recycle place still wouldn't like me taking my garden waste there because I would be pulling the trailor in my van (and vans are not permitted down the tip). By the way, why would a mower or hedge cutter be a problem in a van with wfp gear?

 
Sounds like you've a nice little round you like and suits you, maybe pester the local population to get more you can work like these current ones

 
yeh found the gardening too much mither but still got a few...that bloomin grass gets everwhere..its worse than sand.

as for a van I do keep looking but....having no money and a nice car which hits a nice speed when I want it too....its amazing what you can cram into an estate../emoticons/biggrin.png

oh bugger...that reminds me...got to get some ivy off on friday...most of my rubbish goes in the recycling bins or I hide it and put it in weeks later../emoticons/biggrin.png

 
Dont listen to them if you know your stuff with landscaping then do the following

get a van and a trailer for your tipping

now gardening and window cleaning can be very lucrative if you do this properly

1 call it complete house maintanence do this only for the rich for them one company for all outdoor services is really handy

2 charge more cos you are doing a specialist niech market

3 with the less well off dont combine they really dont apreciate it and think you are a jack of all trades

4 others will find it harder to compete with you because of your complete no hassle service

you will have a fleet no time like this son and check out kalfas on you tube he does this

 
Currently just doing garden maintenance, not a full-on landscaper yet. I love it, although this could be as I only do 2 hrs a day 4 days a week and often after my main job (inside) so can't wait to get out in the afternoons and release all my pent up frustration. Also do one garden on Saturdays along with my round (usually only clean windows on Saturdays, but I think it will be more and more of my work in the future).

You got to wonder as well, that window cleaning as it's so skill less that in a few years the prices might start dropping and having another skill which requires more experience and skill will be nice to have.

 
not sure how you get the 'skill less' conclusion?

Cleaning a window = not too much skill needed

Cleaning a window with poor access = moderate skill

Operating a business, learning the tools and overcoming problems, making a good wage, attracting, managing and keeping hundreds of customers, mastering marketing and advertising, being social when you don't feel like it, keeping level headed in the highs and lows, making it enjoyable yet profitable = a **** load of skill IMO

 
I do a front of house service which covers all the hedges and lawns plus and weeding, replanting etc plus cleaning all the windows it's quite lucrative but I keep my prices low and it seems to attract more work, I've had to get a waste carrier licence which I'd not thought I would need so that was a big **** on my part but least I won't cop for a five grand fine now

 
Is it a bad idea to carry carpentry tools, wood etc in a wfp fitted van? just wondering how possible it would be to combine handyman jobs with window cleaning? I have just been doing all my work from a car- great for garden waste disposal as can go to the tip for free. Would a van make things so much more expensive? Charge £10 a trip and £12/hr for garden work, is this too cheap?

 
I charge about £30 for a small hedge and lawn but I have a van so have to pay tipping charges and then the waste licence needs factoring in if your carrying any waste the licence lasts 3 years so it's only a small amount if you get plenty of gardening jobs

 
Lanscaping is great money, gardening i thought about it but i get bad hayfever so that wouldnt work, contact with grass makes me itch all over.

you could always collect rubbish in van then take it to tip in your car, bit naughty i know but needs must when you are starting out

 
I’m currently coming from the garden services side of things and slowly adding window cleaning as an add-on.

If you are already doing window cleaning I would agree with the others here and say go for what you are already doing, I would look to expand that. Van, good tank, gun for some commercial.

Here in Norfolk as a general gardener, myself and the others I have got to know in my area charge around £10 to £14 an hour for general and £20 for hedge cutting. Our customers who are small to medium residential tend not to expect us to take garden waste away. They use the Council brown bins.

Again already said by others here, expect to do or be asked to do the jobs they hate the most. I do a lot of hedge cutting for the younger customers. It’s only really the OAP’s that can’t potter around their gardens to keep them up anymore that want me for pruning, weeding, or lawn mowing.

Lastly factor in that you will need to service or get serviced your power tools like hedge cutter, mower, and grass trimmer/weed wacker. It’s amazing how fast grass can blunt a blade when cutting for a couple of hours per day. What I mean is its more unpaid fiddling around time and cost of consumables.

Unless variety of work is more important to you than yearly earning potential, I would scroll up and read TolishAPurd’s post again, I can’t fault anything he said there!

 
Out of curiousity, is anyone using a trailor, using that for just window cleaning? Or possibly combining the two in the trailor, would give the option of taking waste down the tip. But all things considered, I might be worrying too much about waste disposal for a few gardens over eight months of the year! I also heard they are tricky to park?

 
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I've not had a going to the tip problem yet, I just educate my customers that they need to use the council brown bin service - if they don't already. Admittedly – most of my work is small to medium properties, but even the village hall I now look after agreed to get a bin after I explained they would have to pay for disposal of the grass along with my time to ferry it to the commercial recycle centre.

 
You should only need a disposal trailer if you are regularly cutting down coniffers/trees. Otherwise the bins should be all you need. COmbine it with a compost heap and you are sorted. In the early days when you first take over a garden you will wish you had a skip to get rid of the waste, but you just need to be organised, store waste in a corner somewhere until the bin is emptied, and then fill it back up again. Cut stuff small so it removes dead space from the bin. Chat to neighbours and often they will let you use theirs too. Look down the street for an empty house and temporarily borrow thier bin. If the garden backs on to wastland then make a little compost heap outside the garden, but be subtle with it and keep it tidy or else it will look like you are just fly tipping. Lots of options you can do if you use your initiative.

 
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