Mulch placement sounds like a simple task. However, as a landscaper, you know that it is the one place where your project can get off track and over budget in the blink of an eye (or in an unexpected downpour). Fortunately, there is a simple way to avoid the sneaky, hidden costs of manual mulch placement and maximize profits.
The Unexpected Costs of Manual Mulch Placement
If you’ve been in this business for a while, you are probably pretty good at predicting how much mulch you’ll need and roughly how long mulch installation will take. Unfortunately, there are 5 hidden mulch installation costs that can derail your budget no matter how well you plan.
Injuries and Insurance
Installing mulch is physically demanding, back-breaking work. Long hours of heavy lifting puts your team at risk of injuries, strains, or sprains. Not only do injuries make it harder to meet your deadline but they could also lead to worker’s compensation claims and rising insurance premiums.
Unpredictable Weather
Mother Nature can be a tough boss. Unfortunately, when it comes to manual mulch placement, you’re pretty much at her mercy. Inclement weather can disrupt your project in a [lightning] flash, leading to rescheduling chaos, the need for overtime and an unhappy client when you don’t finish by the project deadline.
Overtime
Once a project is already off track, there isn’t much to do but crank up the overtime and watch your profit margin shrink by the hour.
Cleaning Up The Mess
Mulch installation is messy. No matter how carefully you move each load from the drop-off pile to its desired location, you are going to end up with wasted pieces of mulch to pick up at the end. This can lead to even more unplanned labor hours that can be downright messy for your team and your budget.
A Tied-Up Team
When your entire team is working on a large mulch project, it’s impossible to start anything else. That means if you get behind on one project, you end up behind on the rest of your projects too.
Mulch placement doesn’t have to turn into a series of unfortunate events that brings you off-track, over-budget, and out of options. There is another way.
Manual Mulch Placement vs Blown-In Mulch Placement
The most successful companies use their people and time efficiently. With blown-in mulch placement you can cut your labor costs, work around the weather, and avoid injuries.
What is Blown-In Mulch Placement?
The blown-in mulch placement method utilizes specialized blower trucks and expert operators that evenly disperse mulch with precision and speed. With this approach, you avoid the unpredictable process of manual mulch placement, saving you time and protecting your profit margins.
5 Benefits of Blown-In Mulch Placement
Although laying mulch manually is the most well-known method, it definitely isn’t the most efficient method. There are 5 massive benefits that make blown-in mulch placement superior.
Get Done 12 Times Faster
Our blower trucks, guided by experienced team members, can spread mulch 12 times faster than a team could manually. Projects that would take days can now be completed in mere hours, increasing your overall productivity and your profit margins.
Free Up Your Team
When you let Superior Groundcover take over the mulch placement, you’ll be able to re-allocate your team to the tasks that better use their time and skills. Why have your experts labor over mulch when they can be crafting beautiful landscapes or engaging with clients? Our blower trucks can be busy finishing off one project while you start another one.
Increased Predictability
Since we can lay mulch much faster than you could manually, we only need a small window of sunshine to get the job done. Our ability to work around the weather leads to more reliable timelines for you and your customers.
Plus, when you are creating a quote for a new client, you won’t have to use a rough estimate for the labor costs anymore. We will tell you exactly how much mulch blowing will cost before your project starts so you can build it into the budget from the beginning.*
(*We can help you out in a crunch if a project has already started but we prefer to be involved from the start.)
Less Mess
People often assume that mulch blowers would leave a giant mess in their wake. Our team guides the blower truck with precision and accuracy so that there is very little mess. Any stray mulch that does get out of line will be cleaned up and put in its place before we leave.
Although our blower trucks are big, they don’t pose a risk to your property. We are able to maneuver the long blower tube into hard to reach places so that we can place mulch without causing damage.
The Blown-In Mulch Placement Method: A Breath of Fresh Efficiency
Laying mulch doesn’t have to be the bottle-neck that always stalls your projects and gets you off schedule. Blown-in mulch placement gives you more predictability, more control, and greater profit margins.
Although we may be biased, after more than 20 years of business and a 96% client retention rate, we know we aren’t the only ones who see the benefits of blown-in mulch vs the hidden costs of manual mulch placement.
If you are a landscaper in the Midwest with a project that requires 20 cubic yards or more of mulch placement, request an estimate from Superior Groundcover today. Outsourcing your mulch placement to us can make your projects more efficient and more profitable.
