Anyone "do" church yards ?

[dogman]

There's a church next to one of my weekly clients, & I've been asked to put in a quote, to remove ivy from the church yard remove all elder bushes, prune the tree's & cut the grass.

The elder & ivy should be fairly easy to quote for, the tree's are beyond me, so i'll look to seek out some one local to help with that, but its the cutting of grass I'm not sure about quoting for, so any advice would be appreciated. There is currently a contractor for the grass but they aren't happy with them.

 

Regards,

 

Rob

[ShooTa]

i have donate my time for our local church - in terms of felling and some strimming work -

but at this time they are looking for a full time/contract for that work..

 

i would suggest when it comes to churches to see them more as a networking/business advertiser than £££ - ask about putting in a sign and having a flyer in the entrance.

then charging for fuel and a moderate ammount on your time.

[doobin]

We look after a local one. I use a local contractor to do most of the grass with a ride-on and collector, my guys strim all the gravestones and keep the hedges in order.

 

So far so good. I make reasonable money on it, the vicar and churchwardens say it's the best it's ever looked. I priced it for a years contract to keep money coming in every month. Little things mean a lot- keep in touch with the church wardens re timing of services, special events and try to do your cut as close as possible so that whenever there are a lot of people there it looks great. Most days of the week only a couple of people go there so timing of cuts is important.

 

Do your hedgecutting little and often to keep it looking great and not have to bother clearing up. Keep on top of weedkilling- it really spoils the look otherwise, and weedkiller costs are negligible.

 

What seems like a tiny job to you will be much appreciated by an ageing congregation who struggle to do it themselves. Twice a year I pop in with my mini digger on the way past and just push up the grass heap.

[TIMON]

We do one regularly, it's about an acre and half. Very steep in places so a ride on is useless there.. First time we did it was pretty overwhelming.. Then each time we did it we got much quicker. Churchyards tend to be Very hard on mowers so we asked the church warden to buy a dedicated mower just for the job. They did a toro walk behind with mulch capability.

We use the job to train our guys how to strim and mow. It's worked out well. It's not the best paid job but it's regular.

[dogman]

Thank you for the advice gents.

 

Rob

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

There are some interesting specific regulations and historic laws associated with trees in church / grave yards. Worth researching properly and discussing thoroughly with clerk of the church council before undertaking to do 'tree' work.

[renewablejohn]

I restored our local church yard from being an overgrown neglected jungle to one where they now take marriage photo's in the grounds. It was all down to superstition a lot of the grave stones are flat stones and the parishioners would not walk over the gravestones. It does not bother me but once others had seen the improvement they decided there was nothing to worry about so they now have a rota to manage the grounds.

[spikeymikey]

on a bit of a tangent, one thing that gets me a little bit is that the church are always pleading poverty and a lot of people do a lot for them for noting which is good and don't get me wrong im all for it. However they are the biggest and richest landowners in the country who don't think twice about screwing over the tenant farmer when strutt parker tell them that they should be charging over £200/ac and if the family who has been farming there for generations cant pay they have to get out! so I wouldn't be that worried about charging them decent rates!

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

on a bit of a tangent, one thing that gets me a little bit is that the church are always pleading poverty and a lot of people do a lot for them for noting which is good and don't get me wrong im all for it. However they are the biggest and richest landowners in the country who don't think twice about screwing over the tenant farmer when strutt parker tell them that they should be charging over £200/ac and if the family who has been farming there for generations cant pay they have to get out! so I wouldn't be that worried about charging them decent rates!

 

 

Tiz an interesting and disappointing reflection Spikey!

 

I had a similarly disappointing experience which was preceded by researching the rules / regs for churchyards after a large Beech failed in high wind in a 'closed' cemetery (church yard). Vicar called when tree went over, I went and did some SLG once it was on the ground and found that the LA is responsible for trees in a closed cemetery. So no job for the clean-up / make safe. I would have done 'at cost' out of community spirit but found they could have it done at no cost by LA so I passed that info straight on to vicar, didn't mind the time taken in research and admin - good learning experience. What I found rather at odds with the sense of moral obligation I felt (and was very comfortable with) was the anticipation that firewood might be available to parishioners and maybe the vicar would arbitrate it's distribution. What actually happened was he said "I'll be alright for firewood for years, there's an ancient law that states any tree that falls in a churchyard is the property of the resident vicar."

 

Bit disappointing to be honest....

[Daniel Jiggins]

Charge as though it is a 'normal' job and a 'normal' client no special rates IMO I think it will open a lot of doors for you and be good business wise if you can secure a contract like most organisations / businesses they talk and before you know it you will be quoting for more work.