Estimate Description
Fall Cleanup Package (3 Visits)
Fall cleanups are hourly rate services. Rate listed is the hourly rate of $69 per man per hour.
This service automatically renews ♻️
Approximate dates (2023):
First visit: October 16 – October 31
Second visit: November 1 – November 15
Final visit: November 16 – November 30
Fall cleanups entail:
☑️ A regular maintenance service
☑️ Leaves, sticks, and other debris removed from beds and turf
☑️ Ornamental grasses and perennials are cut back (one visit)
🛻 Removal off-site when needed or requested
If needed or requested, debris will be removed from the property and a dump fee of $20/yard will apply. Dump fee cannot be capped.
Upon acceptance of this proposal, our Cap My Cleanup form will be sent to you via the automated confirmation email. Please fill out the form if you would like to specify a budget cap, areas of focus, debris disposal preferences, add additional hourly rate services, or upload reference photos. This allows everyone to be on the same page regarding expectations of this service! Cleanups will be completed at the discretion of our crews without receipt of this form.
Service Details and Terms
🍁 General Information: The Fall Cleanup Package service is a series of three separate fall cleanups. The approximate timings of the three services are: second half of October (1st round), first half of November (2nd round), and second half of November (3rd round). Any unworkable days in those ranges due to weather or other circumstances may result in delays. Performing three fall cleanups allows us to keep up with the heavy leaf season we experience here in Sussex County, keeps lawns looking well-maintained all season long, and ensures that everyone’s properties are taken care of in a timely manner. We do not offer single fall cleanups as it is not logistically possible for us to do one large cleanup for everyone in the short amount of time after all the leaves have fallen and before potential for significant season-ending snow.
🍁 Process: Fall Cleanups involve leaf maintenance and/or removal, lawn mowing, landscape bed cleaning, and perennial cutbacks. We generally proceed with cleanups as follows: Mow entire lawn and clean leaves from turf, clean debris from front beds by house and then proceed out toward front perimeter, clean debris from back beds by house and then proceed out toward back perimeter, and finally fenced in areas, pool areas, play areas, hilly sections, and large unmaintained beds are addressed. Additional hourly rate services, such as pruning and brush removal, are not standard but can be added by request to Fall Cleanups at a continuation of the hourly rate. The first and second cleanups are maintenance oriented and may not be fully comprehensive. The third and final cleanup will be the most thorough.
🍁 Scheduling: The approximate timings of the three services are outlined above. We run our routes as tightly and efficiently as possible to ensure that we can service the maximum amount of customers each day and keep our pricing in-line with industry standards, which means that we dispatch daily rather than ahead of time. We do not currently offer dispatch notifications, but this is something we’re working on for the future! We cannot arrange to be there when you are present, so we ask that if you have specific requests that you relay them to us in as much detail as possible upon proposal acceptance — photos are always helpful! Details and photos can be submitted via the Cap My Cleanup form. Please keep your lawn free of obstacles and ready for service for the entire cleanup season. Please notify us ahead of time of any conflicts with other outdoor work. We want to do whatever we can to work with you and make your fall season as smooth and worry-free as possible, so please communicate with us in advance for any special circumstances! We greatly appreciate it.
🍁 Budget Caps: A budget cap is a way to ensure that we won’t spend more time at your property than you want to pay for. Cap is pre-tax and applies to labor charges only. Caps apply to the current year only and will not automatically renew with the service. Submission of our Cap My Cleanup form is required to cap services. New cap forms will be sent to existing customers each year via email.
If a crew arrives at your house and believes that there is significantly more work present than they can reasonably perform in the allotted time, they will contact the office and we will contact you for your preference (keep or increase cap). If we can’t get in touch with you while the crew is prepping your job, the crew will prioritize work at their discretion and stick to the cap for that visit.
A good idea for a minimum cap per-visit is 3x your regular mow price (based on weekly pricing – please contact us if you need this information). This is an average only and is meant to be a budget option and is typically not sufficient for a fully comprehensive cleanup. You can specify a cap for any amount equal to or above your minimum cap. If capped, we will consider the allotted time and proceed with your Fall Cleanups in order of most important and most economical at the discretion of our crews unless otherwise specified in Cap My Cleanup form. Please contact us if you want to adjust your cap between services if desired.
When considering placing a budget cap on your cleanups, consider your desired degree of “perfection,” your property’s size, tree cover, terrain, hills, fences, amount and sizes of landscape beds, pool areas, etc. All of these factors affect the amount of time needed to properly complete each cleanup. Fall Cleanups in our area are highly variable and can range from about $100 to over $500 PER VISIT (3 visits). Please be aware that a budget cap places time constraints on the crew that may result in incomplete cleanups. Please notify us at the time of proposal acceptance if you want to cap your service via our Cap My Cleanup form. If you do not provide a cap, your cleanups will be done to completion at the discretion of our crews.
If you are submitting a form, it must be submitted by the close of business the Friday before cleanups begin to ensure that we are able to apply your cap/notes in time for service. CMC forms received after that time will be applied as quickly as our office can manage, but are not guaranteed to be applied before we come for your first visit.
This is especially important for customers signing up after cleanups have already begun. Once you accept your proposal, you can be added to the schedule at any time, so promptly sending in your CMC form is imperative.
If you are signing up late in the season and you will only receive Rounds 2 and 3, we recommend that you do not cap your services. If you are only receiving the final round, we do not allow caps. You will still be able to fill out the CMC form with any notes or debris preferences you have, but you will not have the option to cap your service.
🍁 Debris Removal: If requested or needed, leaves will/can be removed off-site for a fee of $20 per yard. This does not include the labor to remove the leaves. The fee is additional to the hourly rate labor and cannot be capped. If you have a preference for your leaves (take them away, leave them in a compost pile, blow them into the woods, etc.), please notify us at the time of proposal acceptance via our Cap My Cleanup form. Any woods we blow into must be on or directly connected to your property – we cannot blow leaves across roadways. If we are not instructed what to do with your leaves, we will make the most optimal decision we can at the discretion of our crews. This typically, but not always, means we will blow your leaves into the woods if you have woods on your property, or we will take them away if you do not. Any decision we make may not be the same for each visit based on crew, weather conditions, location of leaves, amount of leaves, etc. Lawns in our area are incredibly variable and we see anywhere from 1-10+ yards of leaves per service for removal.
🍁 Payment: Cards are automatically charged the Monday following the completion of each service. You will receive a copy of your paid invoice and a receipt from the credit card processing company.
🍁 Auto Renew: This service automatically renews each year. Budget caps do not automatically renew but can be submitted each year. A late sign up may result in less than three services being completed, but all three will automatically renew the following year.
🍁 Cancelation: To cancel this service, please send written notice to info@endlesssummerlawns.com. Request to cancel via any other communication method will be directed to email and cancelation will not be confirmed until receipt of written notice.
This service is a 3-visit package. Once you sign up, we reserve a place on our list for you, potentially turning down other work to ensure we can complete your cleanups. Seasonal scheduling, daily scheduling, staffing, and equipment investments are highly reliant on all 3 visits going ahead as scheduled. For these reasons, cancelation fees apply beginning at close of business the Friday before cleanups start. After that time, there is a cancelation fee of $50 per non-completed visit to cancel this service. $150 to cancel all three, $100 to cancel rounds 2 and 3 after the first visit has been completed, and $50 to cancel the final visit after rounds 1 and 2 have been completed. If service was not canceled ahead of time in writing per the above cancelation terms and we are sent away upon arrival at your house, you will be charged a minimum of $69 for that round (1 man hour) OR for the time of any work completed based on crew clock-in, whichever is more, plus the $50 fee for any upcoming rounds canceled. Thank you for your understanding as we do our very best to ensure that the busy fall season runs smoothly and fairly for everyone.
🍁 Terms of Service: By signing your Fall Cleanup proposal, you acknowledge that you read and understand these service details. You also agree to our full Terms of Service, which can be accessed here.
FAQ
Have a question? Scroll through our FAQ to find the answer! Still can’t find what you’re looking for? Reach out to us at info@endlesssummerlawns.com.
🛻 Why do you charge hourly rate rather than flat rate?
Charging hourly rate ensures that we never over or undercharge for a service. You pay for the exact amount of time your cleanup takes, no more, no less. Flat rate service estimates are based on the amount of time a service is projected to take anyway, and lawns and conditions in our area are highly variable, so charging by hourly rate keeps things as simple, efficient, and cost-effective as possible. We offer the ability to cap your service as a way to control your costs for the season if desired.
🚶 I understand that you charge per PERSON per hour. How many people are on a crew? And can I request fewer people to keep my costs down?
A fall cleanup crew typically consists of 3-5 members. But pricing is consistent regardless of the specific crew size! As a simple example, a job that should take 1 person an hour should take 2 people 30 minutes, and should take 4 people 15 minutes. Each of those jobs would equate to 1 man hour and their costs would be the same! So while you can’t request a certain crew size, you can provide a budget cap which is then applied to your job in man hours.
😬 I still don’t fully understand man hours. Help?
This is a super common point of confusion! We actually wrote an article to explain it in detail. Click here for a man hours deep dive.
💲How much does a fall cleanup typically cost?
Cleanups in our area can vary greatly, and can cost from $100 to over $500 per visit, depending on your property’s size, tree cover, terrain, hills, fences, amount and sizes of landscape beds, pool areas, etc.
🍂 How many yards of leaves do you remove on average?
Debris amounts in our area are incredibly variable and we see anywhere from 1-10+ yards of leaves per visit for removal.
3️⃣ Why do you do 3 visits?
- We believe it’s the very best way to handle fall maintenance!
- It keeps lawns looking well-maintained all season long
- It allows for continued mowing on a roughly bi-weekly schedule through the fall growing season
- Leaves have less opportunity to build up and get wet and matted down, which would make it harder to remove them
- Three visits ensures the final cleanup is smaller and quicker than it would have been if it was the only visit, which means we can get to everyone for their final visit in the last two weeks of the season, not just a small percentage of our customers. This way we can better serve everyone!
- We’ve found that three smaller visits are generally around the same price as one larger visit, so having three visits also splits the cost for the season over three more digestible payments.
- Say we were to ever get season-ending snow in Mid-November (*knock on wood*), two cleanups would already be done! Meaning in that worst case scenario, the leaves that are left over the winter will be significantly less than if there had been no cleanups at all. In our area, we need to be prepared for everything!
🗓 When will you come for my 3 visits?
The approximate timings of the three services are: second half of October (1st round), first half of November (2nd round), and second half of November (3rd round). Any unworkable days in those ranges due to weather or other circumstances may result in delays.
🔔 Are you going to notify me when you are coming?
Service notifications are something we are working on for the future, but unfortunately we don’t have that capability at the moment. We are always working hard to improve and expand convenience and functionality for our customers, and this is on our radar! Currently, we layout date ranges for each visit. Once we come out for your first service, you can expect a roughly two-week gap between visits.
✍️ Can I just sign up for one cleanup at the end of the season?
See above for the reasons why our fall cleanup service consists of 3 visits! We don’t offer single fall cleanups for logistical reasons. The only way we can just come out for one final visit is if you sign up late, but that’s risky! Our schedule could fill up before then, or the weather could not cooperate. We have to prioritize the customers who signed up for the whole service, but we accommodate late signs up as best we can. If you sign up late and only receive one or two services this year, all three services will auto-renew next year and beyond.
🏠 I don’t have a lot of leaves. Can I just continue with regular mowing?
By nature, the fall season requires a lot more resources than maintenance season. We add and change equipment, increase crew sizes, and route differently to best service our customers. For these reasons, we can’t continue our regular service routes or pricing. But the good news is, the less work there is at your property, the less time it will take our crews to complete your cleanups! If you don’t have a lot of leaves, they don’t have to spend time cleaning leaves up for you. We can also cap your service and specify in your job notes that you want to focus mainly on mowing. You can add your own notes and specify desired areas of focus in our Cap My Cleanup form. If you really only need extended mowing, please call us and ask about our budget fall maintenance package option.
🗑 I didn’t ask for debris to be removed from my property. Why was it removed?
Often, the crew will take leaves away if there is nowhere to deposit them on the property, or if the labor to move them to a location on the property would likely cost more than the fee to remove them. This decision could be different service-to-service based on crew, location of leaves on property, amount of leaves, the direction the wind was blowing that day, etc. In the absence of instructions, we always try to make the most reasonable and economically responsible decision we can! If you would like us to do something different moving forward, please let us know so we can adjust for future visits.
🦃 I am hosting Thanksgiving! Can you please come for my final cleanup right before that?
Enjoy! We understand that it’s important for your lawn to look its best for company’s arrival. Unfortunately if we allowed for choosing of dates, almost everyone would want their cleanup right before Thanksgiving! Logistically we just can’t swing it. Luckily, the first two cleanups are scheduled to be completed before Thanksgiving, so for most properties, most of the mess should already be dealt with.
🕚 My trees drop their leaves late. Can you please schedule me as late as possible?
We schedule the third and final cleanup in the last two weeks of the season for precisely this reason! We can’t guarantee any specific date within the final cleanup timeframe, though. Keep reading for a further option!
4️⃣ I have had my final cleanup and more leaves have fallen. Can you come back for another visit?
Yes! As long as the weather allows, we’re happy to continue cleanups into December on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you think you may be in need of a fourth round, please reach out to us as soon as possible and we’ll do whatever we can to make it happen for you.
❄️ Why can’t you schedule the final round a bit later to make sure every leaf is down?
We have to find a sweet spot between all the leaves falling and winter weather arriving. If we push things too late, we risk snow ending our season before we can complete the final round. We also have to account for weather delays within the first two rounds. Scheduling the final round for the last two weeks of November is the best balance!
All About Caps FAQ
🧢 What is a budget cap?
Because our cleanup services are hourly rate, a budget cap is a way to ensure that we won’t spend more time at your property than you want to pay for. The cap is per visit (3 visits), so a $207 cap would place a cap of 3 man-hours on each of your three visits that the crew will not exceed. A budget cap places a time limit on our crew that says, “even if it would take $400 worth of time to fully complete this cleanup, the customer doesn’t want to spend more then $250, so give them the most bang for their buck that you can in $250 worth of time.” A budget cap can also be placed simply for peace of mind. Say your cleanups are projected to be around $300 each and want your cleanups as complete as possible but you definitely don’t want to spend over $500 for any one visit, you can place a cap at $500 just to ensure that we don’t exceed that amount. Your cleanups may then come in at $350, $275, and $325 for the season, but you will have had that peace of mind that we wouldn’t ever exceed your top budget.
❓ How do I cap my cleanups?
Sign and accept your proposal, and then fill out the Cap My Cleanup form we send you in your confirmation email!
📝 What is the Cap My Cleanup (CMC) form?
The Cap My Cleanup form is an optional form we’ve developed that allows the customer some control over their cleanup service! If you don’t fill out the CMC form, our crews will come out and perform all three of your cleanups to completion at their discretion — which is perfect! But if you have a budget you want to stick to, somewhere specific you want your leaves deposited on your property, instructions or requests for the crew, additional hourly rate services you’d like to add on, or photos you want to send us, the CMC form allows you to give us all that information in one easy place that keeps everyone on the same page.
🤷 How do I know what a reasonable budget cap would be?
It depends on your goal for your cleanups! We can’t reliably complete a reasonable cleanup for less than 3x a property’s weekly mow price (3x the man hours of a regular service), so we don’t allow capping below that. So 3x mow price is a good budget option and starting point. Then, consider your desired level of “perfection” and your property’s features. If you have a lot of tree cover, hills, terraces, gated areas, pool areas, a lot of landscape beds, corners where debris gathers, weeds, etc., those are all things that add time to a cleanup. You can always call and ask us for some advice! We’d be happy to help you arrive at a cap you are comfortable with. And remember, it can always be adjusted if needed as the season progresses.
🍃 Why can’t I cap debris removal cost?
If leaf removal is needed or requested, we have to take away whatever is there! No one can control how many leaves fall on your property (we wish!), so we can’t cap the amount we take away.
♻️ Why doesn’t my cap auto-renew every year like my service does?
Budget caps do not auto-renew to ensure that your services are tailored to your current needs each season. Filling out the CMC form each year also allows you the chance to communicate with us ahead of your cleanups regarding any other notes or needs you may have that might differ from a previous year. Finally, since caps are in dollar amounts and mow prices and hourly rates are subject to change, a previous season’s cap may no longer be relevant. We will send a service reminder email each year including the current CMC form for your convenience!