How to create an accurate snow removal estimate

Snow removal can range from manual sidewalk shoveling, to highly skilled machine operator. Labor rates for sidewalk shoveling range from $80 - $120 / hour, while machine operators are closer to $150 - $180 per hour.

Don’t gloss over the cost of de-icer, halite or other materials you may be using. Make sure to calculate what is the cost per bag, pound or by whatever unit you purchase.

You need to charge more than your cost of labor in order to cover your overhead costs, and leave you with a profit. Our research shows that gross margin’s on labor and materials range from 30% to 60%. In our example we use a 50% gross margin.

• Sidewalk shoveling: $40 - $60 + gross margin of 50% is $80 to $120 for labor
• Machine operating: $100 - $120 + gross margin of 50% is $150 to $180
• Blue ice melt bag: $30 + gross margin of 50% is $45

A production rate converts the work you are doing, into time. You can read more about them in this article about production rates. For snow plowing, you want to general want to have production rates based on the following characteristics:

• The type of equipment used: you can cover a lot more area with a machine than with manual labor.
• What area you are clearing: wide open spaces like parking lots are a lot faster than sidewalks.
• How much snow there is: clearly the deeper the snow, the longer it will take to clear.

Here are a few sample production rates:

• Truck with 9' plow, medium, has a production rate of 35,000.0 sq ft / hr
• Sidewalk clearing, hand shoveling 3", has a production rate of 1,250.0 sq ft / hr
• Blue Ice Melt, 1 bag (50 pounds), has a production rate of 12,000.0 sq ft

Your price for your service is based on your price of labor, multiplied by your production rate, divided by the area that you service: Price of labor * (production rate / area that you service). Here is an example:

• 50,000 square foot lot with 3” of snow where you use a truck with a 9’ plow, and 2,000 square feet of sidewalk which you shovel manually.
• Truck with 9’ plow: $180/hr (50,000 sqft / 35,000 sqft/hr ) = 1.4 hours, or $257
• Manual shoveling: $120/hr (2,000 sqft / 1,250 sqft / hr) = 1.6 hours or $192
• Blue Ice Melt: $45/bag ( 52,000 sqft / 12,000 sqft) = ~4.5 bags, $195
• Total: 3 hours, 4.5 bags of Blue Ice Melt → $644

If this seems like an extensive process, don't worry, using Duranta makes it much easier! You can use AI to measure all areas of the property, or you can just draw the areas that you care about. Then with a few taps of a button, you can apply your production rates and get a beautiful, accurate proposal that you can send to your customers. You can learn more by watching a tutorial.