What a fall cleanup costs, and why two quotes never match

When Nelson walks a property for a fall cleanup, the lawn is the last thing he measures. He looks up first. How many mature trees drop onto the lawn and beds, what kind they are, and how much of the neighbor's canopy hangs over the line. A half acre in Scarsdale with two ornamental cherries and a half acre in Bedford under a stand of red oaks are not the same job. One is a morning. The other is three visits and a truck full of leaves each time.

After the canopy comes access. Can a truck back up to where the leaves collect, or does everything have to be tarped down a slope, around a pool fence and up a long driveway? Stone walls, terraced beds and tight side yards all mean hand work where a machine would otherwise do it, and hand work is where the hours go.

This is where two quotes for the same yard split apart. Maples and ash come down through October. Oaks hold on into the second half of November, then let go in a week or two once a hard wind gets at them. A single visit has to pick a date, and whichever date it picks, it misses part of the drop.

So a low quote is often an honest quote for one pass. It just is not a quote for the yard you will be looking at in December. On a wooded lot we plan an early pass for the maple drop while the grass is still growing, and a final pass once the oaks are finished. That final pass is the one that has to happen. Ask any company you are comparing how many visits their number covers, and on what dates.

A light, dry layer of leaves can be mulch mowed back into the turf, and on an open lot that is the better answer and the cheaper one. Nothing leaves the property. It stops working once the layer is deep. Wet oak leaves do not shred fine, they mat, and a mower just presses them flat.

Hauling costs more because it is more work: loading, trucking and disposal. The alternative is a pile blown against the tree line or a stone wall, where it stays wet all winter. Left on the grass, a packed layer under snow is what snow mold wants, and that shows up in March as gray or pink matted patches. Seed, topsoil and a repair visit in spring cost more than hauling would have.

Read the scope, not the total. A quote that says "fall cleanup" and a number tells you almost nothing. On ours, these are written out so you can see what is in and what is not: leaves off the lawn, beds, walks, patio and driveway; everything hauled off site; perennials cut back, with the ones that should stand through winter left standing; bed edges re cut; gutters and downspouts cleared once the leaves are actually down and flushed to prove they drain; a final cut at the right height for dormancy; hard surfaces blown clean on the last visit.

Gutters are the most common thing missing. They are often quoted separately or not at all, and a gutter cleaned in late October on an oak lot is full again by Thanksgiving. If gutters matter on your house, ask when in the season they are done, not only whether.