Getting local teens to do yardwork

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Where do you live? The DMV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get what you're going for, OP, but it will look a lot better if a professional does it.

The issue is cost. I just need people to rip vines out of the ground, most in the back and side areas. My husband and I have been doing it but there’s just not enough time in the day to do the whole thing. Once I get them pulled out of the beds, I can plant and/or mulch.

I’m trying to get other lawn care services and the estimates are crazy (to me at least as a new homeowner). The last company said $12,000 for the season and that doesn’t include mowing. And my yard isn’t even very large.

Yea, well, the "issue is cost" for a lot of things when it comes to home ownership. That doesn't mean you underpay teenagers.

Considering going to your local Home Depot and scanning the parking lot for day laborers looking for work. Sure, they're undocumented. So what. They'll work hard and get the job done. Just pay them a fair wage -- no less than $30 a hour if you're in the DMV.

You're insane.

Why? You don't believe in paying a fair wage, or in being generous to hard workers? Would you clear out OP's vines for less than $30 a hour?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Where do you live? The DMV?

Wealthy suburb in Midwest. I don’t mean that as a brag… just specifying for pricing purposes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Where do you live? The DMV?

Wealthy suburb in Midwest. I don’t mean that as a brag… just specifying for pricing purposes.

Oh and wealthy here means homes are 600-700k ish. I don’t live in a mansion or anything which is why I’ve got some sticker shock.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Can you or your DH (or your kids if you have any) do it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get what you're going for, OP, but it will look a lot better if a professional does it.

The issue is cost. I just need people to rip vines out of the ground, most in the back and side areas. My husband and I have been doing it but there’s just not enough time in the day to do the whole thing. Once I get them pulled out of the beds, I can plant and/or mulch.

I’m trying to get other lawn care services and the estimates are crazy (to me at least as a new homeowner). The last company said $12,000 for the season and that doesn’t include mowing. And my yard isn’t even very large.

You need them to get out the roots and sometimes teens won't know to do that or it will get to hard and they will just cut them down to the soil so it looks like they are gone.

[Anonymous]

Ripping out ivy is hard and thankless work. It will come back. I would hope the expensive bid comes with some assurance it won't come back right away ...

Just post on your listserv and see if anybody bites. If they don't, you aren't offering enough. For teens, you are competing with babysitting, lifeguarding, and similar jobs that aren't nearly so unpleasant so you will have to pay more than those rates.

[Anonymous]

If you have TaskRabbit you can try that--I did that and easily found someone who came over and did a bunch of those yard chores that we just never got to on the weekends -- didn't require as much supervision as teenagers and cost me $200 for 4 hours, well worth it since he got a ton done. Plus he had his own car and tools -- was a guy in his 20s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Where do you live? The DMV?

Wealthy suburb in Midwest. I don’t mean that as a brag… just specifying for pricing purposes.

I have seen many high school kids look for yard work, babysitting, dog walking on our local nextdoor app. You may have similar thing in your area. Offer the job to two kids who are friends and pay them $20 per hour for two hours on a weekend day. Provide the kids with cold drinks. If they are happy and you are happy, bring them back for more work. If you can provide tools for them to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Where do you live? The DMV?

Wealthy suburb in Midwest. I don’t mean that as a brag… just specifying for pricing purposes.

I have seen many high school kids look for yard work, babysitting, dog walking on our local nextdoor app. You may have similar thing in your area. Offer the job to two kids who are friends and pay them $20 per hour for two hours on a weekend day. Provide the kids with cold drinks. If they are happy and you are happy, bring them back for more work. If you can provide tools for them to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Where do you live? The DMV?

Wealthy suburb in Midwest. I don’t mean that as a brag… just specifying for pricing purposes.

I have seen many high school kids look for yard work, babysitting, dog walking on our local nextdoor app. You may have similar thing in your area. Offer the job to two kids who are friends and pay them $20 per hour for two hours on a weekend day. Provide the kids with cold drinks. If they are happy and you are happy, bring them back for more work. If you can provide tools for them to use.

Sorry, I bolded and didn't comment. Anyway, the bolded is key. I have teenagers who help out neighbors with their yards. If they aren't provided with the proper tools, they turn down the job on the spot. They've tried to complete jobs without the proper equipment and it always took longer and resulted in less than satisfactory results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you know from experience how long the job will take then pay by the hour. We have neighbors and friends who have hired a person to do yard chores like weeding, laying mulch, cleaning up the edging around landscape beds etc. and we have done this twice. It's usually been through contacts - someone knows a guy (maybe day laborer) that will take small jobs like this for extra $.

HS/College kids mowing lawns, doing weeding... isn't uncommon... we get posts every year on the neighborhood listserv email when college kids are back for summer and during the year from some HS kids.

I wouldn't pay them any less than you would an older person. It's hard work and could take longer than you accounted for - which is why paying by the job rather than hourly could end up taking advantage of a teen.

It seems that $20/hour is the going rate among people we know - and most offer cold water/gatorade and the appropriate tools.

$20/hour is for a babysitter to sit in your house after your kids go to bed.
For hard labor like pulling ivy? Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Where do you live? The DMV?

Wealthy suburb in Midwest. I don’t mean that as a brag… just specifying for pricing purposes.

I have seen many high school kids look for yard work, babysitting, dog walking on our local nextdoor app. You may have similar thing in your area. Offer the job to two kids who are friends and pay them $20 per hour for two hours on a weekend day. Provide the kids with cold drinks. If they are happy and you are happy, bring them back for more work. If you can,provide tools for them to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ripping out ivy is hard and thankless work. It will come back. I would hope the expensive bid comes with some assurance it won't come back right away ...

Just post on your listserv and see if anybody bites. If they don't, you aren't offering enough. For teens, you are competing with babysitting, lifeguarding, and similar jobs that aren't nearly so unpleasant so you will have to pay more than those rates.

Luckily the soil in our yard isn’t clay the way it was in DC. We have sprayed with vinegar solution and let them bake, then pull out after a couple of days. The ivy comes up much more easily. My concern is if there is poison Ivy or something else there. I don’t think there is because it’s just ivy taking over the beds and climbing all the trees, but you never know. I don’t want a teen to get into that.

For rates, I don’t know how this compares but we are paying our babysitter who is a senior on he $15/hr to give you an idea of this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get somebody licensed to do the work for you.

OP doesn't want to pay a professional rate.

Yes. And to be clear I’m not trying to scam local teens or anything. But I can’t pay $1700 for some ivy removal. The home ownership comment I’d weirdly aggressive. I get that there is a cost. There’s also something called a budget. I am lucky enough to own a home but I don’t just have unlimited amounts of money to spend on everything.

Where do you live? The DMV?

Wealthy suburb in Midwest. I don’t mean that as a brag… just specifying for pricing purposes.

I have seen many high school kids look for yard work, babysitting, dog walking on our local nextdoor app. You may have similar thing in your area. Offer the job to two kids who are friends and pay them $20 per hour for two hours on a weekend day. Provide the kids with cold drinks. If they are happy and you are happy, bring them back for more work. If you can,provide tools for them to use.

I like this idea, thanks. Maybe I will ask my teen sitter if she knows any kids who would want to do it. $80 and drinks and pizza feels a lot better to me than the $1700, even though I know at $1700 the job (probably?) gets done well