Landscaping

Having leveled an acre across the road from our main operation, I began a program of dumping the returning comingled landscape material in rows for organics and piles for aggregates.

The profit opportunity that many landscapers may be missing is the cost of either tipping fees or travel cost to dump material that can and should be recycled. I have used this to pay for land, equipment and labor that adds nearly a 2% increase in annual sales and 10% increase in net profit.

I am charging my time with equipment to the process at $100/hour and maintaining a 90% profit margin on the result without considering the savings in hauling and dumping elsewhere.

It happens that your “Flipscreen” is an excellent separator. Thus my aggregate piles, most of which include sand get screened onto the organics, thus adding sand which is the highest cost component of composting. The remaining aggregates are used to either fill more land, crushed for sub base use or building a road to the remaining 40 acres we own to eventually create residential lot sales.

By incorporating the sand and organics mixture, which includes grass for nitrogen, wood chips from our local tree service company for carbon, sod and plant matter I have gotten a 20%-25% organic content soil which grows grass seed better than anything we have used in the past thirty five years. The rows are ready for screening in two years with minimal turning with either a 130h.p. Wheel loader of the New Holland W80 loader that I use with the Flipscreen.

As a rule, I am making over 20 yards per hour with average moisture conditions. The more sand and the more dry days the closer it gets to 35yds./hour. I have used a five year amortization schedule on the U45; attached a charge of $2 / yard of soil. Making 2000 yards per year, which is our average use/sales volume, I am easily paying for the Flipscreen equipment in full and feel that its actual useful life might be twenty years, certainly not five.

Having used this process for two full years, I feel fairly confident that I can continue with only regular lubrication as maintenance. My only failure is breaking/bending one screen clamp, repaired in ten minutes.

This technology is what it is said to be in engineering and functional terms but also adds the potential to change the way a landscape operation does business. It improves profitability and is a profit center not an expense.

Paul Jones at Landart in Wisconsin