Lawn care costs, cleaning costs, pool costs (rent, house)

[Crotongal]

We are considering renting a house that is very large and with an acre or two of lawn. I have no idea what lawn services or maid services go for in the DC area. Here I am paying 40 an hour for 2 women for cleaning. My lawn service here is included in the rent.

We are particularly going to try to negotiate pool service with them since our pool service here was included in the rent and I really have no idea how to do pools particularly in cold areas. Any ideas of those costs?

[mominbristow]

No idea about the maid service or the lawn service (are you looking for someone to cut/maintain or just fertilize/weed?) But Potomac Pools "presidential" service is $2230 annually, which includes opening, closing, weekly service and chemicals ($1570 if they come biweekly). If you just need opening/closing, it will run you about $600-$700 for both, depending on the company. If the pool is low-maintenance, with an auto vacuum and particularly if it's salt-water generator and/or not a lot of trees nearby, you should be able to maintain it yourself with minimal time/fuss.

[greeniebean]

Originally Posted by Crotongal

We are considering renting a house that is very large and with an acre or two of lawn. I have no idea what lawn services or maid services go for in the DC area. Here I am paying 40 an hour for 2 women for cleaning. My lawn service here is included in the rent.

We are particularly going to try to negotiate pool service with them since our pool service here was included in the rent and I really have no idea how to do pools particularly in cold areas. Any ideas of those costs?

For cleaning services, I pay around $130 every-other week for a crew of 4 for an hour to do a (small) 5br house w/ full basement. This is with one of the large companies. We've had cleaning done in the past by a single self-employed person, and the cost was slightly less for 3hrs but the job wasn't as thorough.

No idea what lawn service would be, but my neighbor pays I think $45 to cut and edge less than 1/4 acre lot. 2 acres of actual lawn would probably be over $60. At least with that much space they could use those bigger industrial mowers.