Mike Andes (Augusta Lawn Care) tours his shop’s "material graveyard": leftover landscaping/paver supplies that tie up space and cash because the company accepted one-off materials for some jobs. He contrasts rarely-used items (e.g., a red brick used on 1–2 jobs/year) with standardized blocks used on ~30–40 jobs/year, explains costs (storage, lost-use time, supplier restocking fees ≈30%), and advocates strict material standardization (limited SKU/colors/designs) to reduce inventory waste, speed installs, simplify estimates, and improve pricing and sales.
Questions this video answers
"Maybe 1 or 2 jobs a year" (as stated).
"Probably 30 or 40 jobs a year" (as stated).
About a 30% restocking fee ("get a 30% restocking fee or whatever they're charging you").
So that way you can go from one job to the next and use any oversupply.
Wow.
Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes here@landscapebusinesscourse.com we're at the back of the Bellingham Augusta lawn care shop today, and today I'm going to show you what we call the material graveyard. The material graveyard is where money comes to die in our industry because of inefficiencies and because of lack of standardization. So I'm going to show you some of our material graveyard. This is the Confessions of Mike Andes. This is a problem we've had in our business in the past, and we've tried to fix it in the past few years. But, for example, this red brick here, we will maybe do one or two jobs a year where we use this, whereas we will use this probably 30 or 40 jobs a year. What the difference is is that when I finish up with these materials, this inventory has to sit here for five, six months before it's used. And it has to take up space. And space is money in terms of rent. It's also the fact that if I have a whole lot of it left over, I've got to take it back to the supplier, get a 30% restocking fee or whatever they're charging you, and in the day, this is dead. This is a tombstone in here at our shop. Now, let me show you another thing. We've used these before. These are those wonderful, well, foam pieces of plastic that go underneath a paver patio. We use this on one job. It's now sat here for the past couple years doing nothing, wasting space, and literally being the memorial of a job that should not have been done because it didn't have the standardized materials that we always use. These, on the other hand, is the one type of block we install in all our paver patios. We. We know that even if we have leftover, like this is a leftover pallet of all this material. Totally fine. We got several pallets of it because we're going to use it all the time, which means I can order it in bulk, get better pricing. I can. When I'm done a job, all the material that's left over, I'm able to store it, knowing I'm going to use it very soon, and I have to worry about taking it back to the supplier if I need a little bit left over. Like, I'm a little short on a job. No problem. We actually keep inventory of it here, a couple pallets, just in case we're a little bit short on A job don't have to go back to the supplier, have another delivery. None of that. Let me show you back here. This even gets more embarrassing. We go back to the back here. These tiles, I don't even know what these things are called. People use them sometimes for roadways and they put gravel through them as kind of like an alternative to pavers. We literally have had these sitting here for the past like four or five years. Again, this is a material graveyard. Right here is probably sitting several hundred dollars worth of material that's dead because the supplier wouldn't take it back. This is the material graveyard and its cause. Because we didn't standardize our materials, we took jobs that had one off types of blocks. This block here, for example, we never use red blocks for walls. Literally never. But one job, one job, we of course had to use it and now it's sitting here in the material graveyard. I recommend that you use the same type of block, the same color, the same shape, the same size, the same design. Maybe have one or two different options for your customers. It's like when you go to a high, like a steakhouse or like a really high end restaurant, they have like maybe one or two or three different entrees. They don't have like Denny's menu or Applebee's where there's 300 different entrees. The reason for that is cause they're high quality and it's perceived that way. When you only have a few different options, I recommend you go to an estimate, knowing which paver patio in design and color and shape and type you're going to use. Instead of giving them a material binder and saying, oh, good luck trying to find what you want. And then you got to meet them at the supplier yard. Then you got to give them different options. They're like, oh, I don't know if I want the brown or the beige or the gray. Like, give them what they want, Tell them what they want, show them a picture. Do you like this? Yes, I do. By the way, in your mind, like, yeah, that's the same paver, same color, same design we've always installed. And this is the best part about it. Your guys get really, really efficient and installing the same type of materials all the time. No more guesswork. Trying to change the base layer, changing the design of the pavers, changing, changing the formation of the blocks. If you have a design on it, absolutely. The best way to do this, standardize your materials, use the same ones over and over. Your guys a little bit more efficient. You will save money because you will be able to price better to your customers. You'll sell more jobs. And there's no more back and forth about estimates, meeting at the supplier, showing them a binder, all of that is absolute garbage. Use the same products, the same materials, same different types, and you will not have a graveyard like this because you can keep using the materials and. And not have inventory. Inventory is money sitting around, wasting and deteriorating the same way. Bodies sitting in a graveyard under tombstones. That's what this is right here. Make sure you learn from that. I'm Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse.com We'll see you next time.
