How to price landscaping jobs

A landscaping price comes from the same equation as any job: price = materials + labor + equipment and disposal + overhead + profit. What makes landscaping different is how much of the job is hidden in the ground and how much depends on your crew.

Soil, slope, access and roots change the hours more than the size of the yard does, and no table knows your yard or your crew.

This guide works through each part, then prices a front-yard refresh line by line. It covers the method and the arithmetic, not your rates. Wages, plant prices and dump fees vary by metro and by season, so every dollar figure is yours to fill in, and every pace in the example is an example input to replace with your own tracked hours.

For the general method, see how to price a construction job. For estimating software built for the trade, see the landscaping industry page.

How landscaping work is measured

Each part of a landscape plan has its own natural unit. Keep them separate, because each one drives a different cost.

• Square feet: turf removal, grading, sod, seed, bed preparation, fabric and paver areas.
• Linear feet: edging, drip line, irrigation trenches and the face of a low wall.
• Cubic yards: topsoil, compost, mulch, gravel and the soil you haul away.
• Each: shrubs and perennials by container size, trees by size, irrigation zones and heads, light fixtures.
• The load: disposal trips and delivered material.

Measure on site with a wheel or tape, and sketch the beds with their dimensions. A photo shows the yard; a sketch with numbers prices it.

The formula for a landscaping price

Every line on a landscape estimate follows the same pattern:

1. Quantity × your hours per unit = labor hours for that line.
2. Labor hours × your full hourly labor cost = labor cost. That cost is the wage, or what you pay yourself, plus labor burden: payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits.
3. Materials at what you will pay near the job this season.
4. Equipment and disposal: rented machines with delivery, dump fees and the trips to get there.
5. Overhead for every billable hour: trucks, trailers, owned equipment, insurance, the shop and the hours spent bidding.
6. Profit, as a markup on the total cost or a target margin.

Count billable hours over the whole year

The labor rate guide and the labor rate calculator turn your pay, burden and billable hours into a full hourly cost.

Landscaping has a short slow season in many places, so count your billable hours over the whole year, not over a busy month.

Where your labor hours come from

There is no published table of landscaping hours that fits your crew. The pace of sod or planting depends on the soil, the slope, how far the truck parks, the equipment you own and how experienced your people are. The only numbers worth pricing from are your own.

Track your crew's pace on every install

Build them like this:

1. Record crew hours by task on every install: removal, grading, soil, sod, edging, beds, planting, irrigation, hardscape and cleanup.
2. Record the quantity for each task: square feet of sod, feet of edging, number of shrubs.
3. Divide hours by quantity to get a pace per unit, such as crew hours per 100 square feet of sod.
4. Note the conditions that changed the pace: clay, rock, slope, a narrow gate, hand-carrying everything to the backyard.

Price conservatively until you have numbers

This is job costing, and after a season it gives you a pace for each kind of work and a sense of how much a hard site adds.

Until you have it, time the work as you go and price conservatively. Underpricing labor is the most common way an install loses money.

Count travel and setup once

Remember the hours that do not belong to any one line: loading the trailer, the drive, setup, the material pickup and the final cleanup. Give them their own line or build them into your rate, but not both.

Taking off landscape materials

Most landscape materials are bought by volume or by area, so the takeoff is mostly geometry.

• Mulch, soil and compost: area × depth in feet ÷ 27 = cubic yards. A 3-inch layer is 0.25 feet deep.
• Sod: the lawn area plus a waste allowance for cuts along curves and edges, rounded up to how your supplier sells it.
• Seed: the lawn area at the rate on the bag, plus straw or a starter fertilizer if you use them.
• Fabric and edging: bed area for fabric, with overlap, and the bed perimeter for edging, rounded up to the roll or the piece.
• Plants: each, by size, from the plan.
• Pavers and wall block: face area plus cuts and breakage, with the base gravel and sand as their own quantities.

Enter quantities after waste, so what you order matches what you priced.

Equipment, disposal and what is underground

• Equipment: a rented skid steer, sod cutter, tiller, trencher or compactor is its own line, with delivery and pickup. If you own the machine, its cost belongs in your overhead.
• Disposal: old turf and soil are heavy, and dump fees and trips add up. Estimate the loads, not just the fee.
• Underground: call 811 before you dig, every time. Rock, roots and buried debris slow the work; carry a contingency or say in writing how you will price what you find.
• Plant guarantees: if you guarantee plants, decide for how long and on what condition, such as the homeowner watering as instructed. Price the replacements you expect into your plant markup.

Irrigation, hardscape and lighting

These parts of a landscape job behave more like a building trade than like planting, and they deserve their own lines.

• Irrigation: price by the zone or by the head, plus drip line by the foot. Count the valves, the controller, the trenching and the tie-in to the water supply, and check whether a backflow device and a permit are needed where you work.
• Hardscape: patios and walks by area, walls by face area. The base is most of the labor: excavation, gravel, compaction and screeding come before the first paver.
• Lighting: price each fixture, the transformer and the wire run back to it.

If you subcontract any of these, carry the sub's price as its own line with your markup, and make sure the sub's scope matches yours.

Worked example: a front-yard refresh

Example: A homeowner wants a tired front yard redone. The site is flat, with easy truck access and ordinary soil. You walk it together and measure:

• Strip 600 square feet of old turf.
• Regrade and add 2 inches of topsoil to that area, then lay sod over it.
• Build two new beds totaling 300 square feet, with fabric and 3 inches of mulch.
• Edge the beds: 90 linear feet.
• Plant 8 shrubs and 1 small tree.
• Haul away the old turf.

Labor hours

Example inputs only. Say your crew's records show the paces below. They are round numbers chosen to show the arithmetic, not benchmarks and not BuildWell data. Replace each one with your crew's tracked number.

The check: 9 + 6 + 7.2 + 6 + 1.35 + 4 + 2 + 4 = 39.55 labor hours. With a three-person crew, that is a little over 13 hours on site, so two days.

If your records say your crew lays sod faster or plants slower, the total moves, and so does the schedule.

Materials

• Topsoil: 600 × (2 ÷ 12) = 100 cubic feet. 100 ÷ 27 = 3.7 cubic yards, so order 4.
• Sod: 600 square feet plus a cut allowance. At 5%, that is 630 square feet, rounded up to how your supplier sells it.
• Mulch: 300 × 0.25 = 75 cubic feet. 75 ÷ 27 = 2.8 cubic yards, so order 3.
• Fabric: 300 square feet plus overlap, rounded up to the roll.
• Edging: 90 feet, rounded up to the piece, with stakes.
• Plants: 8 shrubs and 1 tree at your nursery cost, plus starter fertilizer.

Price each item near the job this week, plus delivery, and call the total M.

Building the price

With a 25% markup, the price is the total cost × 1.25, a 20% margin. The markup vs margin guide explains the difference, and the job cost calculator adds the lines up.

Check the price per square foot

Divide the price by the 900 square feet you worked on as a check against similar yards. If it is far off, find out which line is different before you send it.

Common landscaping pricing mistakes

• Pricing by area alone. Slope, access and soil change the hours more than size does.
• Guessing the pace. Use your own crew's hours, and update them every season.
• Forgetting the depth. Mulch and soil are bought by volume; an inch more depth is a lot more material.
• Leaving out disposal. Old sod and soil are heavy, and every load costs a trip and a fee.
• Guaranteeing plants for free. If you replace plants, price the replacements in.
• Starting in spring with fall's prices. Plant and material prices move; check them before every bid.

How to present a landscaping estimate

• List the plan in the order the work happens: removal, grading, soil, sod, beds, plants, irrigation, cleanup.
• Show quantities on each line, so the homeowner sees 600 square feet of sod, not "lawn."
• Carry allowances for plants the homeowner has not picked yet.
• Mark client-supplied plants as listed but not charged.
• State the plant guarantee, watering instructions, exclusions such as rock removal, and the deposit.

Listing the parts lets the homeowner drop a bed instead of asking for a lower total. If they add one later, a change order puts it in writing before you dig.

The estimate template for Excel and the free estimate generator give you a clean layout to start from.

Pricing landscaping jobs with BuildWell

BuildWell writes a landscape estimate from a description of the plan, by voice, text or photos, such as "strip 600 square feet of turf, regrade, new sod, two beds with edging, fabric and mulch, eight shrubs and a small tree." It asks what changes the price, then lists each part as its own line with materials and hours.

Set your crew's pace on every line

Planting, sod and irrigation aren't in BuildWell's catalog, so the AI drafts those hours from what you describe; set your crew's pace on every line.

Soil, sod, mulch and edging are priced at stores near the job, checked within the last 30 days, and labor starts from a local Bureau of Labor Statistics construction wage plus the overhead and markup you set. Nursery stock without a store price is flagged so you enter your cost, which BuildWell remembers.

The homeowner signs on their phone, and the signed estimate becomes the invoice, with a deposit before you order plants.

A landscaping pricing checklist

• Every area, length and plant measured or counted on site
• Labor hours from your own crew's pace, with hard-site conditions noted
• Loading, travel and cleanup counted once
• Soil and mulch in cubic yards at the right depth
• Sod, fabric and pavers with a cut allowance, rounded up
• Equipment, delivery and disposal on their own lines
• Overhead on every billable hour, then profit
• Plant guarantee, allowances and exclusions in writing