A landscaping estimate, line by line

A landscaper writes two kinds of estimate and they barely look alike. One sells a season: same crew, same yard, thirty-odd visits, and the customer wants a monthly number. The other sells something planted in the ground, where half the price is stock you buy before anyone pays you.

Here are three, written for a made-up company. Every dollar figure is illustrative — plant costs, sod prices and dump fees move by region, by season and by what your supplier quoted this week. Copy the structure, not the numbers. For maintenance and install pricing, see landscaping pricing and DoneQuote for landscapers.

A season of maintenance, billed monthly

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Estimate #2026-152 Date: August 23, 2026 · Valid through: September 22, 2026

To: P. Novak, 745 Ashbrook Lane From: Greenfield Lawn & Landscape LLC, 40 Depot St. · (555) 010-4417 · [email protected]

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Property: 0.35 acre lot, roughly 12,000 sq ft of turf, 4 front beds

Billing: 8 equal installments of $373.00, March through October, for work performed. Sales tax added where the state taxes lawn maintenance. Season: 28 mowing visits, approximately March 15 through October 31. If growth stops: in a summer drought we drop to every other week and the unused visits come off the last installment. Renewal: the agreement ends with the season. We re-quote each January; nothing renews on its own. Not included: irrigation repairs, tree work over 12 ft, storm debris.

A front-yard planting and sod install

Same customer, different job. Nothing here is priced by the day — the total is built from stock, disposal and one day of rental.

Deposit: $[amount] due at signing, then the balance on completion. Several states cap what a contractor may collect up front on residential improvement work — write in the number yours allows, not a copied one, and we do not order stock until any cancellation period has run. Substitutions: if a cultivar is sold out at install time we will call before swapping, and any substitute matches the listed size and habit. Watering: the one-year plant warranty depends on the watering schedule attached. Sod needs water every day for the first two weeks, twice a day in heat, and stays on a schedule until it roots.

A spring cleanup with a cap

On a cleanup you cannot see how much debris there is until the crew opens the beds, so a fixed price is a guess. Price the crew by the hour and cap the total.

Cap: we stop at $1,050.00 and call you. Anything past that needs a written change order first.

Spec the plants the way the nursery tag does

Two estimates that both read "foundation planting — $2,400" can differ by half the plant material, and the customer has no way to see it. The fix: botanical or trade name plus cultivar, container or root size, and a count. #3 and #5 are container sizes, B&B is balled and burlapped, and trees go by caliper — a 1.5 in. caliper maple is a different purchase from a 2.5 in. one.

Same discipline on bulk goods. Mulch and compost in cubic yards at a stated depth, not "a few loads." Sod by square foot and by type, because tall fescue, zoysia and bermuda differ in price and in where they will live. Gravel and soil by the ton if that is how your supplier sells it. When your quantities are visible, a cheaper competing estimate has to explain itself.

Put the weather in the terms, not in a phone call later

The calendar is a variable in this trade, so say so on the page. Give a start window rather than a start date, and write that rain days and wet ground push it. Name the planting window too: sod and nursery stock go in when the ground allows, and a fall planting that slips into frozen ground becomes a warranty claim.

A maintenance agreement that quietly renews at last year's price is a dispute waiting for March, which is why the season terms above carry an end date.

Haul-away is a line, and so is whatever the shovel finds

"Cleanup included" is a blank check. Sod strippings, brush, bed debris and excavation spoil all cost money to put down somewhere, and transfer stations bill by the ton or by the load, often at separate rates for yard waste and construction debris. Show it as loads or tons so the customer can see the third truckload was real.

The other unknown is underground. Call 811 before you dig. The locate is free, but it needs lead time — most states want the request a couple of business days ahead, and your state sets the exact notice window — and it only covers the utilities' own lines. Nobody marks the homeowner's irrigation lateral, low-voltage lighting wire, dog fence or forgotten drain tile. It says nothing about rock, roots or clay that turns half a day of grading into two. Write those as exclusions with a stated response: work stops, you price the fix, and it goes out as a change order before anyone digs further.

The licenses that belong on the page

Weed control and grub control are pesticide applications. Federal law requires a commercial applicator certification to apply a restricted-use product for hire — but not for everyone on the crew: EPA lets a non-certified person apply one under a certified applicator's direct supervision, so the company needs a certified applicator responsible for the job, not necessarily the hands on the sprayer. Whether the same structure reaches the general-use weed and grub products most lawn crews actually spray is a state question; many states extend certification requirements to commercial use of those too, but check yours rather than assume it. Fertilizer on its own is a separate question — some states certify fertilizer applicators too, others leave it alone. Irrigation can sit under its own license or under a plumbing one depending on the state; Texas, for instance, licenses landscape irrigators through its environmental agency. Whether plain landscaping needs a contractor license varies widely, and some states require none at all. Check with your state department of agriculture — in some states pesticide licensing sits with the environmental agency instead — and with your state licensing board. Put your license number on the estimate if you carry one.

Two price lists, not one

Maintenance and installs pull from different price lists: per visit and per round on one side, per plant, per cubic yard and per rental day on the other. Keep both saved in DoneQuote, then describe the next job or paste the customer's email and the draft comes back with your own prices and quantities in place — so the per-visit number you worked out once is the number the customer reads.