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For lawn care and landscaping: square feet, cubic yards and jobs that repeat

Mowing, cleanups, mulch, hedges, planting and sod: yard work is measured by the 1,000 square feet, the cubic yard, the hour and the load. TailGateBid quotes each by its own unit, repeats the jobs that come round every week, and can send the invoice when a visit is done.

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The work

Lawn care is the work that comes back: mowing, trimming and edging, fertilizing, aerating, leaf cleanup. Landscaping is the work done once: mulch and beds, planting, sod, hedges cut back, a yard cleaned up in spring or fall. If you do both, they go on the same quote.

How a yard is measured

  1. The lawn: length times width gives the square feet, the way Iowa State's extension service measures one. Take off what is not grass.
  2. Divide by 1,000. Fertilizer recommendations for a lawn are given per 1,000 square feet, the same guide says, and a lawn can be charged the same way.
  3. A big property can go by the acre: 43,560 square feet.
  4. A bed: square feet times the depth of mulch in inches, divided by 12, is cubic feet. Divide by 27 for cubic yards, and round up to what you can order.
  5. How deep? University of Illinois Extension gives the recommended mulch depth as 2 to 4 inches.

An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate

Say the lot is 100 by 120 feet, 12,000 square feet, and the house, the driveway and the beds take up 4,000 of it. The lawn is 8,000 square feet: 8 on the quote, charged by the 1,000 square feet, or 0.18 of an acre. Say one bed is 10 by 20 feet and the customer wants mulch 3 inches deep. That is 200 square feet, 50 cubic feet and 1.85 cubic yards, so 2 yards go on the quote.

A spring cleanup, worked through

Sample

Sample Lawn Care Co.

Spring cleanup, first mow and mulch

  • First mow, with trimming and edgingQty 8 thousand square feet$72.00
  • Beds weeded and edgedQty 3 hours$180.00
  • Mulch, delivered and spreadQty 2 cubic yards$190.00
  • Leaves and trimmings hauled awayQty 1 load$90.00
Subtotal
$532.00
Sales tax (7.25%)
$13.78
Total
$545.78

Deposit due on approval: $54.58

Before you ask for a deposit on work at a home, check what your state or province allows.

Only you see this part. Your customer never does.

What it costs you
$329.00
What is left for you
$203.00

You keep about $38 of every $100

A sample with made-up prices; they are not a going rate. The mow is charged by the 1,000 square feet, the bed work by the hour, the mulch by the cubic yard and the hauling by the load. Only the mulch is ticked as taxed here: 7.25% of $190.00 is $13.78. At these made-up costs you keep about $38 of every $100.

What TailGateBid does for a lawn and landscape business

  • Jobs that repeat

    Set the mowing to repeat every week or every two weeks, and the visits are made for you. A repeating job can send its own invoice each time a visit is marked complete. How scheduling works.

  • One quote for the whole yard

    The mow, the mulch and the hedge go on one quote, each charged by its own unit. Offer the cleanup with the mulch and without it as two options; the customer picks one and signs on their phone. How a quote is built and signed.

  • Bid Partner, from photos of the yard

    Take a few photos, say what the customer wants done, and Bid Partner drafts the quote from your own rates. Where a rate is missing it does not stop you: it uses a typical price and marks it "Typical", so you know which numbers are its own. Put in your price and it is used on every quote from then on. Nothing goes out until you send it.

  • A lawn care website

    Looking for a website for a lawn care or landscaping business? One comes with every account, hosted at no extra cost. Your services, a yard before and after once the customer has agreed, the reviews you approve, and a form that sends you a request with photos. What is on it.

What to charge

The job price calculator turns your hours and your materials into a price, and shows it for each 1,000 square feet, each cubic yard or each acre.

Then put the price on paper: what goes on an estimate, in order, with one filled in.

This page is about one trade. TailGateBid works the same way for any other, and Bid Partner is built to price a job in any of them: how it works for your trade.

Sources

Related

Measure the lawn once, and quote it from then on.

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30 days free. No card needed.