Landscaping Estimate Template

What goes on a landscaping estimate

A landscaping estimate has two jobs. It has to let a homeowner compare you against two other bids, and it has to settle the questions that come up once the sod cutter is running. The job-specs strip under the header handles the first: lawn and bed area, soil prep, mulch type and depth, irrigation work and the plant warranty. Those are the lines where a cheaper bid is usually thinner. The line items are grouped by phase for the second.

• Site prep and grading: turf and bed removal, disposal, compost and soil, and a fine grade that drains away from the house.
• Planting, sod and mulch: sod on the measured lawn, plants by container size, and mulch by the cubic yard.
• Irrigation, edging and cleanup: drip conversions, spray-head changes, edging and the final walkthrough.

Hardscape and upgrades, such as a paver walk or a smart controller, go in the optional-items table. They are priced but outside the total, so the customer can add them without you rewriting the estimate.

How to take off a landscape job

Break the yard into zones and measure each one. Rectangles are length × width. For curved beds, walk the edge with a measuring wheel or take the area from a site plan or aerial tool, and enter that number directly. The Site Takeoff sheet splits the zones into lawn and beds and totals the turf you will strip.

Bulk material is where landscape estimates drift, because it is sold by volume and specified by depth. One cubic yard covers 324 square feet at 1 inch deep, so cubic yards = square feet × depth in inches ÷ 324:

Sod is sold by the pallet, and the square footage on a pallet varies by grower, so the pallet size is an input. Plants come from the plan: count specimen trees and shrubs, and for massed perennials and grasses use area × 144 ÷ spacing². The Plants and Irrigation sheet totals plants by container size, turns them into drip emitters, and adds up heads, pipe and tubing from a zone list.

Pricing a landscape install line by line

Price sod on the measured lawn and keep the cutting waste in your unit price; the takeoff still orders the extra. Price plants by container size, because a 5-gallon shrub and a 1-gallon perennial are different amounts of material and labor. Build every unit price from cost on the Unit Price Builder: material, plus labor hours at your fully loaded rate, plus equipment rental, dump fees and delivery, then overhead, then profit as a margin on price rather than a markup. A 15% markup on cost is only a 13% margin.

The completed example is a front-yard renovation in Fort Collins, Colorado, on clay soil: 992 square feet of new bluegrass sod and 922 square feet of new beds, 1,914 square feet in all. Site prep and grading come to $5,107.90, planting, sod and mulch to $5,566.20, and irrigation, edging and cleanup to $3,278. That is $13,952.10 in total, or about $7.29 per square foot. Tax shows as $0 because the company includes it in its prices. The 40% deposit is $5,580.84, due on acceptance to order plants and sod.

The existing sprinkler system, and other surprises

Most renovations tie into an old irrigation system you cannot fully see. Heads get sheared by the sod cutter, old lines crack when you trench, and a zone that “worked fine” turns out to have a leaking valve. Put a stated rate for repairs beyond your scope in the terms, as the example does at $85 an hour plus parts, approved first. Buried concrete, rock and debris are the other common surprise. Write anything like that up as a change order and get it signed before the work is done. For small repairs billed by the hour, a T&M ticket signed on site keeps the record. When the job is finished, bill the balance on an invoice that references the estimate number and any approved changes.

Call 811 before you dig. It marks public utilities, not private lines such as sprinklers, landscape lighting or gas to a grill, so ask the owner to flag those, and flag every sprinkler head before the sod cutter runs.

Estimate, quote or proposal?

For most residential installs, this customer-facing estimate is the whole sale: a price, the terms and a signature. Many landscapers call the same document a landscaping proposal, especially when it goes out with a design drawing. On commercial work bid to a GC or property owner against plans and specs, build your cost on the construction estimate worksheet and send a bid proposal with inclusions, exclusions and alternates instead. If the customer only wants a fixed price for a defined task, a construction quote is shorter.

Common mistakes on landscaping estimates

• Guessing mulch and soil instead of working out area × depth ÷ 324.
• Leaving out soil prep. It is where a low bid usually saves money, and where first-season failures often start.
• No rate for repairs to the existing sprinkler system, so every broken line is a negotiation.
• A plant warranty with no conditions. Tie it to working irrigation and a watering schedule.
• No valid-until date. Plant, sod and bulk prices change with the season.