How to quote lawn care

Quote the season, not just the first cut: what each visit includes, how often you come, what the treatments cost, and how the customer will pay.

Measure and walk the property first

Measure the turf in square feet before you price, with a measuring wheel or a satellite map, because treatments are priced by area and a wrong guess costs you on every round. Note what slows a visit down: slopes, narrow gates, and beds and fences to trim around. Then write down what a visit includes, such as mowing, trimming, edging the walks and blowing hard surfaces clean, and what it leaves out, like leaves, bed weeding or hedges. If the grass is overgrown today, price the first cut on its own, since it takes longer than the ones after it.

How lawn care is priced

Charge	Priced as	Show on the quote
Mowing	Per visit, by lawn size	How often, and what a visit includes
Fertilizer and weed control	Per round, by 1,000 sq ft	Number of rounds and their timing
Aeration and overseeding	Per job or per 1,000 sq ft	The area covered
Seasonal cleanup	Per job or hourly	What gets hauled away
Overgrown first cut	One-time price	The condition it assumes
Minimum visit	Flat	The smallest charge per stop

Fees to put in writing

• Minimum. A small lawn still costs you the drive and the setup, so set a minimum per stop and print it.
• Fuel surcharge. If you might add one, write its rule on the quote: what triggers it and how it’s figured. A surcharge the customer first meets on an invoice reads as a price rise.
• Skipped weeks. Say whether a visit skipped for drought or rain is credited, made up later, or already built into a flat monthly price.
• No access. Say whether you charge for a stop cut short by a locked gate or a dog in the yard.
• Disposal. Say whether clippings and leaves are mulched, bagged or hauled, and what hauling costs.

Treatments and add-ons as options

Make mowing the base and list the treatment program and extras, such as aeration, overseeding, grub control or a fall leaf cleanup, as optional items that aren’t counted until the customer picks them. Price each option for the whole season: a five-round program is five rounds, not one. The customer builds the season they want, and you get a fair chance to sell more than mowing.

How long the price holds, and renewals

Give the quote a valid-until date, and say whether the price holds for the full season once it’s signed. Say too whether you review prices each winter or the agreement carries over unless either side gives notice. A season price that renews without a review falls further behind your costs every year.

Payment terms for the season

Say on the quote how the season will be paid: per visit, in equal monthly amounts, or prepaid, and when any card on file will be charged. If you want the first month or a booking payment up front, set it as the deposit and say what it covers. Terms written here are the ones every later invoice can follow without an argument.

Signing, New York’s lawn contract, and home sales

Get the quote signed and dated, with the options and payment terms the customer picked marked on it.

New York sets written terms for commercial lawn applications. Its law defines one as the application of pesticide to ground, trees or shrubs on public or private outdoor property, and lists exclusions, among them golf courses and turf farms (ECL §33-0101). Before any commercial lawn application, the applicator needs a written contract with the property owner or the owner’s agent giving the approximate date or dates of application, the number of applications and the total cost (ECL §33-1001). Also before applying, the applicator must give the owner or agent a copy of:

• a list of what will be applied, with brand names and the generic names of the active ingredients;
• any label warnings that bear on protecting people, animals or the environment;
• your company’s name, address and phone number, business registration number and applicator certification identification card number.

The owner or agent decides whether that information comes in writing, digitally or electronically, and the applicator must also carry a written copy. If a treatment can’t go ahead on the date set, give the owner or agent notice of the new date, orally or in writing, and get their acceptance before applying. Keep copies of all these contracts. Writing those terms into the treatment quote the customer signs keeps them in one place.

Selling a season on the doorstep, or at the kitchen table after walking the lawn, can bring in the FTC Cooling-Off Rule. Subject to the exclusions it lists, the rule reaches consumer services that a seller solicits in person, whether or not the buyer invited the visit, when the price is $25 or more and the buyer agrees at their residence, or $130 or more and they agree somewhere else away from the seller’s place of business (16 CFR 429). A covered customer can cancel up to midnight of the third business day after the day of the sale; Sundays and federal holidays aren’t business days. Your side of it: tell the customer about the right when they sign; give them a fully completed, dated copy of the contract with your business name and address and, beside their signature, the rule’s cancellation statement in bold type no smaller than 10 points; and include the Notice of Cancellation form, filled in, in duplicate. If they cancel in time, their payments go back to them within 10 business days after the notice reaches you.

Three lawn care quoting mistakes that lose the job or the margin

1. Guessing the size. A lawn priced from the curb that turns out a third bigger loses you money on every visit, all season.
2. Quoting mowing alone. With no treatment or cleanup options on the quote, the customer buys those from someone else.
3. No word on price changes. Without a fuel clause or a yearly review, rising costs come out of your margin instead of the price.