To bid a landscaping job profitably, price five things: labor hours at a real loaded rate, materials with a markup, equipment and disposal, your overhead, and a profit margin on top. Then put a clear scope in writing so add-ons get paid for instead of absorbed. Skip any one of these and you are working for free.
We run home-service companies and watch crews underbid all the time. Here is the method that keeps a landscaping bid profitable, plus the lines that stop scope creep from eating your day.
Build every landscaping bid from these. The order matters — profit comes last, on top, not as whatever is left over.
Labor, at a loaded rate
Estimate crew hours for the job, then price them at a rate that covers wages plus payroll taxes, insurance, and a cushion — not just the hourly wage. Most underbids come from pricing labor at the wage.
Materials, with a markup
Plants, mulch, soil, pavers, edging. Mark them up 15 to 30 percent to cover sourcing, hauling, waste, and the risk of a price change between bid and buy.
Equipment and disposal
Mower, skid steer, dump runs, fuel. Big installs and clean-ups carry real equipment and dump-fee costs that quietly vanish from underbid jobs.
Overhead
Your truck, insurance, phone, software, and the time you spend bidding. Spread it across your jobs as a percentage so every bid carries its share.
Profit, on top
A margin above all costs — commonly 10 to 20 percent for landscaping — so the business grows instead of just surviving. This is the number crews forget.
For mowing and upkeep, price the visit and the season, factoring drive time and how route density changes your real cost. A tight route makes a low per-visit price profitable; a scattered one does not.
For installs and hardscapes, the risk is the unknown under the surface — rock, roots, drainage, access. Build a contingency into the bid or write the scope so surprises are change orders, not losses.
A verbal number on site is how disputes start. A written scope with what is and is not included is the cheapest insurance in the business.
Decide the lowest price you will take before you quote. A busy season is the time to raise prices, not to chase every job at a thin margin.
If you have more jobs to bid than you can take, you do not have a marketing problem and you should not pay for one. Sharpen your numbers, raise your prices in busy months, and keep your scope tight. That is the whole job.
The owners who struggle usually are not bad at bidding — they are not getting enough jobs to bid on. That is a visibility problem. We build the landscaping website and AI lead capture that turn local searches into estimate requests, from $249/mo, and you own it. We run the same stack on our own companies.
For more on filling the pipeline, see landscaping marketing, landscaping SEO, and how to grow a landscaping business.
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Estimate crew hours at a loaded labor rate, add materials with a 15 to 30 percent markup, include equipment and disposal, spread your overhead across the bid, and add a profit margin on top. Then put a clear written scope in place so add-ons are paid for.
Many landscapers target 10 to 20 percent profit above all costs, including a loaded labor rate and overhead. The exact number depends on your market and job type, but profit should be added on top, not left as whatever remains.
Price labor at a loaded rate that covers taxes and insurance, not the bare wage; mark up materials; account for equipment and dump fees; and build a contingency into installs for unknowns under the surface. Most underbids come from pricing labor too low.
Yes. A written scope that states what is and is not included prevents disputes and lets you charge for added work as change orders. A verbal number on site is the most common cause of arguments and lost margin.
Good bidding only helps if jobs come in. Send your company name and city and we will build a free demo of the landscaping site and lead capture that fills your bid list — in 48 hours, no card.
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