Pricing is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in your lawn care business. Set it too high, and you’ll frighten off good customers. Undercharge, and you’ll struggle to make ends meet. In the sweet spot, your business will hum like Forrest Gump on a brand-new zero turn.

In general, look to charge $40 to $80 per hour, depending on whether you live in rural Nebraska or Park Slope, Brooklyn.

This lawn care price chart is based on deep research and input from lawn care professionals. You can download it and tweak the hourly rate and lawn size to get accurate prices. It also factors in materials costs like mulch, seed, compost, gas, sod, bushes, and flowers.

 Lawn care pricing chart

This lawn care price chart shows how much to charge for mowing services and other yard care. You can download it using the links below and bend it to your will.

• Get the lawn care pricing chart (Google Sheets) here

Hourly Rate	$40
Lawn Size (Acres)	0.25
Whole Lawn Service	Hours	Price
Mowing (Includes trimming & blowing)	1	$40
Aeration	3	$120
Weed control	1	$40
Watering	1	$40
Leaf removal	1.5	$60
Fertilizing	0.5	$65
Seeding (new lawn)	4	$265
Overseeding	1.5	$165
Yard cleanup	1	$40
Garden cleanup	2	$80
Composting	2	$80
Dethatching	1.5	$60

Small-area services

This small-area lawn care price chart add-on is for services like mulching or tree pruning that can’t be priced by the acre. Download it with the links below, and change the square footage as needed.

• Here’s the lawn care pricing chart (.xls) here

Area Size (Sq Ft)	100
Small Area Service	Hours	Price
Mulching	0.75	$90
Hedge trimming	0.5	$40
Tree pruning (simple)	0.5	$60
Flower bed installation	3	$440
Flower planting	1	$213
Gutter cleaning	0.5	$40
Sod installation	3	$240
Tree planting	Per tree	$60 to $90
Tree transplanting	Per tree	$40 to $80

How to use this lawn care pricing chart

The best way to use the lawn care price chart above is:

1. Download it for Google Sheets
2. In your copy of the sheet, change the hourly rate, lawn size, and area size to dial in your prices.

How much to charge for lawn care services

The lawn care pricing charts above estimate hours per quarter acre and per 100 square feet, and factor in supplies like seeds and mulch. Here’s how much to charge for lawn care services:

How much to charge for lawn mowing

Unless you’re Carl from Caddyshack, charge $40 to $80 per hour for mowing. If you’re in high school and just trying to rake up a little spending money, you can go as low as $20 per hour. In an urban area, skew toward the high end. A working adult in most of the US should hit the middle.

• Quarter acre: $40 to $80
• Half acre: $80 to $160
• Full acre: $160 to $320

Aeration

According to Angie’s List, the average price to aerate a quarter-acre lawn in the U.S. is $139, which sounds about right. Include time to remove plugs (for mechanical aeration) or the cost of aeration liquid (for liquid aeration). You can buy a cheap push aerator for less than $100, rent a professional powered aerator for about the same, or buy one for $3,000 to $5,000 or more.

• Quarter acre: $120 to $240
• Half acre: $240 to $480
• Full acre: $480 to $960

Weed control

Plan to charge $80 to $160 to keep down nutsedge and dandelions, depending on the cost of living in your area. The cost of a broadcast application chemical like Tenacity or Trimec is negligible, since you mix a small amount with water to cover a large area.

• Quarter acre: $40 to $80
• Half acre: $80 to $160
• Full acre: $160 to $320

Watering

Assuming you’ll use your equipment and the homeowner’s water supply, watering should cost little more than your time. Per our lawn care pricing sheet, figure on one hour per quarter acre, or $40 to $80.

• Quarter acre: $40 to $80
• Half acre: $80 to $160
• Full acre: $160 to $320

Pest control

Zapping grubs, ants and spiders in the bluegrass doesn’t take long, but it may involve assessing the types of pests (Grubs? Ants? Mosquitoes?) and buying matching treatment chemicals.

• Quarter acre: $40 to $120
• Half acre: $160 to $240
• Full acre: $320 to $480

Leaf removal

You can rake and bag, or mow, rake, and mulch, or use a blower and bags. Either way, you’ll spend over an hour on a quarter acre, so set your prices accordingly.

• Quarter acre: $60 to $120
• Half acre: $120 to $240
• Full acre: $240 to $480

Pro Tip: Just getting your feet wet? Avoid buying battery-powered heavy equipment, like mowers or string trimmers. See our guide on how to start a lawn care business for more tips.

Fertilizing

Homeowners say “Fertilizer is cheap, and it only takes about half an hour to fertilize a good-sized lawn with a spreader.” They’re right on both counts, but “cheap” is about $60 a bag, and you’ll use ¾ of a bag on a quarter acre. Our lawn care pricing chart figures in your time and materials:

• Quarter acre: $65 to $85
• Half acre: $130 to $170
• Full acre: $260 to $340

Seeding (new lawn)

Similar to fertilizer, expect to pay $50 to $100 for a bag of seed to cover a quarter acre lawn, plus fertilizer, time to prep, spread, cover with straw, and water. 

• Quarter acre: $265 to $425
• Half acre: $530 to $850
• Full acre: $1,060 to $1,700

Overseeding (reseeding old lawn)

Greening up an existing lawn with seed and fertilizer costs the same as a new lawn in terms of materials, but it takes less time. Figure about $165 per quarter acre, unless you serve an upscale area.

• Quarter acre: $165 to $225
• Half acre: $330 to $450
• Full acre: $660 to $900

Yard cleanup

This lawn service can include a whole basket of services, including mowing, edging, weeding, mulching, raking, and removing dead branches and other debris after a blow. Plan to charge a catchall rate of $40 to $80 per hour, plus materials.

• Quarter acre: $40 to $80
• Half acre: $80 to $160
• Full acre: $160 to $320

Garden cleanup

In the fall, busy homeowners may ask you to remove spent tomato plants, corn stalks, and other annuals. This involves a lot of pulling, a little digging, and some hauling away or composting.

• Quarter acre: $80 to $160
• Half acre: $160 to $320
• Full acre: $320 to $640

Composting

Composting is an all-natural way to literally add new life to a lawn. You’ll need to buy about 10 bags of compost to top-dress a quarter acre, at a total cost of about $60.

• Quarter acre: $65 to $85
• Half acre: $130 to $170
• Full acre: $260 to $340

Pro Tip: You can earn more money without raising your prices if you get more customers. See our article on how to get more lawn care customers, fast.

Dethatching

Dethatching takes about the same amount of time as raking or mowing. A small lawn should cost about $100.

• Quarter acre: $60 to $120
• Half acre: $120 to $240
• Full acre: $240 to $480

Sprinkler system winterizing

Depending on how many zones the system has, you can winterize a sprinkler system with hand tools in less than an hour.

• Quarter acre: $40 to $80
• Half acre: $80 to $160
• Full acre: $160 to $320

 

How much to charge for small area yard care services

Some yard care (like mulching around bushes or installing flower beds) is more labor intensive per square foot, so it needs a different pricing model. These small-area services get their own lawn care pricing chart.

Mulching

Mulch is cheap at around $4 per bag. You can bet on covering 100 square feet with one bag, or use a mulch calculator. You may also need landscape fabric, but otherwise, your time is the most expensive part.

• 100 square feet: $60 to $90
• 200 square feet: $120 to $180
• 300 square feet: $180 to $270

Hedge trimming

A good cordless hedge trimmer sells for under $100, so this job comes down to time spent trimming and disposing of the evidence.

• 100 square feet: $20 to $40
• 200 square feet: $40 to $80
• 300 square feet: $60 to $120

Tree pruning

Figure about a half hour per tree, with inexpensive equipment, but bear in mind: for anything you can’t reach from the ground, you’ll want a licensed arborist on staff, bumping the price up to $250 to $700.

• Ground level: $30 to $60
• Above ground: $250 to $700

Flower bed installation

Putting in flower beds needs mulch, landscape fabric, and sometimes river rock, border bricks, and other add-ons. So — don’t trust our lawn care pricing chart implicitly; just use it as a ballpark. This is a more nuanced lawn care service, requiring deeper calculation based on your customer.

• 100 square feet: $320 to $440
• 200 square feet: $640 to $880
• 300 square feet: $960 to $1,320

Flower planting

Flowering plants for landscaping use cost $5 to $20 each, and you’ll need two or three every 20 square feet. Plan to spend about an hour on every 100 square feet of planting. 

• 100 square feet: $173 to $213
• 200 square feet: $347 to $427
• 300 square feet: $520 to $640

Pro Tip: You’ll justify your prices better if you explain your materials and labor costs. See our article on how to bid for lawn care jobs.

Gutter cleaning

All you need is ladders and gloves to clean gutters, though you may want additional safety and gear for high gutters, like a pressure washer or extendable poles, adding one-time costs.

• 100 square feet: $20 to $40
• 200 square feet: $40 to $80
• 300 square feet: $60 to $120

Sod installation

Home and garden big-box stores have made it easy to buy sod at $50 to $100 per 100 square feet. Factor in your time to transport and install the sod, plus tamping and watering.

• 100 square feet: $120 to $240
• 200 square feet: $240 to $480
• 300 square feet: $360 to $720

Tree planting

Trees and shrubs can vary widely from $20 to $200 each or more. Consider having a price list of different offerings ready, but in general, plan on charging $60 to $100 per tree or shrub.

• Per basic tree: $60 to $90
• Per premium tree: $250 to $400

Tree transplanting

Safely digging up and replanting a tree just costs your time, including mulching and watering. Larger trees may require heavy equipment outside the scope of our lawn care price chart, but moving a large tree can cost $1,000 to $10,000.

• Per small tree: $40 to $80
• Per large tree: $1,000 to $10,000

Lawn care profit isn’t just prices

You can do more lawns per crew and per day if your lawn care business is more efficient at scheduling, route density, and invoicing. Maximize your lawn care business with GorillaDesk — the full-featured field-service software that can trim your workload, tame your appointment book, and wrangle your billing.

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