Office parks, HOAs, apartment complexes and retail centers want one number for the year and the same invoice every month. You need a price that covers every mow, blow, trim, cleanup and mulch round, plus the visits weather pushes around. The method is the same as residential, at a larger scale: count the hours, cost the hours, add materials and margin.
- Bid commercial maintenance by man-hours per visit x visits per year, plus materials and extras.
- Published consumer prices are residential. For commercial work, build the price from your own costs.
- Fixr lists landscaping labor at $50 to $100 an hour and lawn mowing at $25 to $60 an hour, useful as a check on your billed rate.
- Spread the yearly total over twelve equal invoices and put extras on a separate price list.
Start with your crew cost
Start with the wage. The closest group the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes is landscaping and groundskeeping workers. In its May 2025 wage survey, that group's national mean wage was $20.33 an hour and the median was $18.82 (BLS OEWS 37-3011). First-line supervisors of landscaping crews had a mean of $29.31 an hour.
Add your labor burden on top: payroll taxes, workers' comp and any paid time off. If burden in your state comes to 22% of wages, a $20 an hour tech costs you $24.40 an hour. That loaded number is what goes into the job cost.
For a check on your billed rate, Fixr lists the physical labor of landscaping at $50 to $100 an hour (Fixr) and lawn mowing at $25 to $60 an hour (Fixr). Those are residential figures. Commercial bids often land lower per hour on big open turf and higher on detailed beds.
Do a takeoff for every property
- Turf. Square footage by mower type: wide-area, walk-behind and string-trim only.
- Beds and edges. Linear feet of edging and square feet of beds to weed and mulch.
- Shrubs and hedges. Count and size, and how many trims a year.
- Hardscape. Walks and lots to blow, and litter pickup if it is in the scope.
- Seasonal work. Spring and fall cleanups, leaf removal, mulch rounds, aeration, annual flower changes.
The free lawn square footage calculator measures turf on the map, and the mulch calculator turns bed area into yards.
A worked example: an office park contract
Every input is an assumption for the example.
- Property: three acres of turf, 1,200 feet of bed edges, 60 shrubs, one entrance planting.
- Season: 30 weekly visits at 4 crew hours each.
- Loaded crew cost: $24.40 an hour ($20 wage with 22% burden).
- Overhead 20% of the price and profit 12%.
- Weekly service labor: 30 visits x 4 crew hours x $24.40 = $2,928
- Spring and fall cleanups: 2 x 24 crew hours x $24.40 = $1,171.20
- Mulch round: 40 yards x $38, plus 2 x 16 crew hours x $24.40 = $2,300.80
- Shrub trims: 4 x 10 crew hours x $24.40 = $976
- Equipment cost: 120 mower and trimmer hours x $9 = $1,080
- Drive: 30 visits x 2 trucks x 18 miles x $0.76 = $820.80
- Direct cost: $2,928 + $1,171.20 + $2,300.80 + $976 + $1,080 + $820.80 = $9,276.80
- Overhead plus profit: 20% + 12% = 32% of the price
- Price: $9,276.80 / (1 - 0.32) = $9,276.80 / 0.68 = $13,642
Check it: 32% of $13,642 is about $4,365, and $13,642 minus $4,365 is about $9,277, the direct cost of $9,276.80. The profit and overhead are inside the price, not added on top of a cost you guessed.
Billed over twelve months, that is $1,137 a month. Divide the price by your total crew hours and you get about $56.84 an hour, which is a useful check against Fixr's $50 to $100 an hour for landscaping labor.
Price the extras before they come up
Commercial clients ask for extras mid-season: storm cleanup, irrigation repairs, a tree limb, flowers for an event. Put a price list in the contract with your hourly rate for unlisted work. It saves an argument and keeps the extras profitable.
Win the bid, then bill it without thinking
On Front Office, commercial outreach writes to property managers near you with a short three-email sequence, and crew lets each person clock in and out of jobs from their phone, so you see hours by property. Maintenance plans bill the monthly amount on the card on file and book the visits as they come due.
Every property's stops go onto Today in driving order, with a lane for each crew on Front Office.
Common commercial landscaping pricing mistakes
- Bidding from square footage alone. Two properties of the same size can need very different hours.
- No weather allowance. Rained-out days still get worked, later and in overtime.
- Extras done free to keep the client. Price them in the contract.
- Not tracking hours by property. Without it, you will not know which contracts lose money.
Questions contractors ask
How do you price a commercial landscaping contract?
Count the man-hours per visit, multiply by visits per year, cost them at your loaded rate, add materials, equipment and seasonal work, then divide by one minus your margin. Bill the total in twelve equal parts.
What hourly rate should a commercial landscaper bill?
Enough to cover your loaded crew cost, equipment, overhead and profit. For a residential check, Fixr lists landscaping labor at $50 to $100 an hour and mowing at $25 to $60.
Should commercial contracts be billed monthly?
Most property managers prefer twelve equal monthly invoices, with extras billed separately.
How do I find commercial landscaping clients?
Property managers, HOAs and retail centers. On Front Office, Koira's commercial outreach writes to property managers near you.
