How to price grass-cutting contracts without guessing
A square-metre rate is an output, not a method. Build the price from measurable workload, realistic productivity and every hour the contract consumes.
The quickest way to underprice a grass contract is to take the site area, multiply it by an inherited pence-per-square-metre rate and hope the site behaves like the job that produced that rate. It rarely does.
Productivity changes with mower type, grass standard, obstacles, slopes, access, clipping requirements, weather and how fragmented the area is. The defensible approach is to estimate the hours required for each operation, then apply the business’s actual costs.
Start by separating the operations
A specification that says “grass cutting” may actually require several workloads:
- ride-on mowing of large open areas;
- pedestrian mowing around buildings and smaller lawns;
- strimming edges, trees, signs and obstacles;
- formal edging or re-forming edges;
- collection and disposal of arisings;
- litter picking before cutting;
- blowing paths and entrances; and
- additional cuts or presentation visits before events.
Measure and price each one. Otherwise the fastest operation—the open mowing—sets a rate that cannot pay for the slower detail work.
Convert quantities into visit hours
For area-based work, divide measured quantity by realistic hourly output. For linear or item-based work, use the equivalent productivity unit. Then add setup and movement time.
Worked example: six-site grass contract
Measured workload per visit
- Ride-on amenity grass: 42,000 m² at 7,000 m²/hour = 6.0 hours
- Pedestrian mowing: 5,400 m² at 1,800 m²/hour = 3.0 hours
- Strimming: 6.0 operative hours
- Litter pick and blowing: 2.0 operative hours
- Travel, loading and movement between sites: 3.5 operative hours
Total per visit: 20.5 operative hours.
At 18 visits, the core seasonal workload is 369 operative hours. Add wet-weather recovery, quality inspections and a sensible operational contingency before treating that as the annual total.
The productivity figures above are illustrative. Your own observed outputs are better. Record start and finish times for representative sites, separating actual production from travel and setup. Within a season you can build a productivity library grounded in your machinery, team and standards.
Do not confuse crew hours with elapsed hours
Two operatives working for five hours produce ten labour hours. This sounds obvious, yet crew duration and labour cost are regularly mixed in tender models. Keep them separate, particularly where one operative rides on while another strims.
Apply the complete labour cost
The wage is not the labour cost. Include employer National Insurance, pension, holiday, sickness allowance, training, PPE and other employment costs. If productive hours are fewer than paid hours, your chargeable hourly cost must recover the difference.
Allocate machinery honestly
Fuel is only one element. Machinery rates should recover depreciation or finance, servicing, blades, tyres, repairs, transport, insurance and eventual replacement. A machine that appears “already paid for” is still wearing out on the contract.
Add the contract-specific non-productive load
Include contract management, client meetings, inspections, digital reporting, invoicing, depot preparation and mobilisation. Small contracts are especially sensitive: one monthly meeting can be a meaningful percentage of total annual hours.
Illustrative annual cost build-up
- Labour: 410 hours × £21.50 = £8,815
- Machinery and fuel allocation = £3,150
- Vehicle and travel = £1,620
- Waste/materials = £480
- Contract supervision and administration = £1,250
Direct and contract-specific cost: £15,315
Add the business’s overhead recovery, then the required profit. If overhead allocation is 15% and the target margin is 12%, the bid is not £15,315 plus 27%. Margin is calculated against selling price, so calculate it deliberately rather than treating markup and margin as interchangeable.
Test the price against awkward reality
Run sensitivity checks. What happens if productivity is 10% lower? If five visits require clipping collection? If the first cut takes twice as long? If wage cost rises during a three-year term? A price that only works when every assumption is perfect is not a robust price.
State assumptions and request clarification
Where quantities or service standards are missing, do not bury a guess. Ask the buyer, or state the assumption clearly if the procurement rules require you to proceed. Keep an assumptions register alongside the estimate so that commercial decisions remain visible.
The final square-metre rate can still be useful for comparison—but only after the work has been estimated. It is a diagnostic number, not the engine of the calculation.
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