Whether it’s adding a paved stone walkway, building a fountain in your backyard or simply making sure your lawn and garden are perfectly manicured, professional landscaping can elevate your home’s curb appeal and even its property value if you decide to list it for sale.
To enjoy these benefits, however, you need to do some research to find the right landscaping company with the skill, experience and professionalism to get the job done properly, just as you would when considering different Mississauga real estate lawyers when you’re ready to sell your home. You also need to know how much the project will cost, what you are being charged for and how you’ll be billed.
Choosing a landscaper, or a real estate agent, that provides clear, transparent pricing is crucial to help you budget for the work and avoid contact disputes after the work has been started or completed. In Ontario, a home renovation contract cannot be more than 10% higher than the written estimate if the estimate is included in the contract (unless the work or agreement changes.)
The information below will shed some light on the three most common ways landscapers charge for their services – by the hour, square footage or a flat rate per service. Keep in mind that these are labour costs and that material costs should remain consistent regardless of a landscaper’s pricing model.
Landscaping Services by the Hour
Generally speaking, landscaping companies charge by the hour for smaller jobs and maintenance work. When they visit your property, it’s easier to predict how long it will take to complete tasks such as:
- Lawn mowing and hedge trimming.
- Planting and fertilizing grass, trees, shrubs, etc.,
- Pest control.
It also makes sense to charge by the hour for these types of jobs because of their low costs, as they don’t require special tools, equipment or expertise.
Charging by Square Footage
Landscapers also commonly price jobs by the square footage or acreage of the area to be worked on. This is typically done for larger properties where mowing or aerating a lawn, for example, can take longer than an hour or two. Landscapers also commonly charge by the square foot for straightforward hardscaping projects (ones that don’t involve plant life, which are referred to as “softscaping” projects) such as building decks, patios, walkways, interlocking stone driveways, retaining walls, etc.
Landscaping Prices by the Job
Alternatively, your landscaper may quote you a flat rate price based on the task or project to be completed. Experienced landscapers (as in other professions) who have done just about every type of landscaping work under the sun several times over sometimes prefer to price their services this way as their experience allows them to accurately estimate their costs and the work involved. That’s not to say that only experienced landscapers charge a flat rate per job or service, or that those that don’t aren’t experienced; it’s that they find this pricing model works for their business. When interviewing landscapers, you still need to ask about their experience with the work to be done and for at least three references.
