The Ultimate Guide to the Cost of a Lawn Treatment Service
‘How much is this going to cost?’
This is a question that we naturally get asked quite frequently – all the more so with a growing customer base for our lawn treatment services. I can’t give you the pricing for every possible eventuality, but below I share two example programmes for an ‘average’ lawns in an to attempt to answer the question...
The Question of Cost
This question ultimately hinges on two major factors:
- The size of the lawn area that we are considering
- The services being proposed within the quotation
These factors could have a multiplying effect both upwards or downwards verses the pricing assumptions that you may have made around a lawn treatment service. With this in mind, it might be time to wipe your assumptions and read on!
Why are you getting for your investment? A professional lawn treatment service:
- Uses products that are of professional quality rather than that of DIY stores
- Uses products that have a far greater longevity than that of DIY
- Is licensed to use products not permitted by gardeners or the general public
- Has the machinery and equipment serviced and ready for the task in hand (which would be uneconomic for a homeowner or gardener to purchase and maintain)
A professional lawn treatment service also has costs which include:
- Skilled labour – including holidays, sickness and when lawns cannot be worked on due to frost, waterlogging and high winds
- Office labour – as the calls can’t schedule themselves!
- Team training and development so we can continue to bring our best
- PAYE, National Insurance and pension contributions
- Product including fertilisers, top dressing, seed and selective herbicides
- Machinery investment and replacement - such as the cost of vans, scarifiers and aerators
- Marketing costs
- Fuel
- Rent and power for both storage facilities and an office
- Software
- Insurance
- VAT at 20% on revenue (not profit) which is around 13% after reclaims
- Accounting and bookkeeping
- Corporation Tax at 19-25% of all profits
- All the small overheads and variable costs – such as out of hours call handling, website hosting, email servers, subscriptions and memberships, payment processing fees, bank fees – the list goes on!
You may not have bargained for that when clicking this article, but it’s the reality of running a business. Lets get onto the grass and the how much it costs bit!
The Lawn Treatment Service in Action
The industry norm is that a lawn treatment service may load up and travel to your property five times per year to make applications of fertiliser, weed control and moss control. Every lawn treatment service has their own take on this.
For example:
- Billing per individual treatment or per visit
- Number of visits
- Choice and longevity of product
Minimum Charges
Whether they advertise it or not, a lawn treatment service will have a minimum charge per treatment / visit for a set lawn size, measured in metres squared. This set size could be 30, 50, 75 or 100m2 – so look out for that variable too!
This is important as the difference in time required and product used will not vary a great deal for lawns under 100m2. We often find ourselves encouraging customers to add an additional lawn (even doing their neighbours half for free or just an extra few pounds per visit!) as they haven’t made use of their ‘threshold’. If we’re travelling to you anyway, then we’re going to want to make the best of that. That’s just who we are.
Our minimum charge is £29 (inclusive of VAT) per standard treatment of which we apply 7 treatments per year. This applies to all lawns which are under 50m2 in size. Your postcode, or the car on your drive will make no difference – our software programme treats all 49m2 lawns the same!
With this, our standard lawn treatment programme made up of:
- Regular fertiliser applications (4)
- Moss treatments (3)
- Soil Improver applications (2)
- Weed control treatments (2)
- Condition reports
- Ongoing help and advice from our team
Applied over 5 visits per year, spaced every 7-14 weeks equates to £16.92 per month for a greatly enhanced lawn all year around, and a fantastic lawn treatment partner in us!
The 'Average' Lawn
A more common lawn size would be that of 200m2. This could be made up of a reasonably sized rear lawn, or front and back. 200m2 would be the largest that we would come across for a typical new-build property. With this example lawn, the side access is good and it would benefit from an annual aeration. This machine boosts surface drainage, soil health, air movement and grass rooting. It’s only needed once per year and make for the perfect addition to most lawn treatment programmes. With these (usually) six visits per year, this would equate to £40.53 per month, again inclusive of labour, product and VAT.
- Impressive service and results from a professional company
- Save the need to purchase and store DIY products and lawn care machinery
- Cut out the risk of it going wrong by attempting yourself with lesser products
- Save your own time researching, purchasing and using
- A lawn care partner in your corner whenever the weather throws at us!
- Pride and joy installed into your lawn and garden
Could These Prices Vary With Alternative Lawn Treatment Services?
Without a doubt they would. As touched on, differing services will have their own programmes that they feel they can get results on, and price points that they can remain in business at. Our service makes for lawns to be proud of and our pricing model allows us to:
- Invest in the development of a brilliant team and workplace culture
- Use the very best products available on the professional market for lawn care
- Provide us with the time that we need to focus on results rather than targets – serving our customers to the best of our ability
- Allow us to reinvest in vans and machinery when required. Blunt scarifier blades and shallow aeration tines do not fit with our standards
- Remain up to date with regulations and best practice
Get Pricing for Lawn Care Services - 60 Second Quotation, 24/7
Head to our Instant Estimate feature where getting a quotation sent to your inbox is as easy as 1-2-3.
2) Use the mapping tool to set a pin on your house
3) Use the mapping tool to trace your lawns for approximate measurement. Then hit submit
There is no ongoing contract – see our online reviews and results for yourself! If you’re not one for technology or there’s a few unanswered questions, then we’re available over the phone during usual office hours on 01827 826123.