The honest answer is "it depends" — so here's exactly what it depends on, what a good quote includes, and how to compare prices fairly.
Anyone who quotes a firm price for a lawn without seeing it is guessing. What it costs to get a lawn healthy and keep it that way depends on the size of the lawn, the state it's in now, how easily we can reach it, and whether you want a one-off visit or a programme through the year. Two lawns the same size can be a long way apart on price.
Rather than give you a number that turns out to be wrong, here's what actually drives the price — so when you do get a quote, you'll understand every line of it.
Most lawn work is priced by the area treated or cut, so the size of the lawn is the single biggest factor. A small front lawn and a half-acre back garden are different jobs in materials, machine time, and labour, even when the treatment itself is identical.
A lawn that has been looked after for years needs less work than one that is thick with moss, thatch, and weeds. A neglected lawn usually needs a recovery programme — scarifying, aeration, feeding, and overseeding — before routine care keeps it right, and that first year costs more than the years that follow.
A single treatment costs more per visit than the same treatment as part of a seasonal programme, because each visit carries its own travel and set-up. A year-round programme spreads the work across the seasons and is usually the better value as well as the better result.
Regular mowing through the growing season is quicker each visit than an occasional cut on long grass, which needs more passes, produces far more clippings, and takes longer to tidy. Fortnightly cutting in season generally costs less over a year than sporadic rescue cuts.
If mowers, scarifiers, and materials can be wheeled straight to the lawn, the work moves quickly. Rear lawns reached only through the house or a narrow gated passage mean smaller machines and more carrying by hand, which takes longer and feeds into the price.
Seasonal feed, selective weed control, and moss control are different products applied at different times of year. A lawn needing all three costs more than one needing a straightforward spring feed, and we only recommend what the lawn in front of us needs.
Mechanical work is more involved than spraying or spreading. Scarifying pulls out years of thatch and moss and leaves a great deal of waste to clear; aeration relieves compaction; overseeding follows on to fill the gaps. These are the jobs that transform a tired lawn, and they are priced accordingly.
Laying new turf or installing artificial grass involves stripping the old surface, preparing and levelling the ground, and supplying the turf or grass itself — a different order of work to maintaining an existing lawn. Ground preparation is where the lasting result is won, and it is not the place to cut corners.
Clippings, scarified thatch, moss, and old turf all have to go somewhere. Green waste removal and disposal is labour and cost that a job leaving nothing behind does not carry, so it is worth confirming it is included.
Each service page explains what the job involves, when it's best done, and what it does for the lawn.
Tell us about your lawn and we'll come and see it, then give you a clear, no-obligation quote with every line explained.
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