How to price lawn mowing jobs: a simple formula that covers your costs
Guessing from the curb works until it doesn’t. Build your price from your real costs and you’ll know every yard is worth mowing.
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Key takeaways
- Price from your real cost per crew hour, not from what the competitor down the road charges.
- Time on site plus a fair share of drive time, times your cost per hour, is the cost of a visit.
- Divide that cost by one minus your target margin to get a price. Adding a markup gives you less than you think.
- Set a minimum per visit, price extras separately, and re-run the numbers every winter.
Most people start pricing lawns the same way: look at the yard from the curb, think about what the last one like it cost, and say a number. It works until fuel goes up, you hire a second person, or you realize the yards you thought were your best customers are the ones you lose money on.
A price built from your own costs fixes that. It takes an hour to set up, and after that every quote takes a minute. Here is the method, with a worked example you can copy.
Start with your real cost per crew hour
Everything you spend to keep a crew mowing turns into a cost for every hour they work. Add up what a normal season costs you, divide by the hours your crew actually spends on customer properties, and you get the number every price is built on.
- Labor. Hourly wages for everyone on the crew, including you if you run a mower.
- Labor burden. Payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, and any benefits. It’s easy to forget and it adds up.
- Truck and trailer. Payments or depreciation, insurance, registration, and repairs.
- Equipment. Mowers, trimmers, and blowers, spread over the hours they’ll last, plus blades, belts, and service.
- Fuel for the truck and the equipment.
- Overhead. Business insurance, phone, software, accounting, marketing, and the hours you spend quoting and invoicing.
Example: cost per crew hour for a two-person crew
- Wages (two crew members)
- $40.00
- Labor burden (example rate)
- $6.00
- Truck and trailer
- $9.00
- Mowers and equipment
- $6.50
- Fuel
- $4.50
- Insurance, phone, software, and office
- $7.00
- Cost per crew hour
- $73.00
Estimate time on site
Time on site drives the price more than anything else, and it depends on more than square footage. Measure the mowable area with a satellite view, then adjust for everything that slows a crew down.
- Obstacles to mow around: beds, trees, playsets, trampolines, and tight fence lines.
- Trimming and edging along walks, driveways, and beds.
- Slopes, ditches, and anything that needs a push mower or string trimmer instead of a rider.
- Gates, dogs, and access. A yard you can’t get a mower into takes twice as long.
- Blowing off hard surfaces and bagging clippings if the customer wants them hauled.
| Property | Turf area | Time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Small, open lot | Under 5,000 sq ft | 20–25 min |
| Typical suburban yard | 5,000–10,000 sq ft | 30–40 min |
| Large yard with beds | 10,000–20,000 sq ft | 45–60 min |
| Half an acre and up | Measure it | Time the first visit |
Add a fair share of drive time
A yard that takes 30 minutes to mow but 20 minutes to reach costs almost twice what a yard next door to your last stop costs. You don’t have to charge each customer their exact drive, but every price should carry some of it. The simplest way is to add your average time between stops to every visit, and add more for anything outside your usual area.
This is also why tight recurring routes matter so much. Every minute you cut between stops is a minute you can sell.
Turn cost into a price with a margin
Price per visit = (time on site + drive share) × cost per crew hour ÷ (1 − target margin)
- Time on site
- Your estimate for this property, in hours.
- Drive share
- Your average time between stops, in hours.
- Cost per crew hour
- The number from your worksheet.
- Target margin
- The share of the price you want to keep as profit, such as 0.20 for 20%.
Example: weekly mowing at 14 Oak Lane
- Time on site
- 35 min
- Drive share
- 10 min
- Total crew time
- 0.75 hr
- Cost (0.75 × $73.00)
- $54.75
- Price at 20% margin ($54.75 ÷ 0.80)
- $68.44
- Quoted price per visit
- $69.00
Set a minimum charge
Small yards still cost you a setup, a stop, and a drive. A minimum per visit keeps them from quietly losing money. A good starting point is your cost for half an hour of crew time plus your margin. In the example, half an hour costs $36.50, so a minimum near $46 keeps the smallest yards worth the stop.
Per visit, monthly, or seasonal?
Once you know what a visit is worth, you can package it however your customers like to pay. The math underneath doesn’t change.
| Model | How it works | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Per visit | Bill for each mow, weekly or monthly | Revenue swings with the weather and the growing season |
| Flat monthly | Same amount every month of the season | Spell out how many visits it assumes and what happens on rain weeks |
| Season contract | One price for the season, paid in installments | A clear scope, start and end dates, and what’s extra |
Flat monthly and season pricing smooth out your cash flow, which is worth a lot in a seasonal business. Just build the price from the number of visits you actually expect to make, not the number in a perfect year.
Price the extras separately
Mowing is the service that gets you in the door. The extras are where many lawn businesses make their best margin, and they’re easier to sell when they have their own line on the quote.
- Edging beds and hard surfaces
- Spring and fall cleanups
- Aeration and overseeding
- Mulch, delivered and installed
- Hedge and shrub trimming
- Bagging and hauling clippings
- Double cuts after a wet week
Check your prices every season
Fuel, wages, insurance, and equipment all change. Re-run your cost-per-hour worksheet every winter, before you send renewals. If the number moved, your prices should too. We cover the conversation in how to raise your prices, and job costing shows you which properties are carrying their weight.
Common questions
Should I charge by the hour or per visit for mowing?
Per visit works best for recurring mowing, because customers want to know what each visit costs and you get rewarded for working efficiently. Hourly billing makes more sense for work you can’t scope in advance, like a first cleanup on a property that’s been neglected for years.
How should I price the first cut on an overgrown yard?
Treat it as its own one-time job. Tall, thick grass can take much longer than a regular cut and is harder on equipment, so estimate the time honestly and quote it separately from the weekly price.
How do I measure a yard without visiting?
Satellite mapping tools, including the measure tool in Google Maps, let you trace the turf area and get a square footage. Use it for the quote, then confirm your time on the first visit and adjust if the property had surprises.
Is it fair to charge different prices for yards that look similar?
Yes. Price follows the time a property takes and where it sits on your route. Two yards the same size can take very different amounts of time because of gates, slopes, beds, and drive time.