How to price a commercial landscape tender
Pricing a commercial landscape tender means measuring every item off the drawings in a quantity takeoff, applying current supply and labour rates to each one, then adding preliminaries, overhead, margin and contingency in a priced Bill of Quantities. Done properly it takes a few hours to a full day, and the accuracy of the takeoff, not the size of the margin, is what usually decides whether the bid wins.
What does pricing a commercial landscape tender actually involve?
Pricing a commercial landscape tender is the process of turning a set of drawings and a scope document into a defensible number you can submit and stand behind. It breaks into six stages: read the scope, measure the work, rate it, add preliminaries, add margin, and compile the Bill of Quantities.
Each stage feeds the next, so an error early on (a misread scope note, a missed area) carries all the way through to the submitted price. Commercial work differs from residential here: the scope is contractual, the drawings are detailed, and the head contractor expects a priced BOQ that maps line for line to their pricing schedule. Get the structure right and the number at the bottom is one you can justify in a post-tender interview.
Step 1: Read the scope and drawings before you price anything
Read the entire scope, specification and drawing set before you measure a single item. You are looking for what is included, what is explicitly excluded, and what is ambiguous enough to become a variation or a dispute later. The scope defines what you are pricing; the drawings tell you how much.
Note every inclusion and exclusion as you go, and flag unclear items as questions for the head contractor rather than assumptions. On commercial landscape packages the grey areas usually sit at the boundaries: who supplies and places topsoil, who handles subgrade preparation, where the landscape scope stops and civil begins. Pricing these on assumption is how margin quietly disappears once the job starts.
How do you do a landscape takeoff from the drawings?
A takeoff is the measured quantity of every scope item, read directly off the drawings to scale. You work systematically through the plans, measuring areas, lengths and counts, and record each against a line item so nothing is counted twice and nothing is left out.
Group the measurement the way the BOQ will read:
- Hardscape — paving, unit pavers, concrete, edging and steps, measured in square metres or lineal metres.
- Softscape — turf, garden bed preparation, planting, topsoil and mulch, measured in square metres or cubic metres.
- Structures — retaining walls, screens and pergolas, measured by area or count.
- Drainage and services — subsoil drains, pits and irrigation, measured in lineal metres and counts.
- Site works — excavation, subgrade preparation and disposal, measured in cubic metres.
The takeoff is where a tender is won or lost. Every later step multiplies these quantities, so a single missed area or a wrong scale reads through to the final price at full cost. This is the step worth slowing down for.
How do you apply rates to a landscape BOQ?
Applying rates means attaching a current supply-and-labour cost to each measured quantity to build the direct cost of the work. Each rate should reflect what the item genuinely costs you to deliver today, including material supply, labour, plant and wastage, not a figure carried over from an old job.
No two contractors price the same item identically, so the table below sets out what actually drives each rate rather than quoting a number. Rates move with supplier quotes, site access, quantity and the market, which is why a standing rate carried over from an old job is the most common source of a bad price.
| Item | Unit | What moves the rate |
|---|---|---|
| Turf supply and lay | m² | Turf variety, cartage distance, subgrade preparation, pallet access to the area |
| Garden bed preparation and mulch | m² | Mulch type and spread depth, bed shape and edge length, hand versus machine placement |
| Topsoil supply and spread | m³ | Soil blend and test requirements, cartage, spread depth, machine access to the beds |
| Unit paving supply and lay | m² | Paver unit cost, bedding and base build-up, cut ratio, laying pattern, falls and set-out |
| Concrete edging | lm | Profile and width, proportion of curves to straights, formwork and pour access |
| Subsoil drainage | lm | Trench depth, aggregate and sock specification, connection to the legal point of discharge |
Where an item carries real supply risk, price it off a live supplier quote rather than a standing rate. On commercial work the difference between a catalogue rate and a project-specific quote on a large quantity can be the difference between winning at margin and winning at a loss.
What preliminaries go into a commercial landscape tender?
Preliminaries are the project-specific costs of running the job that are not tied to a single measured item. On commercial landscape work they are often the difference between a complete price and one that looks cheap but cannot deliver. Price them from the actual conditions of this site, not a flat percentage.
Typical preliminaries on a commercial landscape package include:
- Site establishment, fencing and amenities.
- Supervision and site management time.
- Traffic management and access, especially on live or staged sites.
- Compliance: inductions, SWMS, insurances and quality records.
- Plant and equipment hire not built into item rates.
- Establishment and maintenance periods where the contract requires them.
The maintenance or plant-establishment period is the one most often missed. Many commercial landscape contracts require the contractor to maintain plantings for a defined period after practical completion, and that labour and replacement cost has to sit somewhere in the price.
How much margin should you add to a landscape tender?
There is no single correct margin. It should be set deliberately, on top of overhead recovery and a contingency sized to the scope risk, rather than guessed as a flat percentage across every job. Margin is a commercial decision; overhead and contingency are cost decisions, and confusing the three is a common way to underprice.
Separate the three so you can see them:
- Overhead recovery — your fixed business costs, spread across the work you win.
- Contingency — a risk allowance sized to how much is unknown in this specific scope. A clear, well-documented scope needs less; a vague one needs more.
- Margin — the profit you choose to add, informed by how badly you want the job and how competitive the field is.
Setting one blended percentage hides all three and makes it impossible to know, after a loss, whether you were too expensive or simply carrying risk the drawings did not warrant.
Step 6: Build and check the Bill of Quantities
The Bill of Quantities is the priced document you actually submit: every scope item, its quantity, its rate and its extended cost, compiled into a total. Build it to mirror the head contractor's pricing schedule so your numbers map line for line to theirs.
Before it goes out, check it three ways: the arithmetic (quantities times rates, extended and summed), the coverage (every scope item from Step 1 appears somewhere), and the exclusions (anything you have not priced is stated clearly, not left silent). A BOQ that is arithmetically perfect but silently missing a scope item is still a losing document, because you will wear that item as a variation dispute or an absorbed cost later.
The mistake that loses winnable tenders
The most common reason a capable landscaper loses a tender they should win is not price. It is an under-measured or missed scope item in the takeoff that has to be recovered later, which either pushes the submitted number up or quietly eats the margin once the job runs.
In practice, bid volume compounds this. Most subcontractors only have the capacity to price a handful of tenders a month, so each one carries weight, and a rushed takeoff on a tight deadline is exactly where items go missing. The contractors who win consistently are not the cheapest; they are the ones whose takeoffs are complete enough that their price is both competitive and deliverable. Accuracy at Step 2 is worth more than any adjustment you can make at Step 5.
Key terms
- Bill of Quantities (BOQ)
- An itemised, priced list of every material and labour item in a scope, with quantities, rates and extended costs, compiled into a total.
- Quantity takeoff
- The measured quantity of each scope item, read directly off the drawings to scale.
- Preliminaries
- Project-specific costs of running the job that are not tied to a single measured item, such as establishment, supervision and compliance.
- Contingency
- A risk allowance added to a price to cover what is unknown or unclear in the scope.
- Softscape and hardscape
- Softscape is the living work (turf, planting, soil); hardscape is the built work (paving, concrete, walls).
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to price a commercial landscape tender?
A commercial landscape tender usually takes several hours to a full day to price properly, depending on drawing complexity and scope size. A complete priced submission typically turns around in two to three business days once you have the drawings and scope.
What documents do you need to price a landscape tender?
You need the tender scope or specification, the current drawings, any bill of quantities or pricing schedule provided, and the conditions of contract. Soil reports, service plans and a site inspection help you price risk items accurately.
What margin should you add to a commercial landscape tender?
Margin varies by contractor, risk and market conditions, so there is no single correct figure. It should be set deliberately on top of overhead recovery and a contingency that reflects the scope risk, not guessed as a flat percentage.
Why do landscapers lose tenders they should win?
The most common cause is a missed or under-measured scope item that has to be absorbed later, which forces the price up or erodes margin. A disciplined takeoff that captures every item is the single biggest protection against this.
Key takeaways
- Pricing a commercial landscape tender is six stages: scope, takeoff, rates, preliminaries, margin, BOQ.
- The takeoff is where tenders are won or lost, because every later step multiplies its quantities.
- Price rates off current supplier quotes on risk items, not standing catalogue rates.
- Separate overhead, contingency and margin instead of using one blended percentage.
- Check the BOQ for arithmetic, full scope coverage and clearly stated exclusions before submitting.