How do you price the landscape maintenance or establishment period in a tender?

What is the landscape maintenance or establishment period?

The landscape maintenance or establishment period is a set time after practical completion during which the landscape subcontractor looks after the new works so plants and turf establish. It typically covers watering, weeding, mulch top-ups, pruning, mowing, pest checks and replacing failed plants.

Specifications use different names for it: maintenance period, establishment period, plant establishment or landscape maintenance. Some tenders split it into a short establishment phase followed by a longer maintenance phase with different tasks. Read the documents for the terms this job uses, because the obligations follow the wording, not the label.

How is it different from the defects liability period?

The defects liability period is the time after practical completion during which you must fix defects in your completed work at your own cost. The maintenance period is work you are engaged and paid to perform. One is a warranty-type obligation, the other is a scope of work.

The two often run at the same time and can overlap in confusing ways. A plant that dies because it was poorly installed may be a defect. A plant that dies during maintenance may be a replacement you must make under the maintenance clause. The cost can land on you either way, which is why the wording matters.

Check the subcontract for when each period starts and ends, whether retention or security is held across them, and how a failed plant is treated. Where the effect of the clauses is unclear, raise a query and get advice before you price. Our guide to reading a landscape tender scope covers how to find these clauses.

What should you read in the maintenance specification?

The maintenance specification defines what you must do, how often, for how long, and what the site must look like at handover. Read it before you price anything, and note every item that will cost money. Work through it in this order:

1. Period length and start trigger. How long the period runs and what starts it: practical completion, completion of a separable portion, or a date. Staged handovers can mean several periods running at once.
2. Visit frequency. Whether the spec states a frequency, a minimum, or only an outcome. A stated frequency is a fixed quantity. An outcome means you set the visits and carry the risk.
3. Tasks per visit. Weeding, mowing, edging, pruning, litter removal, pest and disease checks, staking adjustments, mulch top-ups, fertilising and reporting.
4. Watering. Who supplies the water, whether irrigation is working and maintained by you, and whether hand or truck watering is required in dry spells or where irrigation is not installed.
5. Plant and turf replacement. What counts as a failed plant, whether replacements must match the original size, and whether the obligation applies regardless of cause.
6. Records and reporting. Visit logs, photos, chemical use records and any inspections you must attend.
7. Handover criteria. The condition required at the end, such as coverage, weed-free beds or turf established, and who inspects and signs it off.

Where the specification is silent on any of these, do not fill the gap with an assumption buried in your rate. Ask, or state your assumption as a clarification.

How do you build up the price per visit?

A maintenance price is built up per visit, then multiplied by the number of visits and added to the one-off items. Pricing it this way makes the assumptions visible and makes it easy to adjust if the period or frequency changes.

For each type of visit, price the crew size and hours on site, travel to and from site, vehicles and small plant, consumables such as fertiliser, mulch and chemicals, and green waste disposal. Labour rates, crew productivity and material costs come from your own records and suppliers, not from a general figure.

Visits are rarely all the same. A visit in the growing season may take longer than one in winter, and the first few visits after handover often carry more work than later ones. Where that applies, price separate visit types rather than one average.

As a made-up example: if the spec required 10 standard visits (made-up example figure) and 2 heavier visits with mulch top-ups (made-up example figure), you would price each type separately, multiply out, then add watering, the plant replacement allowance, reporting and the final handover inspection as their own items.

Each visit is a separate mobilisation, so travel matters. The preliminaries guide explains how to price mobilisation and time-related costs.

How do you price plant losses and replacements?

Plant losses are priced as a risk allowance based on the replacement obligation in the contract, the planting schedule and your own records of losses on similar jobs. There is no safe general figure, because losses depend on the species, stock size, season, site exposure, water supply and who else is on site.

Start from the plant schedule. Our guide to taking off a landscape plant schedule shows how to count stock by species and size. Mature or advanced stock costs more to replace and is harder to source, so it carries more risk per plant than tubestock.

Then read who carries which losses. Losses from vandalism, theft, damage by other trades, or lack of water where someone else controls the supply are not caused by your workmanship. If the clause makes you replace plants regardless of cause, price that risk or exclude it in writing.

Why should maintenance be a separate line?

Maintenance should be a separate line because it is a separate scope with a different timing, payment pattern and risk profile from construction. A separate line lets the head contractor compare it against other tenders and adjust it if the period changes.

It also protects you. If the maintenance cost is spread across construction rates, it gets paid early with the build and is easy to cut without anyone seeing what was lost. Where the tender form gives a line for it, use it. Where it does not, show it as a separate item in your bill of quantities or price breakdown.

Apply overhead and margin to it as you would to any other work. Our guide on pricing overhead and margin covers how to do that consistently.

What are the common traps?

The common traps in pricing maintenance are assumptions that only show up months after the tender, when the cost is already locked in.

• A delayed practical completion. The period moves into a harsher season, or other trades are still working through your planting.
• Staged handovers. Several separate maintenance periods each need their own visits and travel.
• Unclear water supply. Irrigation not commissioned, meters not connected, or no access to water on site.
• Replacement regardless of cause. Losses from vandalism or others' damage fall on you.
• Vague handover criteria. An undefined standard invites extra visits before sign-off.
• Extensions without payment. The period is extended when handover is not accepted, with no extra pay.

State the period, start trigger, visit count and water supply your price assumes in your tender clarifications and exclusions. If those change, you then have a basis to notify a variation.

Summary table

The table below sets out each part of a maintenance price, how it is built up and where the figures should come from.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the maintenance period and the defects liability period?

The maintenance or establishment period is work you are paid to do: watering, weeding, mulching and replacing failed plants. The defects liability period is the time you must fix defects in completed work at your own cost. They may run together, but they are different obligations, so check the contract.

How do you price a landscape maintenance period?

Build it up from the specification. Count the visits over the period, price the labour, plant, travel and materials for each visit, add watering, plant replacement risk and handover costs, then show the total as its own line so it can be checked and adjusted.

Who pays for plants that die during the establishment period?

That depends on the contract and specification. Many maintenance specifications make the subcontractor replace failed plants, sometimes regardless of cause. Read the replacement clause closely, price the risk you are carrying, and clarify losses from vandalism, theft, damage by others or lack of water.

Should maintenance be priced separately from construction?

Yes, unless the tender form says otherwise. A separate line lets the head contractor see what the period costs, adjust it if the length changes, and pay it as the work happens. Burying it in construction rates makes it hard to defend or recover.

How many maintenance visits should you allow for?

Allow for the number the specification requires, not a habit. Some specifications state a frequency, others set an outcome and leave the frequency to you. Where only an outcome is given, work out the visits needed from the season, the planting and your own records.

What happens if practical completion is delayed?

Your maintenance period may shift into a different season or overlap with other trades still on site, which changes the cost. State in your clarifications what period, start trigger and conditions your price assumes, so any change can be treated as a variation.

Key takeaways

• The maintenance or establishment period is paid scope; the defects liability period is an obligation to fix defects at your cost.
• Read the spec for period length, start trigger, visit frequency, tasks, watering, replacements and handover criteria.
• Build the price per visit type, multiply by the number of visits, then add one-off items.
• Price plant losses as a risk allowance from the replacement clause, the plant schedule and your own records.
• Show maintenance as its own line, with overhead and margin applied.
• Put your assumptions in the clarifications so changes can be claimed as variations.