Landscape Contractor Estimating & Pricing: A Practical System for Labor, Materials, Equipment, Overhead, Markup, Margin, and Profitable Bids

By Warren Holtby

Being busy does not prove your prices work.

Landscape jobs lose money when scope is vague, labor is guessed, equipment is treated as free, overhead is forgotten, or markup is mistaken for margin.

Landscape Contractor Estimating & Pricing gives small landscape contractors a practical system for turning the work a job requires into a defensible selling price.

The book follows a repeatable six-pass process:

Scope → Quantify → Time → Cost → Price → Check & Learn

Inside, you'll learn how to define scope before doing the arithmetic; separate measured quantities from actual purchase quantities; estimate labor-hours from operations and production rates; account for labor burden and equipment cost; capture delivery, travel, disposal, subcontractors and other forgotten costs; recover overhead; understand markup versus margin; review risk; and compare estimated versus actual results so future estimates improve.

You also get 16 complete worked landscape estimates covering planting, mulch, sod, paths, pavers, edging, fencing, drainage, retaining-wall work and multi-element projects.

The Field Toolkit adds worksheets for scope, quantity take-off, labor, equipment, overhead, bid review, production rates, job-cost history, price-book building and a master estimate.

This book is for landscape contractors, owner-operators and small crews who already know how to perform the work-but want a stronger system for deciding what to charge.

The worked numbers are fictional teaching inputs, not market-rate recommendations. The goal is to help you build better estimates from your company's costs, production data and completed jobs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HGR5L94V
• ISBN13: 9798194371006
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 103 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.2" x 7.0"