Tender & Estimating Software for Landscapers

A landscaping takeoff is the measured area, length and count of every element shown on the landscape plan, broken down so each can be priced with materials and labour. A complete landscaping takeoff typically covers:

• Paving and hard surfaces — concrete, paver, decking and gravel areas measured in square metres, plus edging and falls.
• Turf and garden beds — turf area, garden bed area, and mulch or garden edge treatments measured separately from paving.
• Planting schedule — trees, shrubs and groundcovers counted by species and pot or container size, taken directly from the plant schedule on the plan.
• Retaining walls and structures — retaining wall length and height by wall type, plus pergolas, fencing and screening elements.
• Irrigation and drainage — irrigation zones, pipe runs and dripline lengths, plus subsoil drainage where specified.

My Trade Hub’s estimation engine reads your landscape plans and performs the measured takeoff automatically — measuring paved and turf areas, counting planting schedule items, and taking off retaining wall and irrigation lengths — instead of you tracing shapes and counting plant symbols off the drawing by hand.

Because the takeoff is automated rather than manual, it is 60-75% faster than estimating the same landscape plan by hand, so a job that used to take an evening of measuring can be quantified the same day the plan lands in your inbox.

The output is a structured, itemised list of landscaping quantities — organised by paving, softscape, planting and structures — not a single lump-sum guess, so you can check every area and count before a rate is applied.

Once quantities are measured, pricing a landscaping job means applying a supply rate and a labour rate to every item, then adding delivery, disposal and margin — the takeoff gets you the quantities, but real site access and soil conditions still shape the final price.

Labour varies significantly with site access, existing ground conditions and how much cutting, levelling or soil import and export the job needs, so a rate that worked on a flat, accessible block will not hold on a steep or tight-access site. Planting rates also need to reflect supply cost by pot size, plus the labour to plant, stake and mulch — not just a flat per-plant figure.

On top of materials and labour, add delivery and waste disposal costs, your overheads and margin, and a realistic allowance for maintenance or a plant establishment period if that is part of the contract.

With the landscaping quantities measured and priced, the next step is turning that pricing into a document the client can approve — a clear, professional quote for a residential garden, or a complete tender submission for a larger commercial or public realm project.

My Trade Hub turns the priced takeoff straight into a client-ready quote or tender, with your branding and terms attached, so you are not manually re-typing paving areas, plant counts and wall lengths into a separate proposal document.

Because the slow part — measuring the plan — is already done, producing the quote itself takes minutes, which helps you get a proposal in front of a client while their landscape design is still front of mind.

Most landscapers move between two quite different pricing situations, and knowing which one applies changes how much documentation the job needs.

A residential landscaping job — a backyard makeover, a new turf and garden bed area, a retaining wall and paving package — is usually priced directly for the homeowner as a fixed-price quote from a concept or construction plan. Larger commercial, subdivision common-area or public realm landscaping is more often won by formal tender, priced against a landscape architect’s drawings and specification, sometimes alongside other landscaping contractors bidding the identical scope.

The estimating principle is the same either way — measure the plan accurately, then price it — but a tender typically demands a maintenance period allowance, a program and more formal supporting documentation than a straightforward residential quote.

Most landscaping under-quotes come down to a short list of recurring mistakes, all avoidable with a consistent takeoff process.

• Under-counting plants on a dense or busy planting schedule, especially groundcovers and small shrubs shown as a shaded area rather than individual symbols.
• Not allowing for site access, fall and cross-fall, which changes labour time on paving and turf far more than the area alone suggests.
• Forgetting soil import or spoil removal when existing site levels do not match the proposed finished levels.
• Under-pricing retaining wall structures, which often carry engineering, drainage and footing costs well beyond their lineal metre rate.
• Pricing from an early concept plan rather than the final construction issue, so paving areas or plant selections no longer match what is actually being built.

On most residential jobs, the landscaper who will build the job also prices it — walking the plan, measuring the scope and pulling together the quote themselves, since a dedicated estimator is rarely justified at that scale.

On larger commercial and public realm projects, a landscaping business may have a dedicated estimator working from a landscape architect’s drawings and a head contractor’s program, rather than site knowledge alone, particularly where the tender includes staged handover and maintenance obligations.

Either way, the same bottleneck applies: someone has to manually measure areas and count plants off a plan before a rate can be applied, which is exactly the step My Trade Hub automates.