What Should a Landscaping Quote Include?

Two quotes for the same yard, eight thousand dollars apart. Both from established companies. Neither is lying.

The difference is almost always scope, and scope hides in the lines that are missing rather than the lines that are there.

Start with what is excluded

Read the exclusions before the inclusions. That is where the gap between two bids usually lives.

Common exclusions worth checking: disposal of excavated material, topsoil supply, irrigation modifications, electrical, permits, restoration of areas crossed by machinery, and anything discovered underground. A quote that excludes disposal on a project moving twenty cubic metres of clay is not comparable to one that includes it.

Line items that should appear

Site preparation, meaning what gets removed and where it goes. Grading, with the intended fall stated. Base materials by depth for anything hard landscaped. Drainage, including where water exits. Product specifications with names, not categories. Labour. Restoration. Cleanup.

For planting: species, sizes at installation, and whether there is any establishment period covered. A tree quoted at 50 millimetre caliper and one quoted at 25 are different products at similar-sounding descriptions.

For hard landscaping: base depth is the number that matters, and it should be written down. Our patio installation page and retaining walls page both set out what we build into that base as standard.

Allowances, and how they behave

An allowance is a placeholder. Two thousand dollars for plants, to be selected later. There is nothing wrong with them, but a quote heavy with allowances is not a fixed price and should not be compared against one that is.

Ask what happens when an allowance is exceeded, and how changes get documented and re-quoted. The process matters more than the number, because the process is what determines whether the final invoice surprises you.

Payment structure

Deposits are normal, particularly where material is ordered specifically for your project. Progress payments tied to stages are normal on larger work.

What is worth asking is what each payment is buying and what happens if the schedule slips. A payment structure tied to milestones is easier to live with than one tied to dates.

Permits and who handles them

Calgary requires development permits for retaining walls over 1.2 metres of exposed face, and both a development permit and engineered drawings above 1.5 metres. Freestanding pergolas over 10 square metres need a development permit; attached ones need a building permit too.

Processing runs two to four weeks. A quote that omits permits on work that clearly needs them is either incomplete or planning to proceed without them, and unpermitted structural work becomes your problem at resale.

We handle applications on projects that trigger one, and that should be stated in writing rather than assumed.

Timeline, and the season

Calgary’s build window is shorter than the calendar suggests. Work that needs backfill compacted and settled wants to finish well before freeze-up. Planting has its own windows.

A quote with a start date and no completion range is half a schedule. Ask what happens if weather moves it, because in this climate weather will move it.

Warranty

What is covered, for how long, and when does the clock start. Ours begins at handover, after we walk the finished work with the property owner, which is a different thing from starting at invoice date.

Ask specifically whether workmanship and materials are treated separately. They usually are, and the material warranty is the manufacturer’s, not the contractor’s.

Why the low bid is low

Sometimes lower overhead. Frequently a thinner base, no geotextile, drainage that terminates nowhere, or a smaller crew stretching the timeline across a season.

None of that is visible at handover. All of it is visible in four winters, because Calgary’s freeze-thaw cycle tests every shortcut in a predictable order.

The way to protect yourself is not to reject the low bid. It is to make every bidder quote the same scope, in writing, so the comparison means something. Full budget context sits on our landscaping costs page, and where a project needs sequencing across services our landscape design service is where that gets resolved.

Before you request quotes

Decide what the space is for. Write down what must happen versus what would be nice. Photograph the access, including gate widths. Note where water currently sits after a heavy rain, because that answer shapes the design more than any preference will.

Then give every contractor the same brief. Different briefs produce incomparable numbers, and most of the confusion in this process comes from that alone.

Getting the brief right

The brief is the part you control, and it does more for quote quality than anything else in the process.

Write down what the space needs to do. Somewhere to eat outside, a level area for children, screening from a neighbouring window, a solution to water sitting against the house. Function first, features second, because a contractor who understands the problem often proposes a better answer than the one you had in mind.

Separate must-have from would-like, and say which is which. That lets a company phase the work openly rather than either quoting the whole thing and losing on price, or quietly dropping items to look competitive.

Include the practical detail: gate widths, where machinery could reach, where the water sits after heavy rain, and whether there is anything buried you know about. Then send the identical brief to everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do landscaping quotes vary so much?

Scope, almost always. The gap usually sits in lines that are absent rather than lines that differ: disposal, base depth, geotextile, drainage discharge, restoration and permits. Give every contractor the same written brief and the comparison starts to mean something.

What is an allowance in a quote?

A placeholder for something not yet chosen, such as a plant budget. They are normal, but a quote carrying several allowances is not a fixed price and should not be compared against one that is. Ask how overruns are documented and re-quoted.

Should I pay a deposit?

Deposits are standard, particularly where material is ordered specifically for your project. What matters is what each payment buys. Progress payments tied to completed stages are easier to live with than payments tied to calendar dates.

When does a landscaping warranty start?

Ask, because it varies. Ours begins at handover, after we walk the finished work with the property owner, which is different from starting at invoice date. Workmanship and materials are usually covered separately, and the material warranty is the manufacturer’s.

Should I accept a verbal quote?

No, on work of any size. A verbal number carries no scope, and scope is the entire basis of comparison. It also leaves nothing to refer back to when a question comes up midway through the build, which is when clarity matters most.

What if I only want part of the work done now?

Say so at quoting stage rather than after. Phasing changes sequencing, and some elements are far cheaper done together because the excavation and material deliveries happen once. A contractor who knows the full plan can stage it sensibly instead of building something that has to be disturbed next year.

We have been quoting and building across Calgary and the surrounding communities since 1990, on residential and commercial work. Estimates are free and itemised. Send us the brief and we will price it line by line.