How to Price Lawn Care Add-Ons

Add-ons are where lawn care companies either look organized or bleed minutes. Leaf, aeration, bagging, cleanup, and shrub work are real products. If they live in the sentence “we can take care of that too,” they live on your margin.

This rate-card guide sits next to how to price lawn care jobs and what a mowing service includes. Core mow, edge, and blow stay the package. Everything else gets a unit, a number, and a line on the quote. Use the hourly rate calculator if you still need a cost floor before you fill in the menu.

Build a menu before the season asks

Write the add-on list in January. Train it in March. Do not invent leaf prices in the driveway in November.

A complete menu usually covers:

• Bagging / haul-away
• Initial cleanup / first cut
• Bed weeding
• Shrub and small hedge maintenance
• Leaf packages
• Aeration / overseed / seasonal tickets
• Storm debris (written authorization)
• Extra travel when the stop sits outside your radius

Each item needs: unit, what is included, what is excluded, when it runs. Recurring plans should say whether an add-on is every visit, monthly, or seasonal.

Master add-on table (illustrative units)

Fill the dollars for your market. The unit is what keeps two estimators close.

Start from minutes, then add dump and materials

The same cost floor you use for mowing applies: loaded labor, fuel, equipment reserve, overhead, then target margin. Run the numbers in the hourly rate calculator, then see the worked hour example in pricing lawn care jobs.

Add-on-specific extras:

• Dump and bags - pass through plus handling time
• Materials - seed, lime, ice melt - do not “include it” without a line
• Machine wear - aerators and blowers have a reserve too
• Risk - hidden roots, slope, wet leaf mats

Round to clean numbers. Put Regular vs Cash on the quote if that is your card policy. One policy for mows and add-ons.

Bagging and haul-away

Core packages usually mulch and blow hard surfaces. Bagging is a different visit shape.

Price it when:

• HOA or customer requires removal
• Heavy spring growth or a cleanup produces a truckload
• Disease or seed-head concerns make mulching a bad look (you still charge for the handling)

If the crew bags “just this once” with no line, you trained a new included service. Job checklists should show bagging only when the job lists it.

Leaf removal

Leaves are a volume business pretending to be a mow.

Do not sell “leaf cleanup” as one number for a townhome and an estate. Use:

1. Site photos or a drive-by
2. A minimum that covers mobilization
3. Tiers (light / medium / heavy) or estimated hours / yards
4. A haul-away line
5. A return rule while trees are still dropping
6. Exclusions (gutters, roofs, drainage ditches, neighbor’s trees piled on the curb)

Example leaf card (customize)

Leaf season wrecks routes if you treat it like extra mows. Block leaf days. Do not sandwich a heavy estate between eight weekly cores. End-of-season ops should already have the card published.

Aeration, overseed, and seasonal tickets

These are not “while we are here” extras. They are scheduled products with equipment and materials.

Price aeration from:

• Lot-size band or measured square footage
• Machine time and a second person if you walk behind
• Soft-ground risk (you may reschedule - say so)
• Optional liquid or granular programs as separate treatment plans

Overseed and lime: material plus labor. Write whether watering is the customer’s job. Write whether a follow-up mow height change is included.

Invoice the ticket when the work is done, not as a vague extra on a mow invoice. Get paid on the same-day rhythm.

Shrub trim and small ornamental work

Shrub trim is production work. Hedge restoration is a project. Do not use one price.

Count or band shrubs (small / medium / large). Height and density matter more than “there are some bushes.” Disposal is an add-on if volume is real.

Exclude irrigation heads you did not hit on purpose, plant warranty, and design. If the customer wants a landscape redesign, that is not a mow add-on.

Bed weeding and “touch-up”

Beds destroy unpriced time. Either:

• Bundle a monthly touch-up with a time cap into Premium, or
• Sell per-bed or per-hour with a cap

“Weed the beds whenever they look bad” is not a product. It is an argument.

Put the cadence on the plan. Weekly mow does not mean weekly beds unless you sold weekly beds.

Cleanups, storm, and one-time extras

First-cut pricing is the template: project, not package.

Storm debris and downed limbs: written authorization, photos, hourly or per-pile, dump separate. Do not start because the customer waved from the porch.

One-time vs recurring customers will ask for “just the leaves this year.” Fine. Quote the leaf product. Do not discount it because they might become a weekly later. Convert after, on purpose.

Teach the quote, then teach the crew

Estimators:

1. Confirm the add-on unit
2. Apply lot or volume band
3. Add dump / material / trip
4. Round
5. Write exclusions in one sentence

Crews:

• Only perform add-ons listed on the job
• Photo before/after on leaf and shrub when volume is disputed
• Stop at the time cap and call, do not donate an extra hour

If two people cannot land near the same shrub number, your bands are still tribal knowledge.

Worked quote: medium lot, weekly core + fall leaf + bagging once

• Weekly Core: $80
• November leaf, medium tier: $225 + $40 dump
• Bagging on the last mow before freeze: $25
• Scope: leaf is one visit; remaining drop is a second visit at light tier if they want it
• Regular vs Cash shown on each line or on the total, matching policy

That is a company quote. “We’ll throw the leaves in for $50” is a gift.

Raise add-on prices when the work changed

Raise when dump fees jump, when leaf volume in your market got worse, when seed cost moved, or when you are booking out and still saying yes. Give plan customers notice on recurring add-ons (monthly beds). Seasonal tickets can simply publish the new card.

Do not keep a 2019 aeration price because you are afraid to reprint the door hanger.

Put the new card on the website and in the quote template the same week. Crews should not hear a new leaf minimum from a customer who saw last year’s hanger. If you run dual Regular vs Cash, reprint both columns. A stale add-on price is still a promise.

How MowProHQ helps add-ons stay on the invoice

MowProHQ keeps add-on lines on the quote, the job, and the invoice so leaf and aeration do not disappear into a mow total. Core CRM, schedule, quotes, invoices, dual Regular vs Cash pricing, portal, and website editor are free with two seats and no seat fees. Growth is $39/month with a 30-day trial - unlimited seats, live site and lead inbox, dispatch and route optimization, GPS, chemical tracking, and timeclock - and NMI at 3.5% + $0.30 versus 4% + $0.30 on Free. Pro is $89/month for AI website, Get Found, and review automation.

Publish the menu. Invoice the menu. See pricing or sign up before the first leaf pile of the year.

If it is not on the rate card, it is not an add-on. It is a donation. Price it like you meant to sell it.

Frequently asked questions

How should lawn care companies price add-ons?

Give each add-on a unit - per visit, per bed, per hour with a cap, or per cubic yard - then price from minutes, dump fees, and a target revenue per hour. Publish the menu so estimators do not invent numbers and crews do not give the work away.

Should bagging be included in a mowing package?

Only if you sold it that way and the price includes handling and dump. Most core mow, edge, and blow packages leave clippings on the turf and blow hard surfaces. Bagging is a separate product with a dump line.

How do I price leaf removal?

Use a minimum plus volume tiers, not a flat number for every yard. Leaves hide time. Photo the property, estimate yards or hours, include haul-away, and write a recut or second-visit rule when trees are still dropping.

How do I price aeration and overseed?

Price the machine time, labor, seed or soil amendment, and a return window if you water-in or follow up. Do not hide aeration inside a cheap mow. It is a seasonal ticket with its own schedule and invoice.

What is a fair way to price shrub trimming?

Count shrubs or estimate hours, separate maintenance trim from restoration, and exclude trees and hedges that need a different crew. A per-shrub band with a minimum beats a driveway guess that ignores height and density.

How do I stop add-ons from turning into free extras?

Put prices on the quote and the job. Train crews that unpriced work is unpaid work. If you want to include an extra as a courtesy, write an end date. Recurring plans should list which add-ons fire on which cadence.

Should add-ons use the same cash vs card policy as mowing?

Yes. One policy. Show Regular and Cash totals on the add-on quote the same way you do on the mow package so processing is never a surprise.