How to quote artificial grass jobs, step by step

Step 1 — measure the lawn

Everything downstream depends on the area, so measure before you price. A tape works for a simple rectangle; for anything with curves or a path through it, tracing the outline on a scaled satellite image is faster and more accurate than pacing it out — and you can do it before you ever drive to site.

Step 2 — plan the rolls, not just the area

You buy grass in fixed-width rolls (commonly 2m and 4m, sometimes 5m), so the real material cost is the roll area you have to buy, including trim. Plan the lay direction and mix widths to cover the lawn with the least waste. A 5m roll across a 4.2m lawn wastes 0.8m on every strip; rotating the lay or dropping to a 4m roll can remove most of that.

The output you want is a cut list — how many strips, at what length — because that is what you order and what the material line on the quote is based on.

Step 3 — price the five lines

Quote every job from the same five buckets so nothing gets forgotten:

• Grass — roll material from the cut list (£14/m² mid-range), waste included.
• Groundworks — dig-out and disposal, MOT Type 1, sharp sand.
• Consumables — membrane, joining tape and glue on the seams.
• Edging — perimeter, less any sides already bordered by wall or patio.
• Labour — crew size × days × day rate (~£190/person/day).

Step 4 — markup and how you present it

Add your markup (35% is common) on top of trade cost. Then decide what the client sees. Most installers do not itemise every line — a single price, or section totals, stops a customer from stripping your labour rate out and shopping the material list around three other firms.

Send it as a clean, branded PDF. A tidy quote wins more jobs than a spreadsheet screenshot, and it lets you hold your pricing without justifying every pound.