Lawn Care Services Costs At a Glance

• Lawn mowing: $130 (CAD 170), average; $30-$515 (CAD 40-CAD 670), range
• Full lawn care: $50-$220 (CAD 65-CAD 290)

Imagine this: It's the middle of July. The heat index is through the roof. Unfortunately, so is the height of your grass. You're inside sipping a cold iced tea, thinking about how much you're going to have to sweat to get your yard back in shape. It's right about now that you might be wondering how much it would cost to hire a lawn service to do it for you.

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The total cost will vary based on what needs to be done. Having your lawn mowed will cost a lot less than full landscaping services, for example. Here’s a quick cost guide to get you started.

How Much Does It Cost to Mow a Lawn?

According to Bob Vila, the average cost for mowing a lawn is around $130 (CAD 170), although you could pay as much as little as $30 (CAD 40) for a small area or $515 (CAD 670) for a very large garden.

If you have a 5,000-square-foot lawn and it takes someone about 2.5 hours to mow it, edge it and handle the clippings, you're looking at between $60 and $150 (CAD 80 and CAD 195) for the service if your contractor charges per hour.

But that's just an average based on very basic lawn care services. Your cost could be higher or lower depending on a variety of factors.

Cost Factors

Professional lawn care typically involves much more than mowing your yard. According to Bob Vila, full lawn care services typically cost between about $50 and $220 (CAD 65 and CAD 290) per session.

The cost varies. Here are some things to consider:

Where You Live

If you live in an area with a high cost of living, chances are lawn care is going to be more expensive there, too. HowMuch.net reports averages for different areas of the country. In Miami, Florida, or Seattle, Washington, expect to pay 14 cents (CAD 0.18) per square foot, including labor. In Chicago, Illinois, it may cost up to 20 cents (CAD 0.26) per square foot.

Another location-based factor is how far you live from the company's base of operations. If the team has to drive an hour to get to you, there may be an extra charge to account for that time.

Size of the Yard

The more yard you have, the more time it takes to care for it. That's likely to impact your lawn care service cost.

However, one thing that's important to note is that a smaller yard doesn't always mean you pay less. At some point, charging any less to mow a smaller yard means the company doesn't recoup the cost of driving the equipment out to your home and handling the job. Many lawn care companies have a minimum charge regardless of yard size.

Type of Yard and Landscape

The structure of your yard can also change the average cost of lawn service. A flat, wide-open yard with few obstacles can be mowed and cared for quickly. A yard with hills, trees, flower beds, structures and fence lines or other obstacles takes more time and care. It can't all be mowed with a fast-riding mower. A lawn care professional will typically consider all of these things when giving you a quote.

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What Services You Want

All companies work with a different pricing structure. Some provide comprehensive packages that include landscaping and lawn care. Others charge a certain rate for mowing that's dependent on the size and type of lawn. Then, they offer other packages and add-on services for more advanced lawn care.

Here are some optional services that might drive up the cost of lawn care:

• Weeding
• Planting flowers or adding flower beds
• Adding sod or grass
• Removing trees or branches
• Pruning bushes or trees
• Adding or removing dirt
• Treating grass or lawns for growth or health
• Caring for trees or other plants on a regular basis

If you want to add some of these types of services, it might also limit which companies you can deal with. Depending on your location, someone may need to be licensed to provide some of these services. And even if that's not the case, not everyone who mows lawns is qualified to treat unhealthy trees or plan out flower beds for optimal curb appeal.

Type of Lawn Service Provider

Who you do business with can drastically drive up or down the price. If you're paying a teenager down the street to come out with their push mower, you're probably going to pay a lot less than if you contract a professional landscaping company.

Materials and Supplies

Whether you buy them yourself or have a lawn care professional handle it all, you still foot the bill for materials and supplies in one way or another. Materials and supplies are the specific items necessary for a landscaping job. For example, if you want to have someone re-sod your entire backyard or build raised flower beds around your deck, that's obviously going to cost more than just having your grass mowed.

If you're looking for this type of comprehensive landscaping service, ask for a detailed quote. You want to see the cost of materials as well as the cost of labor to understand if you can get a better deal elsewhere or by doing some of the work yourself.

Maintenance Required

If you have a lot of hedges that you want to be trimmed on a regular basis in addition to having your grass mowed, most lawn care pros aren't going to throw in all that labor completely for free. Typically, the more you ask for, the more it's going to cost.

Why Pay Someone to Care for Your Lawn?

Why should you consider paying someone else to maintain your lawn?

Well, not everyone can physically handle lawn care duty. Whether you have limited mobility or are dealing with a health issue, paying someone else to mow the grass lets you have a healthy lawn without putting your own health at risk. Maybe it’s just too time-consuming to maintain a lawn. Depending on your lawn and what you want it to look like, it could take hours of work every week to get the job done on your own. A crew of lawn care pros can typically knock that work out in no time and buy back a lot of hours that you can spend doing something else you enjoy.

In the end, it might even cost you more to do it on your own. If you don't have a mower or the other necessary equipment, investing in new tools for DIY lawn care could cost you as much as paying for a year or more of professional service.

All CAD conversions are based on the exchange rate on the date of publication.