Build an early project range.

What this calculator works out

This tool turns five quick answers — location, area, site condition, main project element and finish level — into an early planning range for a landscaping project. It is designed for the very start of planning, before you have a design or a site visit, so you can sense-check a budget or compare it against a quote you already have.

The calculation applies a base rate for your chosen project element, then adjusts that rate for site condition, finish level and location. It deliberately shows a range rather than a single number, because even with the same five answers, two real sites can end up meaningfully different once access, exact material choice and contractor availability are factored in.

Area and project element set the base rate, since a retaining wall or a full landscaping fit-out draw on very different labour and material intensity per square metre. Site condition then scales that base up or down: a simple, flat, easy-access site costs meaningfully less than a complex one with slope, poor access or extensive earthworks, because those factors add time and equipment cost before a single finish is chosen.

Finish level changes the material and detailing spec rather than the scope itself — a practical finish and a premium finish can cover exactly the same area with very different specification, and that difference compounds across a whole site. Location applies a modest adjustment reflecting typical differences in access, material transport and labour availability between the areas covered here; it is a broad adjustment, not a substitute for a local quote, and none of this replaces an actual site visit once you're ready to compare contractors.

Use this before you've spoken to anyone, not instead of speaking to anyone. It's a genuinely useful way to check whether a budget figure in your head is realistic, or to sense-check a quote that's already come in — but a landscaper standing on your actual site will always know more than five multiple-choice answers can capture.

Nothing you enter here is sent anywhere or linked to your identity — your answers stay in your browser until you choose to carry them into a quote request.

• Ask whether a contractor's quote includes site preparation and disposal, or only the visible finish.
• Confirm access and ground conditions in person before treating any range as final.
• Use the higher end of a range if your site has slope, restricted access or extensive earthworks.