Landscape Estimator: Skills, Salaries and Education

Interested in becoming a landscape estimator? you’re at the right place.

We’ll show how the skills you require to get a job as an estimator in any landscaping company.

We’ll also give you the industry standard salaries so you can negotiate your salary with confidence.

Finally, we’ll show you what education you need to become a landscaping estimator that every company wants to hire!

Skills required to become an estimator

There are two types of skills that companies look for.

Hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills are those skills that come from experience, training, education, and learning. Examples of hard skills for an estimator are – costing, measurements, material takeoffs, proposal writing, doing estimates using software like Planswift, etc.

Soft skills are those skills that are social and interpersonal. These help you fit into a company culture and help you excel professionally and personally. Examples of soft skills for landscape estimators are attention to detail, relationship building, communication, etc.

In-demand hard skills for landscape estimators

You need a few following hard skills in your resume to get hired as a landscape estimator:

Reading a blueprint

As an estimator, you need blueprints for doing material takeoffs and estimating costs.

Since accuracy is key in creating good estimates, you would need to learn how to read blueprints. This means understanding every line and shading in the plan and knowing what materials would be required for each activity in each section.

This is a hard skill that can be learned for free by watching videos and using a free blueprint maker to gain practical knowledge.

Your day-to-day would require you to read blueprints, understand project specifications, and then project those requirements onto the drawings.

Using estimation software and tools

For landscaping jobs in the past, you would go to the site, measure the property area, and estimate costs.

With developing technologies and advancements in the industry, you now need a two-pronged approach for estimation.

You can use online property measurement tools to get a general idea of the land and then do finer estimates by using automated property estimation software while pricing a landscaping job.

There are a lot of estimation software available for estimators. The software depends on the company you’re applying for.

Most companies today use software like Bluebeam and B2W, Buildxact software, Planswift software, Sage Timberline, etc.

If you’re applying for a job as an estimator, you can learn how to use the software by watching training videos on YouTube.

Apart from that, you can request free training from the software makers. They are generally entertaining because if you know how to estimate in one software, you can influence your company to buy that software for landscaping project estimations.

Similarly, you can also learn how to use estimation tools like measuring wheels, GPS/LiDar devices, Moasure, etc.

Procurement and vendor management

For every estimate, you need to know the material costs along with the knowledge of who sells what.

There are multiple shovels (10 according to the electronics hub)and there are more than 190 suppliers of shovels listed on Thomas. Each shovel variant would have an advantage over the other.

As an estimator, you would need to recommend the right shovel for the right job. You would consider what is available and when it can delivered. This would be procurement.

Apart from sourcing, you would need to call multiple vendors to get offers and the best price. Building a good relationship with vendors will get you the best price and good lead delivery times for the materials which is very important for project execution.

With the existing supply chain disruptions, you can expect delays for a lot of the things you might want on the site. With good procurement and vendor management skills, you will be able to do justice to the landscape project execution.

Landscaping design and construction basics

Suppose you do not know that a good paver installation requires creating a slope, layering and compacting a base (not of dirt) and applying the right type of pavers. In that case, your estimates will never be good enough for a paver installation estimation.

Because if you miss on the slope, you would forget to add the additional gravel. If you forget about compacting, you will not add the cost of renting or running the compactor. If you forget about layering, you will not add the gravel cost, and the paving project is doomed before even the start.

Let’s consider a practical example:

In this way, landscaping design skills can greatly enhance an estimator’s ability to provide accurate and comprehensive estimates for landscaping projects.

Scheduling

Because you would primarily be responsible for assigning materials and labor hours for a job, you would need to align the material delivery along with the labor to make sure the labor is not sitting idle for the day while they wait for the material to come to the job site.

This means scheduling the materials and workers in a way that your project gets completed within the estimated time and your estimated range of labor hours and materials quantities.

From experience, you WILL need to factor in timings and costs for change orders. While doing projects, our subcontractors had a lot of rebars sent back because of the specification or a later realization during the project. And with change orders, there is always a cost involved and you can’t make the workers sit empty-handed while the new rebars arrive at the site.

Proposal writing and bid management

Creating estimates and pricing a lawn care job are not the only responsibilities of a landscape estimator.

After pricing, you need to create a detailed proposal or create a group of proposals for bidding purposes.

A proposal is a formal pledge to the client to provide certain services. It delves into the specifics and offers a thorough breakdown of the project scope and timeline. Proposals are more detailed than estimates.

Elements of a landscaping proposal:

• Project information – location, size of property, site conditions, and all other introductory information
• Scope of work – What services that need you will be delivered?
• Timeline – estimated time to complete the activities under the scope of work
• Material, Labour, equipment
• Other expenses – Credit card processing fees (3%), permits, insurance, and additional charges.
• Contingency plan – weather delays, unexpected repairs, change orders, faults you find at the site
• Terms and conditions
• Service diagrams

Computer basics along with Microsoft Office, Google docs

Since estimations, proposal writing, and projections are all done either on a spreadsheet or a doc, you need basic computer knowledge with intuitiveness to learn other computer programs quickly.

There are multiple digital options for a single task. But the fundamentals for all of these are the same.

Your MS Office/ Google Sheets knowledge comes in handy when a customer wants to price for a planting job with 5 different options. You should be able to project costs with 5 variations and interpret the data to suggest the most relevant option.

Apart from this, your regular day-to-day would include calling vendors to get prices and offers for materials.

After those calls, you would be updating the cost data of the materials for your company so it can be used later. This database is kept mostly in an Excel file or inside an estimation software.

In-demand soft skills for landscape estimators

You need the following soft skills in your resume to get hired as a landscape estimator:

Analytical skills

Good analytical skills mean you need to be more than just good with numbers. Apart from being able to play with numbers (prices and percentages), you need to understand how each component in an estimate affects the overall cost.

You need to understand the resource constraints you have as a company and adjust costs to labor and materials that bring in maximum profitability.

Fortunately, a lot of is intuitive and it is something you can get better with the more estimates you create.

Communication skills

One of your responsibilities will include keeping primary contact with suppliers, sub-contractors, estimators, designers, engineers, and architects to obtain the necessary information to prepare a comprehensive and accurate bid response.

The estimation process requires you to build relationships with multiple vendors and subcontractors for pricing. Apart from these external parties, you would need to collaborate with multiple people on your team and go back and forth on a variety of subproject estimates.

You would also need to negotiate with clients if you work in a mid-sized company.

You should be able to articulate yourself well and work well under pressure from other stakeholder. This often means keeping your attitude in check while still delivering what is best for the client and the company.

Labor hours is one area where you need to stay calm and deliver the best costing. If you overestimate the labor hours for an activity, your company stands at losing the bid. If you underestimate, you will need to face criticism from your fellow workers.

Detail orientation

Being a landscaping estimator requires you to see finer details while also looking at the big picture. While reading a blueprint, you would need to understand the project scope and estimate for every activity.

Even in a simple mow job, (even though you wouldn’t require a blueprint), you would account for elevations, slopes, obstacles, and structure in and around the total mowable area.

With that fine detail, you would estimate how the mowing might impact your mower blades and would include that cost in the estimate.

For some complex projects, you would need to do several variations for each activity.

For example, for a garden redesign project, you would estimate which focal point would cost how much, and what are the other options along with estimated pricing. You would also need to make the clients happy with the available options while keeping your project profitable.

Education, Courses, and other requirements

Below are some education/course certification options for getting selected for a landscape estimator role:

Education and knowledge

Below are the most common education that an employer asks for a landscape estimator job role.

• Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, Architecture, or a related field.
• Knowledge of both landscape and hardscape installation practices
• Basic math skills, including calculating volume, area, percentages, ratios, etc.
• Degree in Landscape Design, Architecture, or equivalent experience.

Courses

There are a few courses or certificates that help fast track your path for your new role.

• Certified Estimating Professional (CEP) – by AACE
• Certified Professional Estimator (CPE) – by ASPE
• Certified Cost Estimator/Analyst (CCE/A) – by ICEAA
• Certified Construction Manager (CCM) – By CMCI
• Project Management Professional (PMP) – By PMI
• Construction Documents Technologist (CDT) – By CSI

References:

• Best Estimator certifications
• Top Construction Estimating Certifications for Preconstruction Professionals
• Construction estimator certification 101

Eligibility

It is challenging to directly become an estimator right after college. Because you need design understanding, you should know the products and materials available on top of your mind, etc.

Employers ask for experience in the field because a project manager or a supervisor would have seen multiple projects to complete and would have a general sense of all the required skills for the role.

You can easily become an estimator if you already are in these roles:

• Supervisor
• Project manager
• Procurement manager
• Landscape designer

Additional courses and certifications ensure that you know industry best practices and know estimating apart from other hard skills required to be an estimator.

Other requirements

Below are some other requirements that employers ask for. These are required so that you can go to the job site and are legally compliant to work at the site.

• WHS White Card (US) or equivalent for other countries
• Drivers license
• Estimating or Purchasing Manager with a construction company may be a substitution for Education.

Job responsibilities of an landscape estimator

Below are some job responsibilities that you would have as an estimator.

Some of these would depend on the size of the company and some on the level of your role.

For example, in a small landscaping business, there would not be multiple junior roles, and you would wear multiple hats to get the job done.

In a large landscaping company, you would need to be an expert in a particular area to work with other estimators and stakeholders.

• Pre-construction duties
• Analyze project plans, blueprints, and specifications to determine project requirements.
• Review the scope of work and contracts upon project award to ensure alignment with estimates.
• Update costs database regularly
• Coordinate with vendors and subcontractors to obtain quotes and finalize terms.
• Ordering required materials at the relevant stages of the project
• Collect bids from subcontractors
• Maintain accurate records on projects including job cost, change orders, crew travel time, installation time, material, and daily job reports
• Performing site visits to meet with clients and do a site assessment.
• Plan, scheduled and supervised daily/weekly production for the assigned construction crew
• Preparing commercial and residential landscape bids/estimates- accurately detailing the scope of work, labor, and materials
• Resolve customer complaints concerning the quality of plant materials, installation, and change orders.
• Stay updated on industry trends and landscape construction practices.

Landscape estimator salaries

The average salary for a Landscape Estimator varies across different countries. In the United States, the average salary for a Landscape Estimator is approximately $45,147 per year.

In Canada, the national average salary for a Landscape Estimator is around CAD 43,933.

In Australia, the average annual salary for Landscape Estimator jobs ranges from AUD 70,000 to AUD 110,000.

In UK, Entry level positions start at £25,000 per year while most experienced workers make up to £50,000 per year.

Please note that these figures are averages and actual salaries can vary based on factors such as experience, skills, and location

Sample job descriptions