How to Bid Commercial Landscaping Jobs as a Subcontractor: From ITB to Signed Subcontract
Commercial landscape and hardscape work is usually bid to a general contractor, not an owner. Here is the method a sub uses: get on bid lists, read every page of the bid set, take off and price your scope, handle prevailing wage and bonds, and send a scope letter the GC can carry.
To bid commercial landscaping jobs, get on general contractors’ bid lists, read the invitation to bid (ITB) and every page of the plans, specs and addenda, take off and price only your scope, and send a scope letter with clear inclusions, exclusions and qualifications before the GC’s deadline. On public and federally funded work, prevailing wage, certified payroll and bonding have to be in the number from the start, not sorted out after award.
Quick answer
Commercial landscape work is usually bid through a general contractor. The GC sends an ITB, you price your trades from the plans, specs and addenda, and your proposal states exactly what’s in, out and assumed. Federally funded construction contracts over $2,000 carry Davis-Bacon prevailing wages for subs too, and federal prime contracts over $150,000 need performance and payment bonds.
How a landscape sub fits into a commercial bid
On a typical commercial project the owner hires a general contractor, and the GC builds its price from sub bids. You aren’t selling to the owner; you’re giving an estimator a number they can carry with confidence. Invitations usually come by email or through bid platforms such as BuildingConnected or SmartBid.
Your bid is due before the GC’s bid, so the estimator has time to compare subs. After award, you sign the GC’s subcontract, which usually flows many of the owner’s contract terms down to you.
Getting on GC bid lists
GCs invite subs they know or have prequalified. Find the estimators at contractors who build the work you want and send a short capability statement: trades, crew size, equipment, service area, recent project types and contact information.
Expect a prequalification form asking for:
- Insurance certificates and limits
- Workers’ compensation experience modification rate (EMR)
- Safety program and training
- Bonding capacity and surety contact
- References, licenses and years in business
Understand your EMR before you fill in the form. NCCI’s guide to experience rating explains that the mod compares your losses, usually over a three-year experience period, with the average employer in your class. Better than average earns a credit mod, worse carries a debit. NCCI’s plan also weights frequency over severity: ten $5,000 claims push the mod higher than one $50,000 claim. The dollar limits behind that math vary by state, so ask your agent how your mod is figured.
Read the whole bid set before you price
Make the go or no-go call first: the work should be your trade, your size and within your range, with bond, insurance and schedule requirements you can meet.
Then read everything. The ITB gives the due date and time, how to submit, the bid form, the pre-bid meeting or site walk, the RFI deadline and the bond, insurance and wage requirements. Your scope sits in more places than the landscape sheets.
| Where to look | What you’ll find | Why it changes your price |
|---|---|---|
| Landscape (L) sheets | Planting plan, plant schedule, hardscape layout, details | Quantities, species and sizes |
| Civil (C) sheets | Grading, stormwater, utilities, paving, walls | Earthwork, base, walls and drainage that may be in your scope |
| Spec Division 32 | 32 14 00 unit paving, 32 32 23 segmental walls, 32 84 00 irrigation, 32 93 00 planting | Materials, testing, submittals, warranty |
| General conditions | Schedule, retainage, payment, insurance, cleanup | Cash flow and overhead |
| Addenda | Changes to any of the above | Anything since the set was issued |
Specs carry costs plans don’t show: plant warranty periods, maintenance periods, compaction testing, mockups, submittal deadlines and approved manufacturers. A commercial paver spec may call for a different base than you’d build on a residential patio; compare it with what you know from paver base depth and price what the spec says. Segmental walls on commercial jobs may come engineered, with the design on the drawings; our article on retaining walls over 4 feet covers when engineering comes in.
If the drawings and specs disagree, or something is missing, send an RFI before the deadline. Some owners put that duty in writing: Northern Arizona University’s standards make the contractor responsible for flagging, in writing, any discrepancy between its landscape master plan and its standards that may alter a bid.
Take off and price your scope
Take off every item in the unit the bid form uses: square feet of pavers, linear feet of edging and curb, face square feet of wall, each for plants and cubic yards of soil and mulch. Tag every line with its sheet and spec section so you can defend the number on a scope review call. Count plant symbols on the plan rather than trusting the schedule, then reconcile the two. The method is the same one in our guide on how to estimate a paver patio, scaled up.
Price from your own production rates, labor burden, equipment costs and supplier quotes, then add overhead and profit. Commercial jobs add costs residential jobs don’t:
- Mobilizations. Phased sites can bring you back several times; price each trip.
- Access and logistics. Staging, hauling distance, traffic control, site security.
- Schedule. Planting windows, winter conditions, work you can’t start until the GC finishes paving.
- Paperwork. Submittals, daily reports, closeout, warranty walks.
- Money cost. Retainage and payment terms decide how long your cash sits in the job.
Not sure your labor rate covers all of that? Our guide to how much to charge per man hour for landscaping builds the rate from wage, labor burden, billable hours, overhead and profit.
Prevailing wage and certified payroll
The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts apply to contractors and subcontractors on federally funded or assisted contracts over $2,000 for construction, alteration or repair of public buildings or public works. You must pay at least the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits set by the Department of Labor; wage determinations are posted on SAM.gov. On prime contracts over $100,000, the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act adds overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours in a week.
DOL’s WH-347 instructions set the paperwork. Payroll goes in every week, with a signed Statement of Compliance that carries federal false-statement penalties. Each worker is paid at the rate for the classification actually worked. If someone runs a machine part of the week and plants the rest, you need accurate hours in each classification, or you pay the highest rate for all hours.
States add their own laws. DOL’s table of state prevailing wage thresholds, last revised January 2023, lists $25,000 for Pennsylvania and $250,000 for new construction in Ohio, which adjusts its figures every two years. States including Florida, Georgia and North Carolina have no prevailing wage law. Check the current rule with your state labor office before you bid.
To price it, use the wage determination’s rate plus fringe for each classification, for every hour on site, and add the time to run certified payroll.
Bonds and insurance
Under FAR 28.102-1, federal construction contracts over $150,000 need performance and payment bonds from the prime contractor, and a GC may ask its subs for bonds of their own. The payment bond protects you as a sub. The SBA Surety Bond Guarantee program backs bid, performance and payment bonds for small businesses on contracts up to $9 million (non-federal) or $14 million (federal). Its fee is 0.6 percent of the contract price on performance and payment bond guarantees, and nothing for bid bonds. Line up a surety before you need a bond.
The GC’s subcontract sets the insurance you have to carry. Read the required limits, additional insured wording and waiver of subrogation before bid day.
Write a scope letter the GC can carry
The scope letter is the bid. It should list:
- Inclusions by spec section and sheet
- Exclusions, such as permits, layout, testing, rock, winter protection or irrigation sleeves, whatever you’re not carrying
- Qualifications: assumptions about access, phasing, number of mobilizations and who supplies what
- Addenda acknowledged by number and date
- Alternates and unit prices the bid form asks for
- How long the price is good, plus any material escalation terms
Fill out the GC’s bid form too, if there is one. Clear exclusions make your number easy to compare, and an estimator is more likely to carry a number they don’t have to guess about.
On smaller private jobs a GC may ask the landscape sub for a design-build layout. If you need it drawn, our white-label landscape design plans are $295 per area or $750 for a full yard, under your company name.
Builder’s note: List every addendum by number and date on the scope letter, even the ones that didn’t touch your work. If an addendum changed your scope and your proposal doesn’t mention it, the estimator has to guess if you priced it, and that guess rarely goes your way.
Bid day and after
Send the bid well ahead of the deadline and confirm the GC received it. A clean bid that arrives early is easier to review than one that lands in the last hour.
If you’re low, expect a scope review call. Walk through inclusions and exclusions line by line. If asked to drop the price, cut scope with it, not just margin.
Before you sign, read the subcontract for flow-down clauses, payment terms, retainage, indemnity, schedule and liquidated damages, warranty start date and the change order process. Track every bid you send, which GC, the result and the winning number when you can get it. Your hit rate by GC tells you where to spend estimating time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ITB in commercial construction?
An invitation to bid is the GC’s or owner’s request for prices. It lists the project, due date, submission method, bid documents, pre-bid meeting, RFI deadline and requirements such as bonds, insurance and prevailing wage.
Do landscape subcontractors have to pay prevailing wage?
On federally funded or assisted construction contracts over $2,000, yes: Davis-Bacon covers subcontractors as well as primes. Many states have their own prevailing wage laws for public works, with thresholds that vary by state.
Do I need a bond to bid as a landscape sub?
Not always. Federal prime contracts over $150,000 require performance and payment bonds, and a GC may require bonds from its subs. The ITB or bid form will say.
How do I get on a general contractor’s bid list?
Send the estimators a short capability statement and complete their prequalification form, with insurance, EMR, safety program, bonding and references. Then bid what they send, on time, with a clear scope.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Davis-Bacon and Related Acts; U.S. Department of Labor, Instructions for Completing Weekly Certified Payroll Form WH-347; U.S. Department of Labor, Dollar Threshold Amounts for Contract Coverage Under State Prevailing Wage Laws; FAR 28.102-1, Performance and Payment Bonds (Miller Act); U.S. Small Business Administration, Surety Bonds; NCCI, ABCs of Experience Rating; Northern Arizona University, Division 32 Exterior Improvements Technical Standards (MasterFormat numbering)
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Written and reviewed by Thayne Muthler, owner of Muthler Landscaping & Construction (PA HIC #PA212584). How we check facts: editorial policy.