A landscaping quote reads differently from a plumbing quote. The customer is not comparing brands and models, they are comparing areas, species, running metres and a figure at the bottom. And they know the garden holds surprises, because nobody can see what is under the topsoil until the bucket goes in for the first time.
So the quote is first of all a document of trust. Three things make it credible: a measurement taken on site rather than estimated from the van, line items that follow the actual sequence of the job, and one clear sentence about what happens if the ground, the season or the weather force a deviation. This guide shows a complete quote for a 250 m2 garden, the price ranges observed in Switzerland in 2026, and what the Code of Obligations actually says about an overrun.
The mandatory and the useful details
No law prescribes what a quote must look like. What follows is what Swiss customers expect to read, and what protects you on the day the conversation turns sour.
- Your full company details: company name, address, phone, email, plus the property address when it differs.
- Your VAT number if you are registered: the UID number with the VAT suffix. Registration starts at CHF 100’000 of annual turnover; below that, no VAT belongs on the document.
- A description per line item: “hornbeam hedge, plants 120 to 140 cm, trench, topsoil and mulch” instead of “planting work”.
- Quantities and units: running metres for a hedge, square metres for a lawn, cubic metres for disposal, hours for maintenance, a lump sum for irrigation. The unit tells the customer how the price moves if the quantity changes.
- Unit prices and line totals: a single figure cannot be checked, and what cannot be checked gets haggled over.
- VAT at 8.1 %: subtotal, VAT amount, total.
- Validity: 30 to 60 days is enough in landscaping. Plant and turf prices move from one season to the next.
- Payment terms: the deadline (30 days net is the norm) and the advance payment. Above CHF 10’000, 30 % on order plus an interim payment mid-job is common.
- The clause for the unforeseen: what happens when the digger finds an old concrete slab, a rubble backfill or water. One sentence is enough, as long as it says who decides and at what price.
- The execution window: a window rather than a date, with a weather reservation. “Weeks 41 to 43, postponed in case of frost or saturated ground” beats a Monday you will not keep.
- The signature: yours, plus a dated line for the customer’s. A quote returned signed, or accepted by email, is a contract.
Full example: landscaping a 250 m2 garden
The job: a detached house near Winterthur, a 250 m2 garden to be rebuilt completely after facade work. Access through the side gate, mini excavator possible, measured on site on 3 September. The unit prices below are indicative 2026 prices, to be replaced with your own.
| No. | Work | Qty | Unit | Price | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Excavation, topsoil stripping and levelling, digger and operator | 250 | m2 | 14.00 | 3’500.00 |
| 2 | Hornbeam hedge, plants 120 to 140 cm, trench, topsoil, mulch * | 22 | rm | 88.00 | 1’936.00 |
| 3 | Turf, seedbed prepared, laid and rolled | 120 | m2 | 24.00 | 2’880.00 |
| 4 | Perennial and grass planting, structured bed | 35 | m2 | 62.00 | 2’170.00 |
| 5 | Automatic irrigation, 3 zones, controller | 1 | lump | 2’450.00 | 2’450.00 |
| 6 | Disposal of surplus soil and green waste | 12 | m3 | 78.00 | 936.00 |
| 7 | Travel and site set-up | 1 | lump | 420.00 | 420.00 |
Subtotal CHF 14’292.00, VAT 8.1 % CHF 1’157.65, total CHF 15’449.65.
* Estimate with no Swiss source, check it against a local supplier.
Below the line items belongs the sentence on what is not included. On a new garden it is nearly always the same three things: excavated soil that turns out to need disposal as contaminated material, pipes and inspection chambers that are not on any plan, and establishment in extreme weather, when the customer takes over the watering in the first weeks. Three lines of exclusions save three phone calls later.
This quote fits on one page and answers the customer’s three questions in advance. Why does the excavation cost almost a quarter of the total? Because twelve cubic metres of soil have to leave the site and everything else builds on it. What if the hedge turns out to be 25 metres instead of 22? Line 2 goes up by three times CHF 88.00, nothing else moves. And if the budget is too tight? Line 5 waits for the spring. A lump sum of CHF 15’450 gives none of those three answers.
A note on VAT: the plants are inside lines 2 and 4 here, so everything is taxed at the standard rate. Invoiced on a separate line, the supply of the plants would fall under the reduced rate of 2.6 %, even alongside services at the standard rate, on precisely that condition of separate invoicing (Art. 25 para. 2 let. a VAT Act). The same goes for fertiliser and mulch. A two-rate quote costs a little more data entry and produces a lower total.
Three more worked examples, for a painter, a plumber and a landscaper, are in the article How to write a quote.
Indicative Swiss prices 2026
The ranges below are what can be observed in 2026 in Swiss quotes and on the Swiss price portals. They are orders of magnitude, not a tariff: access, region, plant size and soil conditions can put the same item a factor of two apart.
| Work | Unit | Observed range |
|---|---|---|
| Hour of a qualified landscape gardener | h | CHF 70 to 110 |
| Hedge planted, plants 100 to 140 cm, topsoil and mulch included * | rm | CHF 60 to 140 |
| Turf laid, seedbed preparation included | m2 | CHF 15 to 30 |
| Garden or terrace paving, sub-base included | m2 | CHF 90 to 180 |
| Annual maintenance contract, 10 to 12 visits | year | CHF 2’000 to 3’500 |
* Estimate with no Swiss source, check it against a local supplier. The other four ranges rest on Swiss sources.
Two remarks. The hourly rate climbs towards the top of the range in the urban areas and drops in rural regions, but the rate you have to charge does not depend on the competition: it depends on your fixed costs and your genuinely productive hours. And a range never belongs in a binding quote. It settles the budget on the phone and disappears the moment you measure.
Ballpark quote or firm price?
Both exist, they bind you to very different degrees, and the Code of Obligations treats them separately. How to word the non-binding variant is covered in the guide Rough estimate.
| What you hand over | What binds you | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Firm price, lump sum | You perform for the fixed sum, even if the job turns out bigger (Art. 373 OR) | Measured, ground known, plants chosen |
| Cost estimate | An estimate; the price is then set by the value of the work and your outlay (Art. 374 OR) | Uncertain ground, old surfacing, trees to fell |
The firm price. Art. 373 OR is blunt: where the price was fixed exactly in advance, you are obliged to complete the work for that sum and may not demand any increase, even if it took more work or larger outlays than foreseen. Paragraph 2 leaves a narrow door open: if extraordinary circumstances that could not have been foreseen, or that were excluded by the assumptions both parties made, prevent completion or make it excessively difficult, the court may at its discretion grant a price increase or dissolve the contract. A narrow door, then, and one that runs through a court. Paragraph 3 works in your favour: if the work took less than foreseen, the client still pays the full price.
The cost estimate. Under Art. 374 OR, if the price was not fixed in advance, or only approximately, it is set according to the value of the work and your outlay. And Art. 375 OR gives the client a way out: where an approximate estimate agreed with you is exceeded disproportionately through no doing of the client, they may withdraw from the contract, during or after execution. For buildings on their own land they may instead demand a reasonable reduction of the price.
What the law does not say. It nowhere puts a figure on “disproportionately”. Practice treats an overrun from roughly 10 % as delicate, but that is a rule of thumb, not a statute. Hence the advice: write the tolerance on the quote yourself.
Cost estimate based on the measurement of 3 September. Tolerance plus or minus 10 %. Any larger deviation will be reported to you in writing before the affected item is carried out, and executed only after your approval.
A tolerance that is written down and honoured turns an overrun into information. Without it, it turns into a disputed final invoice.
Common mistakes landscapers make
- Rounded quantities with no measurement. “About 120 m2 of turf” becomes 138 m2 on laying day, and the 18 m2 come out of your margin. Measure with a wheel and write the measurement and its date on the quote.
- Forgetting disposal. Surplus soil, stumps and green waste cost transport, a skip and a landfill fee. A separate line in cubic metres can be corrected when the volume changes; a lump sum buried in the excavation cannot.
- No seasonal clause. Turf laid in a heatwave and perennials put into frozen ground do not take, and the replanting will be demanded of you. Write that planting depends on the weather window, and what applies if the job slips.
- The missing advance payment. Plants, turf and irrigation materials are paid for before your first working hour. Above CHF 10’000, 30 % on order is customary.
- A quote with no validity period. Without a deadline, Art. 5 OR binds you only until you can expect a reply sent properly and on time to arrive, a vague line that invites disputes. Thirty to sixty days, written on the document, closes that door.
Template to download
The skeleton of the document, letterhead, address blocks, line-item table and footer, is in the quote template, which today exists in German only; the structure transfers as it is and the labels translate in a few minutes. For the unit prices you will enter there, the hourly rate calculator, German too, works out from your fixed costs and productive hours the rate that genuinely covers your costs. That is the figure that belongs in the price column, not the one your neighbour charges.
Frequently asked questions
What does a landscape gardener cost per hour in Switzerland? In 2026 you can observe rates of CHF 70 to 110 an hour for qualified landscape gardeners, the top of the range in the urban areas, the bottom for simple maintenance done by a helper. These figures say nothing about your own rate: that is calculated from your fixed costs, your social contributions and your genuinely productive hours, not from a market average.
Is a landscaping quote free? As a rule yes, the site visit and the quote are free and customers expect that. For a project that needs real design work (survey, planting plan, costed variants) you may agree a paid study, on two conditions: announce it before you start, and deduct it from the job if you get the job.
What VAT applies to gardening work? Gardening and landscaping work is a service and carries the standard rate of 8.1 %. The supply of live plants, seeds, bulbs, fertiliser and mulch falls under the reduced rate of 2.6 %, and stays there even next to a service at the standard rate, provided it is invoiced separately (Art. 25 para. 2 let. a VAT Act). Below CHF 100’000 of annual turnover you are not VAT-registered and no VAT appears on the quote at all.
How long is a quote valid? As long as you write on the document, and not a week longer. Thirty days is the normal case in landscaping, sixty when you want to cover a whole planting window. With no period stated you stay bound to your prices in theory: if the customer accepts an autumn quote in spring, the difference in plant prices is yours.
From quote to invoice
In MeisterOffice the quote is written in minutes from the site, the acceptance becomes a QR invoice in one click, and open items stay visible until the season closes; the page for landscapers shows what that looks like day to day, and the prices are here.