Scheduled Grounds Maintenance Contracts

Setting a frequency that actually works

The most common mistake in commercial grounds contracts is putting the whole site on one interval. A monthly all-inclusive visit sounds simple, but it means the grass is too long for two weeks of every month through summer, and the beds are getting attention they do not need in July.

Four things that set frequency

• Growth rate. Unshaded grass in a wet January can go from cut to obviously overgrown in about three weeks. The same grass in July might hold for eight.
• Exposure. A main road frontage is judged by thousands of people a day. A rear yard behind a building is judged by nobody. They should not be on the same cycle.
• Surface type. Open grass is forgiving. Garden beds are not, because a bed left too long loses its edge and gets weeds established in the mulch.
• Consequence of failure. If overgrowth creates a sightline or access hazard on your site, safety sets the frequency rather than appearance.

A sensible starting point

For most commercial and industrial sites in Logan:

• Open grass and verges: fortnightly through the warm months, monthly through winter
• Garden beds: monthly year round
• Hedges and screening: two or three times a year, not annually
• Full site tidy including beds, edges and hard surfaces: quarterly, on top of the mowing cycle

How we quote it

We give you a per-visit rate and a frequency rather than a single annual figure. That way you can see what you are paying for and change the frequency by season without renegotiating the contract. An annual number hides whether you are getting 12 visits or 20.

The wet season

One point specific to South East Queensland. Through the summer wet, growth rates roughly double and access to soft ground gets harder at the same time. A schedule that ignores this fails predictably every January. If your site has areas that get boggy, that needs to be part of the conversation up front, because the answer is sometimes to bring a visit forward rather than push it back.

Same crew, every visit

If your site runs inductions or has access protocols, crew turnover is a cost to you rather than to the contractor. We send the same people, so site knowledge and inductions carry over.

For the full reasoning, including a Bethania site that has held standard on a monthly cycle, see how often does a commercial site need grounds maintenance?