Instant Smart Yard & Lawn Cost Estimator

Almost every landscaping quote — fertilizer bags, sod pallets, grass seed coverage, mowing rates — starts with one number: total square footage. To find it accurately, break your yard into a small set of simple shapes rather than trying to eyeball the whole property. Rectangles, triangles, and circles are the three building blocks that cover 99% of residential lots.

For a rectangle, multiply length × width. For a right triangle (the wedge left behind between two rectangles), it's ½ × base × height. For a circle like a tree ring or round island bed, use π × radius² (about 3.14 × r × r). Add the results together to get total square footage. If your yard has curves, trace the curve mentally with straight lines and round up — landscapers plan for overage, not underage.

Once you have square footage, converting to acreage is easy: divide by 43,560. A ⅛-acre suburban lot is around 5,445 sq ft, a ¼-acre lot is 10,890 sq ft, and a ½-acre lot is 21,780 sq ft. Most fertilizer bags, herbicide concentrates, and grass-seed spreaders list coverage in per-1,000-sq-ft units, so once you know your total, dividing by 1,000 gives you the number of application units you'll need.

For pricing, our estimator combines your square footage with national labor rates, service complexity, and — for registered members — recent bid data from your county. Sloped or gated properties bump the price 15–25% because of extra labor and gear. One-time cleanups cost more per visit than a recurring mowing plan because setup and disposal fees can't be amortized. Use the ranges below as a ballpark, then post the job to get real bids from local pros.