Grounds Maintenance
Scheduled commercial grounds care under one accountable contract. Mowing, hedges, beds, trees, and winter works delivered to a published calendar, for the clients who notice everything: the NHS, Gloucestershire Police, and Stroud District Council among them.
One Contract · One Standard · One Invoice
What We Do
Grounds that look managed, because they are.
Commercial grounds maintenance is the scheduled upkeep of everything green and grey around your buildings: grass, hedges, beds, trees, hard surfaces, and the seasonal works between. Done well, nobody mentions it; done badly, it’s the first thing every visitor, tenant, and auditor sees. Silver Tree Services runs grounds contracts across Gloucestershire from offices to hospital estates, with the rare structural advantage that qualified tree teams, landscapers, and a clearance operation sit under the same roof as the mowing crews, so one contract genuinely covers the lot.
How it works
Step One
Walk & Spec
We walk the site with you and write a specification per task, per frequency, not “general upkeep”.
Step Two
Price & Phase
Itemised pricing matched honestly to your budget, with frequencies stated plainly.
Step Three
Deliver to the Calendar
Published visit schedule, consistent crews, issues logged and closed.
Step Four
Report & Review
Completion reporting, contract meetings with straightforward records, annual spec review.
Grass & Amenity Maintenance
The backbone of every contract: amenity grass cut to a published frequency through the growing season, typically fortnightly for general areas and weekly for high-profile frontages, with edges kept, clippings handled to spec (cut-and-collect or mulched), and rough and conservation grass on its own reduced cycle. We’ll tell you straight what a frequency will actually look like in a wet May, because a specification that ignores British weather is a complaint generator.
You might need contracted grass maintenance if:
- Site frontage is the first thing clients and visitors judge
- The current contractor's "fortnightly" is a loose concept
- Different areas need different standards and one price covers none of them well
- Edges, obstacles, and bin areas keep getting skipped
| Site Profile | Typical Regime | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Small commercial site | Fortnightly season cuts | From £200/month |
| Medium site / school | Medium site / school | Mixed frequencies |
| Large estate / campus | Full specification | From £1,500/month |
Hedges, Beds & Planting
Hedges cut one to three times a year by species, with major reductions timed outside the 1 March to 31 August bird nesting season; beds and borders weeded, pruned, and mulched; shrub masses kept off windows, paths, and sightlines; and seasonal bedding changed where sites want colour. Where planting is tired beyond maintenance, our soft landscaping team quotes refresh schemes separately, supplied from our own nursery, so revenue maintenance and capital improvement stay cleanly apart in your budget.
You might need planted-area maintenance if:
- Beds have gone to weed and the planting's disappearing
- Hedges are blocking windows, lights, signage, or CCTV
- Shrubs are swallowing paths and parking bays
- The site was landscaped once and never maintained since
| Scope | Typical Regime | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Hedge cycle | 1-3 cuts/year by species | From £350/visit |
| Beds & shrubs | Monthly in-season care | Priced in contract |
Tree Management Within the Contract
This is where most grounds contracts go quiet and ours doesn’t. Trees on commercial land carry a duty of care under the Occupiers’ Liability Acts, and the mowing crew with a pole saw is not how it’s discharged. Our contracts fold in periodic tree surveys, risk-prioritised works delivered by NPTC-certificated arboriculture teams to BS3998:2010, and inspection records that satisfy insurers and auditors, all on the same invoice as the grass.
You might need trees inside the contract if:
- Nobody can produce inspection records for the site's trees
- Trees stand over car parks, walkways, or entrances
- Tree work is currently a separate contractor and a separate headache
- An insurer or audit has asked questions you couldn't answer
| Scope | Typical Output | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Survey + records | Risk-graded works list | From £350 |
| Programmed works | Phased into the contract | POA |
Seasonal & Winter Works
Autumn leaf programmes prioritising paths, entrances, and car parks where wet leaves become slip claims; storm response on agreed callout terms with access cleared first and make-safe works documented for insurers; and the shoulder-season jobs, moss treatment, sightline clearance, drainage gullies around grounds, that stop small problems compounding. The calendar flexes with the weather; the accountability doesn’t.
You might need seasonal works if:
- Leaf-fall slips and trips are a live risk on your routes
- Storm damage response currently means ringing round at dawn
- The site looks managed in June and abandoned in November
| Scope | Typical Regime | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Leaf programme | 3-6 autumn visits | From £250/visit |
| Storm callout terms | Agreed response | Included in contract |
Hard Surfaces & Site Presentation
Sweeping, weed control on paths and parking (method and any herbicide policies agreed up front), moss treatment, sightline and signage clearance, and litter picking where contracted: the unglamorous layer that decides whether a site reads as cared-for. For deeper cleans, render, cladding, and signage, our soft washing team slots into the same contract, and surfacing repairs route to hard landscaping.
You might need hard-surface care if:
- Weeds are colonising the car park and kerb lines
- Paths are greening over and getting slippery
- Signage and lighting are disappearing behind growth
- Litter is drifting and nobody owns picking it
| Scope | Typical Regime | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Hard-area cycle | Per-visit add-on | Priced in contract |
| Deep clean (soft wash) | Quoted per area | From £300 |
Multi-Site & Portfolio Contracts
Portfolios are where consolidation pays twice: one specification applied across every site, shared mobilisation across nearby locations, one compliance and vetting file instead of one per contractor, consolidated invoicing mapped to your cost centres, and a single account contact who knows the estate. Adding and removing sites mid-contract is routine. It’s how we run our public sector and managing agent work, and the model travels: see nationwide contracts for the honest version of how far.
You might need portfolio consolidation if:
- Each site has its own local contractor of varying quality
- Your team chases multiple insurance certificates and invoices
- Standards differ visibly between sites under the same brand
- Procurement wants one accountable supplier, not seven
| Scope | Typical Scope | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| 2-5 sites | One spec, one invoice | POA |
| Regional/national portfolio | Phased mobilisation | POA |
Why choose Silver Tree Services
Silver Tree Services has traded for over 20 years from Shurdington, Cheltenham, with 30+ qualified staff across seven specialist teams, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification, ARB Approved Contractor status, and SMAS SSIP accreditation. Crews are NPTC-certificated with IPAF and CSCS where work requires it, RAMS are produced per site, DBS-checked operatives are available for sensitive settings, and public and employers’ liability insurance covers every job. The client list, NHS, Gloucestershire Police, Stroud District Council, Savills, the Church of England, is the vetting evidence.
Areas we cover
Grounds maintenance contracts across Gloucestershire, including Cheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud, Tewkesbury, and Cirencester, plus Bristol, Bath, Swindon, surrounding counties, and portfolios nationwide.
Frequently Asked Questions About Commercial Grounds Maintenance
How much does commercial grounds maintenance cost?
Smaller commercial sites in Gloucestershire typically run £200 to £800 per month, medium sites and schools from around £450, and larger estates from £1,500 monthly to specification. The honest drivers are area, visit frequency, planting complexity, and finish standard, and a quote dramatically under the market is usually a specification quietly thinned out. Silver Tree Services itemises every quote so you can see exactly what each pound buys: 01242 472560 for budget pricing.
What's included in a grounds maintenance contract?
Whatever the written specification says, which is the point: ours specify per task and per frequency. A typical Gloucestershire contract covers scheduled grass cutting, hedge maintenance timed around nesting season, bed and border care, weed control, autumn leaf programmes, and hard-surface upkeep, with tree surveys and works folded in by qualified arboriculture teams. Silver Tree Services builds each specification to the site and budget rather than selling one package to everyone.
Can one contract really cover trees as well as grass?
With us, yes, and it’s the structural difference. Silver Tree Services runs NPTC-certificated tree teams, surveyors, landscapers, and clearance crews from the same Gloucestershire base as the grounds teams, so tree surveys, risk-prioritised works, storm response, and even soft washing and landscaping improvements sit inside one contract, one compliance file, and one invoice. Most grounds-only contractors subcontract that work or leave the liability sitting quietly with you.
How do you keep standards consistent across a multi-site contract?
One written specification applied everywhere, consistent crews per region so site knowledge accumulates, supervisors auditing against the spec rather than impressions, photographic completion reporting where clients manage remotely, and contract meetings with records instead of recollections. Silver Tree Services runs this model on its public sector and managing agent portfolios across Gloucestershire and beyond, under ISO 9001 quality management, which means the consistency process itself is externally audited every year.
Do your teams meet vetting requirements for sensitive sites?
Yes. DBS-checked operatives are standard on our healthcare and education contracts, alongside signed-in access, identifiable uniformed staff, and site-specific RAMS, the framework built for our NHS work. SMAS SSIP accreditation covers the health and safety assessment most procurement requires, insurance certificates come with the quote, and Silver Tree Services agrees vetting requirements at contract setup so the right teams are assigned from day one.
How quickly can a new contract mobilise?
Typically two to four weeks from signed agreement for a single Gloucestershire site: enough time to finalise the specification, schedule crews, complete site inductions and RAMS, and set up reporting. Portfolio mobilisations phase site by site so nothing drops between contractors. Where an incumbent has failed mid-season, Silver Tree Services can usually stand up an interim cutting schedule faster while the full contract paperwork catches up: call 01242 472560 and we’ll be straight about dates.
Ready When You Are
Grounds handled. Promises kept.
Walk us round the site or send the portfolio list, and we’ll spec it honestly against your budget, not ours.
Or call · 01242 472560