What Does a Grounds Maintenance Contract Include?

Written By Wez - 04/08/2026

The core specification

Most contracts are built from this menu, tuned to the site:

Grass cutting: the backbone, typically fortnightly through the growing season (roughly March to October) for amenity lawns, with frequencies up or down by area: weekly for high-profile frontages, a few cuts a year for rough and conservation grass. Clarify cut-and-collect versus mulched clippings
Hedge maintenance: usually one to three cuts a year by species, timed around the 1 March to 31 August bird nesting season for major work
Beds, borders, and shrubs: weeding, pruning, mulching, and seasonal tidying; bedding plant changes where sites want colour
Weed control: on hard surfaces and planted areas, with method (and any herbicide policies your organisation has) agreed up front
Leaf clearance: programmed autumn visits, prioritising paths, entrances, and car parks where wet leaves become slip claims
Litter and debris: many contracts include picking the grounds at each visit; confirm whether yours does
Hard surfaces: sweeping, moss treatment, and keeping paths, signage, and sightlines clear

The add-ons that matter

Tree work is the big one, and it’s where many contracts go quiet. Trees on commercial and managed sites carry a real duty of care under the Occupiers’ Liability Acts, and a proper arrangement includes periodic tree surveys, risk-prioritised works, and the records that prove inspection happened, delivered by qualified arborists, not the mowing crew with a pole saw. If your contractor can’t do this in-house, you’re managing two suppliers; if nobody’s doing it, you’re carrying unmanaged liability.

Winter and reactive services: storm response arrangements with agreed callout terms, and where contracted, gritting and snow clearance. Improvement works: replanting, hard and soft landscaping refreshes, usually quoted separately from the maintenance schedule so budgets stay clean.

What it costs

For smaller commercial sites in our region, contracts typically run £200 to £800 per month, with larger sites scaling to specification. The honest drivers are area, visit frequency, planting complexity, and finish standard, and the honest warning is that a quote dramatically below the pack is usually a specification quietly thinned out: fewer visits than the grass needs, “hedges” meaning one face once a year, litter excluded. Cheap contracts get expensive through what they don’t include.

What to check before signing

Step One

A written specification, per task, per frequency, not “general grounds upkeep”. You can’t hold anyone to vagueness

Step Two

Scheduling transparency: published visit calendars, and what happens when weather shifts them

Step Three

The compliance file: public and employers’ liability insurance, RAMS for your site, SSIP accreditation (such as SMAS) if you’re procurement-led, and DBS-checked staff where the setting needs them<

Step Four

Who actually does tree work, and what qualifications they hold (NPTC certificates are the baseline)

Step Five

Reporting and accountability: a named contact, issues logged and closed, photographic completion reports if you manage remotely

Step Six

Where the green waste goes: a licensed, documented route, not a mystery

Step Seven

Exit and review terms: sensible notice periods and an annual specification review, because sites change

One contractor or several?

Sites often drift into a patchwork: a mowing firm, a separate hedge person, a tree surgeon on speed-dial, nobody owning the whole. Consolidating with one capable contractor usually costs less in total and always costs less in administration: one schedule, one invoice, one compliance file, one phone call. It’s how Silver Tree Services runs grounds contracts for the NHS, Gloucestershire Police, Stroud District Council, and managed portfolios for agents including Savills, with mowing crews, qualified tree teams, landscapers, and surveys under one roof, one specification, and one number.

Reviewing your grounds arrangements, or starting from scratch? See commercial grounds maintenance, or call 01242 472560 and we’ll spec your site honestly, against your budget rather than ours.

Related: Grounds maintenance · Community grounds maintenance · Estate management

Ready When You Are