Rules
Part of Where the money goes in a native yard conversion
How to read a native yard bid and compare contractors on price
How to make three bids comparable: matched scope, real quantities, honest allowances, and the exclusions that turn a low number into a high invoice.
What to take away
- Bids are only comparable if you wrote the scope, not the bidders.
- Allowances are placeholders. Every allowance is a future change order.
- Read the exclusions page first; it is where the low number comes from.
- Ask what the contractor would do without your money, not just what it costs.
Give every bidder the same document
Write a one-page scope before you call anyone: area in square feet, removal method, plant list with scientific names and counts, mulch depth, edging type, irrigation intent, and who waters for the first two seasons.
Without that, three bids describe three different projects and the cheapest one is simply the smallest.
Check quantities, not just totals
Ask for a unit breakdown: plants by species and size, mulch in cubic yards, edging in linear feet, labor in crew hours. Then check the arithmetic against your own measurement.
| Line | What to verify |
|---|---|
| Plant counts | Match your plan at mature spacing |
| Mulch volume | Area times depth, converted to cubic yards |
| Removal area | Square feet, and whether disposal is included |
| Crew hours | Plausible for the access and the site |
| Aftercare visits | Number, month, and what happens on each |
Treat allowances as unfinished pricing
An allowance is a number the contractor inserted because a decision has not been made. "Plant allowance: $1,500" means the plant list is not settled. Every allowance will be reconciled later, upward more often than downward.
Convert allowances into specifics before signing. Where that is impossible, cap them and agree the markup in writing.
Read the exclusions first
Exclusions are where a low bid lives: rock excavation, unsuitable soil, irrigation repair, permit fees, disposal, hand-watering, replacement of plants that die. Permit fees in particular hide a bigger number, since the drawing a permit demands usually costs more than the fee. A bid with a long exclusions list and a short scope is a starting price, not a price.
Some exclusions are legitimate. No contractor can price buried construction debris they have not seen, and excluding it is honest. What you want in that case is a named unit rate: a price per hour or per cubic yard for the unknown, agreed now, so that discovering it does not become a negotiation while a crew stands in your driveway with the meter running.
Ask what they would do anyway
Useful bid question: which parts of this plan would you recommend even if I cut the budget by a third? The answer separates necessary work from margin.
There is a formal version of that idea. Economists at USDA use "additionality" to describe the share of program participants who adopt a practice only because they receive payment, and ERS notes in its analysis of conservation payments and adoption that a practice delivers additional benefit only when it would not have been adopted without the payment. Applied to a bid: the items a good contractor would insist on regardless are the ones that matter.
Ask where the plants come from
Sourcing explains a large part of price difference. Growers producing regional straight species work inside a national supply effort: the National Seed Strategy, written in 2015 by the Plant Conservation Alliance Federal Committee with federal and non-federal partners, exists precisely because appropriate native plant material has to be deliberately produced rather than assumed.
A contractor who can name the grower is buying differently from one who cannot, because regional seed is gathered by hand, plant by plant, and that is most of the price difference.
Before you sign
Line the winning bid up against where the money goes and run the non-price screening in the contractor vetting guide.
Common questions
Should I always take three bids? Two well-matched bids beat five vague ones. Match the scope first.
Is the middle bid usually right? Not reliably. The complete bid is right, whatever its rank.
How do I handle a bid that is far lower? Find the missing scope. There is almost always one.
Can I negotiate? On scope and phasing, yes. Negotiating unit prices downward usually returns as thinner work.
