Cost calculator
What is your lawn costing you?
Grass is not free. It is a mower, a service bill, five rounds of fertiliser, an aeration every spring, and water all summer. Here is roughly what that adds up to in Utah County — and what you stop paying once the lawn is gone.
A rough guess is fine. Most Utah County back lawns land between 800 and 3,000 sq ft.
What that lawn costs you
$1,290
every year
$12,900
over ten years
That lawn drinks about 26,166 gallons a season either way. Billed at the upper tiers, because irrigation sits on top of your indoor use.
- Mowing
- $858
- Fertiliser & weed control
- $275
- Aeration & overseeding
- $85
- Water
- $72
We carry your square footage across, so you do not type it twice.
How we worked this out ↓
- Lawn watering at 28 inches of supplemental irrigation per season — about 26,166 gallons a season for a 1,500 sq ft lawn.
- Culinary water at $2.75 per 1,000 gallons. That is the marginal rate — what the lawn adds on top of indoor use, billed at the upper tiers — not the average price of a gallon. Utah rates are tiered by law, and they vary widely: Orem's culinary tiers run $0.84–$1.47, Jordan Valley Water's top tier is $6.12, and Park City bills outdoor water at $10.00–$37.84 per 1,000 gallons.
- Most Utah County lawns run on secondary (pressurized irrigation) water, which has been an unmetered flat rate — so watering more costs nothing today. State law requires every secondary connection to be metered by 2030, and cities including Lehi, American Fork and Saratoga Springs are already installing.
- 26 mows a season, at a $25 minimum call-out plus $22 per 1,000 sq ft.
- 5 fertiliser and weed-control rounds a year, plus aeration at $85.
Where the savings actually come from
Mowing is the biggest single line on almost any lawn. Water is smaller than most people expect — but it is the one that is changing. Utah now requires tiered conservation pricing, and because irrigation sits on top of your indoor use it is billed at the upper tiers all summer.
And if you are on flat-rate secondary irrigation, watering costs you nothing extra today. That is ending: state law requires every secondary connection in Utah to be metered by 2030, and Lehi, American Fork and Saratoga Springs are already installing. A lawn that is free to water now is a lawn with a bill attached to it later.
What does change is everything you were paying somebody to do, or doing yourself every Saturday from April to October. That is the number worth looking at, and it compounds — the ten-year figure is the one most people find persuasive.
The other half of the decision is not financial. No mud tracked inside, no brown patches in August, no reseeding the strip the dog wore through. What we actually build covers how it goes in.
Get a real number for your yard*
The calculator is an estimate. A free on-site measurement is not — we check grade, drainage and access, then put the scope in writing.