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Waste, material costs, and slope

How waste, pricing strategy, and slope multipliers turn measurements into landscaping order quantities.

Three settings on every component decide how a raw measurement becomes the number you actually order: waste, material price/pack sizing, and (where the ground isn't flat) the slope multiplier.

Waste

Landscaping waste is real and varies a lot by material. Set it on the component so every quote is honest about what to order.

  • Turf: 5–10% percentage — cuts at edges and around features
  • Paving and slabs: 10–15% percentage — more if there are lots of cuts or curves
  • Decking boards: 10% percentage — higher for diagonal or herringbone patterns
  • Mulch, topsoil, aggregate: 5% percentage or a fixed extra bag, whichever fits how you order
  • Plants and trees: None or count-based — you buy exactly what you plant, with maybe one or two spares as a fixed extra
  • Edging and kerbing: 5% percentage or a fixed extra length

Material price and pack sizing

Two strategies depending on how you buy:

Per unit. Use when material is sold by the same unit you measure in — turf per m², edging per m, gravel per m³. Simple and exact.

Per pack. Use when material comes in fixed quantities — paving in m²-per-pallet, sleepers in lengths, mulch in 1 m³ bulk bags. Set the pack size and unit price, and QuoteCore+ rounds the order up to whole packs.

Slope multiplier

Use the angle / slope setting when the component is measured from plan view but the actual installed surface is on an angle. Classic examples:

  • A driveway on a gradient measured flat on the plan
  • A retaining wall face on a graded site
  • Batters and embankments where the surface area is longer than the plan footprint

Only the rafter-style slope option is available (a straight rise-over-run). There's no valley or hip variant — landscaping doesn't need them. For flat lawns, patios, and most planting beds, leave the slope multiplier off entirely.

A worked example

200 m² paved driveway with a 1-in-10 gradient. Plan area: 200 m². Slope multiplier applied: ~200.5 m² actual surface. Waste at 12%: ~225 m² to order. Packs of 11.5 m² each: round up to 20 packs (230 m²).

That's what the customer is charged for material on the quote, and what your supplier sees on the order list.

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