How Much Does it Cost to Reseed or Overseed Your Lawn (2022)

If your lawn is suffering from bald patches, has areas of dead grass, or isn’t as lush or as healthy as you’d like it to be, overseeding might be the perfect solution for you. Overseeding is planting new grass seed on an existing lawn, and it can often lead to a thicker, healthier-looking, lush lawn that becomes the envy of your neighbors.

The House Method Review team has reviewed and analyzed all of the best lawn care services that provide seeding or overseeding services. The total cost of your lawn overseeding will depend on many different factors, including the size of your property, the quality of your existing grass, your location and climate, and the type of grass seed you want to be planted. Read on to discover the cost of reseeding a lawn and the best way to go about the process.

The Cost to Seed Your Lawn: An Overview

Reseeding is a common practice because, if done correctly, it leads to a fuller, more aesthetically pleasing lawn. The national average cost for reseeding is around $600 for a standard, 5,000-square foot lawn, with most homeowners paying between $450 and $900. Overseeding provides a myriad of benefits, including:

• Natural weed prevention
• Thicker lawn
• Healthier-looking grass
• Filled-in bare spots
• Lawn color enhancement
• Grass health improvement

The cost for overseeding varies quite a bit, but most homeowners pay approximately $0.12 per square foot for the service from a professional landscaping company. That means the average price for every 1,000 square feet is around $120, or between $90 and $180 for 1,000 square feet. However, the overall cost is often lower than overseeding because smaller sections of your property will likely be treated. 

Reseeding and Overseeding Average Price Per Square Foot

While the prices for overseeding can vary quite a bit based on many things, the most significant cost factor will always be the size of your property or the area you want to be seeded. Of course, larger properties require more time and grass seed, so prices will increase with bigger property sizes.

The table below provides some average pricing for overseeding based on the size of your lawn. Keep in mind that these are just estimates, and they only consider the size of your yard and not the other cost factors, such as labor costs and equipment rental.

What is Lawn Reseeding vs. Overseeding?

Reseeding is sometimes “overseeding,” but it usually refers to planting grass where there isn’t an existing lawn. This could mean spreading grass seed on dirt patches after installing a sprinkler system, filling in dead spots where grass has died from pet urine, disease, or bacterial infection, or any other application where the grass is applied where no lawn currently exists.

Overseeding always refers to placing grass seed on an already-established lawn. This is a popular option for improving the yard’s thickness, health, and appearance, as new grass will fill in any bare spots and grow between existing blades.

How Much It Costs to Reseed or Overseed a Lawn Yourself

If you choose to reseed or overseed your lawn yourself, you’ll save a substantial amount in labor costs. However, you will be doing the work yourself, so you’ll pay for the job with your time rather than your money. If you buy the right equipment for the job, seeding your lawn isn’t too labor-intensive, but it will take some time and effort to ensure it’s done properly.

Depending on the grass seed you buy, you’ll spend between $2 and $6 per 150 square feet. For every 1,000 sq ft of lawn, you want to reseed, expect to pay $35-$100. A typical 5,000 square foot lawn will total between $175 and $500 for the seed alone. Overall, you could save between $275 and $400 by doing the job yourself.

Factors that Impact Reseeding Costs

While the numbers in the table above provide somewhat accurate estimates, it’s not that easy to estimate your total cost for overseeding. Your pricing is based on several factors, impacting the total cost by hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The cost factors you’ll need to consider are discussed briefly below.

• Yard Size: As you might have guessed, your yard size is the most significant cost factor. Larger properties will require more labor to overseed, and they’ll also need more grass seed (at $2 to $6 per 150 square feet, on average). Larger properties will typically cost more for these reasons.
• Seed Type You Choose: Not all grass species are priced equally, so your total cost will impact the type of grass seed you want to put down. Generally speaking, warm-climate species (like Bahia, bluegrass, and bermudagrass) will cost between $6 and $10 for a 150-square-foot area. In comparison, species for more temperate climates (like fescue grass and ryegrass) will average closer to $4 to $6 per 150 sq ft section.
• Labor & Materials: If you’re paying a professional lawn care company like TruGreen to overseed your lawn, you’ll be paying for labor and the material costs. Labor costs can quickly add up and double your price, making the job significantly easier.
• Any Equipment Rental: You’ll have to pay equipment rental fees if you’re doing DIY lawn seeding or opting for a less qualified local lawn care company that doesn’t maintain equipment. Spreaders are typically relatively cheap to rent, averaging between $15 and $30 for the day.
• Lawn Condition: Finally, your lawn’s condition and overall health will affect your costs. If you have a generally healthy lawn and want to thicken it, you’ll probably need less seed, which will bring down your material costs.
• Cost Breakdown by Grass Seed Type

As mentioned above, the kind of grass seed you want to put down can drastically affect your total price of overseeding. The table below provides some typical per pound grass seed costs for the most popular grass species in the country.

Seeding Costs Breakdown by Grass Seed Brand

As is the case with all home improvement, the brand of the products you use will have a significant impact on the cost. The table below provides average pricing for some of the most popular grass seed brands available.

Seeding a New Lawn

Seeding a new lawn requires the same process as overseeding, but you’ll want to be extra careful to distribute seed with your garden spreader evenly for even grass growth.

It would be best to begin by amending your soil and balancing the pH to provide the best growing conditions possible for your new lawn. Once that’s done, till the soil, level it, and begin spreading the seed. Use a drop spreader around garden beds to avoid getting seeds where you don’t want them and a broadcast spreader for larger areas where precision isn’t needed. Once the seed is down, add any new-grass fertilizers, topcoat the seed to prevent water and wind from moving it around, and water the newly laid grass seed. Maintain adequate soil moisture (moist but not soaking wet) for several weeks until the grass is long enough to mow.

Best Grass Alternatives

There are some alternatives for homeowners who want a green lawn but don’t like how much work it takes to maintain the color and health of common grass species. We’ll include a brief list of the most common grass alternatives below and average per-pound pricing. Keep in mind that these are estimated costs, but most options will be significantly less cost-effective than traditional grass seed.

• Clover seed: $6 to $10 per pound
• Evergreen moss: $7 to $15 per pound
• Corsican mint: $10 to $20 per pound
• Dichondra: $18 to $25 per pound
• White Dutch clover: $20 to $30 per pound
• Roman chamomile: $80 to $120 per pound
• Red creeping thyme: $100 to $185 per pound

Our Top Recommended Lawn Care Services

When it comes to seeding your lawn, you have two options: hire a professional lawn maintenance company, like TruGreen, to do the work for you, or do it as a DIY home improvement project. There are some pros and cons to each, which we’ll discuss below, and our recommendations for each strategy.

Best Professional Lawn Care Service: TruGreen

Hiring a professional lawn care company will save you time and frustration of learning how to overseed your property. Provided you choose a reputable company, the technicians will base any soil amendments, fertilizers, and additional services on soil tests. Professionals have the tools required to get the job done correctly, so you never have to worry about wasting grass seed on mistakes you might make during DIY seeding. As such, professional service is often worth the cost.

The best lawn care service for overseeding, in our opinion, is TruGreen. This company has very reasonable pricing — averaging around $270 for a 5,000 square foot property — and countless other services that can bring your property from looking brown and dead to green and vibrant. Plus, the company provides a customer satisfaction guarantee. The table below provides some information for each of the plans TruGreen offers:

TruGreen also provides overseeding as a one-off service and many other a la carte options.

DIY Seeding

If you prefer to save money on labor and don’t mind taking the time to do everything yourself, you’ll spend an average of $175 to seed a 5,000-square-foot property. You’ll likely spend quite a bit of time researching the proper grass species and doing the actual work, but you stand to save around $100.

Sunday Lawn Care is a great hybrid option between professional overseeding and a DIY job. Sunday sends the products you need to seed your lawn properly, including soil amendments, nutrients, and even grass seed. You’ll still be doing the work yourself and will pay a bit more than a complete DIY job, but you’ll also have help from a professional service.

Final Thoughts

Reseeding and overseeding your lawn can quickly elevate your property and make your lawn look fuller, more vibrant, and healthier. Even better, a thick lawn due to overseeding will act as a natural weed deterrent and can help prevent some lawn pests from laying eggs in your soil.

When you’re planning on overseeding, you’ll have a few choices to make, but the most crucial one is to go the professional or DIY route. Hiring a professional will save you time and money on retreatment in the long run. TruGreen is one of the best lawn care companies for overseeding. It has affordable pricing, results backed by science, and a customer satisfaction guarantee.

Frequently Asked Questions

House Method Rating & Methodology

At House Method, transparency and trust are our most important values for the reader. That’s why we took the time to create an objective rating system and score each lawn company/service according to our methodology.

Our research team dug deep into the fine print of contracts, combed through over one hundred customer reviews, and thoroughly investigated each lawn care service’s costs, benefits, customer reviews, guarantees, plans, products, and a-la-carte options. We’ve done the homework for you by researching nearly all of the lawn care companies on the market so you can have the information you need to make the best choice for your home.

We developed a formula to objectively determine the best lawn care companies and give each a score out of 100 based on the following criteria:

• Plan Options (30): Do they provide various plan options? We looked at the number of plans each company offered and the flexibility of adjusting the plan.
• Services offered (20): How many services come in each plan? We looked at the number of lawn care coverages, including weed control, seeding, irrigation, aeration, dethatching, etc.
• Trust (10): What do customers say after receiving service from the company? Does this company offer a guarantee? We considered how satisfied customers are post-service if the company does what it says it will, BBB accreditation, and service guarantees.
• Prices (10): How reasonable are the costs of the plan or service in comparison to the industry average? We compared the costs of each company to competitors that offer the same lawn services.
• Unique perks (10): Does the company offer discounts or special services such as organic treatments, pest control, or a mobile app? We looked for extras each company offers that set them apart from the competition.
• Customer Service (10): How is the customer experience when contacting the company? We considered the speed of response, weekend/holiday availability, and ease of communication through phone calls, email, and online chat functions.
• Nationwide availability (10): How many states does the company offer its services? Companies that operate nationally and in all zip codes are favored over those with limited availability.