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Commercial · 2026 to 27 season

Commercial grounds maintenance in Oshawa and Whitby.

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Grounds from $3,500 a season

Commercial grounds maintenance in Oshawa, Whitby and Ajax, the same day every week.

Book by November 1. Every commercial site is walked and surveyed before the first storm.

$5M liability, you named on it
Photo record of every attendance

Request a site survey Call or text 905-244-5779

See snow & ice · See what it costs

Green in summer. Clear in winter.

The monthly report is where the value shows up

Full Grounds and above get a one page report on the first business day of each month: visits completed with dates, work done beyond the weekly cut, photographs, and a short observations and recommendations section.

That last part is the point. The settling asphalt, the irrigation zone that stopped running, the light that is out, the shrub that will not survive another winter. It costs us five minutes and it means somebody is watching the property between your own visits to it.

Groundskeeping

Litter, bins and site upkeep, every week of the year

Grass stops growing in November. Litter does not. A plaza that only sees its grounds contractor in the growing season spends the winter collecting cups in the beds, wrappers along the walkways and overflow around the bins, and every tenant and customer walks past it.

Groundskeeping is the litter and site upkeep half of a grounds contract. It runs all twelve months, on fixed days each week, and it can sit beside any of the three levels below or run on its own.

Litter picked every visit

Beds, lawns, parking islands, walkways and the edges of the lot, picked by hand and bagged on the same visit.

Receptacles emptied and relined

Storefront and walkway receptacles emptied into the site garbage area and given a new liner every visit, so nothing overflows between attendances.

Bin areas and laneways kept clear

The dumpster area raked and swept, and the rear and service laneways swept, because that is where a property starts to look neglected first.

Every attendance is photographed and logged, the same record that comes with every commercial contract here. Groundskeeping is priced on the site at the survey, by the number of receptacles, the area to be picked and the number of visits a week.

Commercial: a retail plaza, one visit

The first visit of a twelve month grounds and litter contract on a retail plaza. Litter had built up in the beds, along the walkways and around the bins. Every storefront receptacle was emptied and relined, the lawns were mowed and trimmed, and the rear laneway was swept. Drag the line on any photo to compare.

The lawns

The same lawn strip mowed and trimmed along the building and the sidewalk — Boulevard lawn. Mowed and trimmed along the building and the sidewalk.

A long, untrimmed lawn strip between a commercial building and the sidewalk — Boulevard lawn. Mowed and trimmed along the building and the sidewalk.

The same corner lawn cleared of debris and timber — Corner lawn. Debris and broken timber cleared off the grass.

A corner lawn beside a commercial property with debris and broken timber on the grass — Corner lawn. Debris and broken timber cleared off the grass.

A freshly mowed commercial corner lawn trimmed around a yellow fire hydrant — The corner lawn after the cut, trimmed tight around the hydrant and back off the sidewalk.

The beds

The same side bed with the litter picked out from under the shrubs — Side bed. Wrappers, bags and broken brick picked out from under the shrubs.

A side garden bed at a commercial property with litter under the shrubs — Side bed. Wrappers, bags and broken brick picked out from under the shrubs.

The same garden bed with the litter cleared — Side bed by the building. A season of litter cleared from the soil.

A garden bed beside a commercial building with a pile of litter in the soil — Side bed by the building. A season of litter cleared from the soil.

The same shrub bed cleaned out and cleared of litter — Shrub bed beside the paver walk. Litter removed and the bed cleaned out.

A shrub bed along a paver walkway at a commercial property, with litter in the bed — Shrub bed beside the paver walk. Litter removed and the bed cleaned out.

The storefronts

The same receptacle emptied and given a new liner — Storefront receptacle. Emptied, cleaned out around the base and relined.

An overflowing storefront garbage receptacle at a commercial property — Storefront receptacle. Emptied, cleaned out around the base and relined.

The same walkway with the litter cleared — Storefront walkway. Litter picked from the walk and the turf edge.

The walkway in front of the stores at a commercial property, with litter on the concrete and the grass edge — Storefront walkway. Litter picked from the walk and the turf edge.

The bins and the laneway

The same dumpster area with the litter raked out and gathered for removal — Dumpster area. Loose litter raked out from behind the bins and gathered for removal.

Litter scattered behind the dumpsters at a commercial property — Dumpster area. Loose litter raked out from behind the bins and gathered for removal.

The same enclosure raked out with the litter gathered into one pile — Dumpster enclosure. Raked out and the litter gathered for removal.

A fenced dumpster enclosure at a commercial property with litter across the ground — Dumpster enclosure. Raked out and the litter gathered for removal.

The same laneway swept clean from end to end — Rear laneway. Swept from end to end.

The rear service laneway behind a commercial property before sweeping — Rear laneway. Swept from end to end.

A rear service laneway behind a commercial property after it was swept — Rear laneway after the sweep.

Service levels

Three levels

Full Grounds is the level we quote for a property the public sees, because it is the lowest of the three that carries the bed work and both seasonal cleanups, and beds are the first thing a visitor reads on a site. The other two exist because some sites need less and some need considerably more.

Maintained: Clean, cut and tidy, every week

Industrial and back of house sites, where the grounds need to look cared for but are not the selling point.

Includes: Weekly hard-edge, cut and trim on a fixed day; all hard surfaces blown clear; litter picked from turf and beds every visit; 26 visits, May 1 to November 1.

Full Grounds: The standard grounds contract

Plazas, condo corporations, offices and churches: anywhere the property is seen by customers, residents or members.

Includes: Everything in Maintained; beds weeded, cultivated and re-edged monthly; shrubs and low hedges trimmed twice a season; full spring and fall cleanup.

Showpiece: Property-of-the-year standard

Flagship retail, corporate offices, and any board that has told you the grounds look tired.

Includes: Everything in Full Grounds; beds detailed every visit; two seasonal flower rotations; annual mulch top-up on all beds.

Seasonal pricing

26 visits, May 1 to November 1, priced on turf and bed area rather than total site size.

Turf & bed area	Maintained	Full Grounds	Showpiece	Per visit, Full Grounds
Compact: up to 5,000 sq ft	$3,500	$4,850	$6,500	$187
Standard: 5,001 to 15,000 sq ft	$5,350	$7,350	$9,850	$283
Large: 15,001 to 35,000 sq ft	$8,600	$11,850	$15,850	$456
Major: 35,001 to 75,000 sq ft	$13,650	$18,850	$25,250	$725
Campus: over 75,000 sq ft	Site visit	Site visit	Site visit	No

Billed in equal monthly instalments across the year rather than in season. HST extra.

Every visit, in order

The sequence matters. Mowing before the litter sweep shreds rubbish into the turf, and edging after the mow leaves soil crumb sitting on the grass.

Litter and walk-round

Debris picked from turf and beds first, with a look for what is worth reporting.

Edge and detail

Bed and walkway edges hard-cut first, so the cut picks up whatever the edger throws onto the turf.

The cut

3 inches standard, 3.5 through the July heat, direction alternated weekly, on sharp blades.

Trim, blow off and log

Every building line, fence line, sign base and bollard trimmed to the height of the cut, then a completion photograph before we leave.

Add-on services

Quoted on top of any contract.

Service	Price	When it makes sense
Sidewalk and walkway seasonal add-on	$22 per linear metre / season	Where walkways are not part of the main scope
Parking lot sweeping, spring	$0.02 / sq ft, $340 minimum	The single highest-impact spring job on a commercial lot
Catch basin and drain clearing	$85 per basin per visit	Spring and fall. Prevents the ponding that becomes February ice
Mulch supply and installation	$110 / cubic yard installed, ten-yard minimum	Beds look renewed for one visit's worth of money
Core aeration and overseeding	$0.05 / sq ft, $290 minimum	September into early October: the window that works on Ontario clay

Spring parking lot sweeping is the highest impact job of the commercial year. A lot with a winter's grit swept off it looks resurfaced, and every tenant notices in the same week.

Common questions

Can you work around our business hours?

Yes, and we will ask at the survey. Most sites have a window that works better: before opening for retail, mid-morning for offices. We fix your day and time at the start of the season and keep it.

What about weeds? Can you spray?

Not for cosmetic purposes. Ontario has banned that since 2009, so a contractor offering to spray your lot for weeds is offering something that is not legal here. What works instead is density: correct cutting height, a fertilizer program and September overseeding.

Our board wants three quotes. Can you help with that?

Of course. Send us the scope you are asking all three to price and we will respond to it exactly, so your board is comparing like with like rather than three differently shaped documents.

The work, photographed

Real Northline properties, before and after, every one of them in Oshawa and every one of them this year. Drag the line to compare.

A front walk edge cleared after a Northline fall cleanup — Residential. A front walk after the fall cleanup that is included in all three memberships.

The same front walk before the cleanup — Residential. A front walk after the fall cleanup that is included in all three memberships.

A back lawn cleared of leaves after a Northline fall cleanup — Residential. A back lawn under leaves, and the same lawn cleared.

The same back lawn under fallen leaves — Residential. A back lawn under leaves, and the same lawn cleared.

See the rest of the work

If you are not ready to ask for a price yet

How the snow service actually runsThe season, the trigger, the order of service and the hours the machine runs, all in one place.When to book snow removalThe route closes November 30, and this is what booking early does and does not get you.What snow removal costs in OshawaPer clear against the season price, with the arithmetic shown.

Andrew answers, October 2026

Why is the morning clearing time a target rather than a promise?

Because a promise about the morning is a promise about the weather, and nobody can make one of those honestly. What I can promise is where you sit in the route and the order the route runs in, and both of those are published on this site. In eighteen years of Oshawa data the worst winter had twenty four clearing days and the mildest had four, and a promise written to survive the worst of those is a promise priced for it. A target I actually hit is worth more to you than a promise I have quietly priced the risk of breaking.

One of these goes on each page and it is replaced monthly. If the question you have is not here, ask it: 905-244-5779.

Have the grounds measured before you price the season

Send me the address and I will walk the turf and the beds myself, measure them at no cost, and put the season in writing within 48 hours. The measurements stay yours whether the contract comes to me or not.

Request a site survey Call or text 905-244-5779

Green in summer. Clear in winter.