Key takeaways
- Concrete lawn edging runs $8 to $25 per linear foot installed, or $3 to $10 per foot if you pour it yourself. For a typical 150-foot bed border around a house, that’s $1,200 to $3,750 professionally installed, or $450 to…
Concrete lawn edging runs $8 to $25 per linear foot installed, or $3 to $10 per foot if you pour it yourself. For a typical 150-foot bed border around a house, that’s $1,200 to $3,750 professionally installed, or $450 to $1,500 in materials and rental equipment if you DIY. The spread is wide because concrete edging covers two very different products: poured-in-place curbing and precast concrete pavers or blocks, and the labor cost swings hard depending on your soil and how curvy your beds are.
What actually drives the price
Poured curbing (the stuff landscapers extrude on-site with a small curb machine) costs more per foot than precast blocks because you’re paying for a crew, a machine, and setup time, not just material. A two-person crew with a curbing machine can do 100-150 feet a day on flat, obstacle-free ground. Add tree roots, slopes, tight curves, or sprinkler heads to route around, and that production rate drops by half, which is where the per-foot price jumps from $8 toward $20-25.
Precast concrete edging blocks or pavers are the cheaper, more predictable option. You buy them by the piece ($2-6 each for standard 12-inch sections) and either install them yourself or pay a landscaper by the hour instead of by the curb-foot. Material cost is lower, but you’re trading that for more labor hours per foot since each piece has to be leveled individually.
| Edging type | Material cost | Installed cost per foot | DIY difficulty | Typical lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poured concrete curbing | $2-4/ft | $8-25/ft | Hard (needs machine/forms) | 15-25 years |
| Precast concrete blocks | $2-6/piece | $6-15/ft | Moderate | 10-20 years |
| Poured concrete footer + stone | $5-10/ft | $15-30/ft | Hard | 20-30 years |
| Plastic or metal edging (for comparison) | $0.50-2/ft | $1-4/ft | Easy | 3-10 years |
DIY vs. hiring it out
Pouring your own curbing without a machine is a real option if you’re comfortable with forms. You dig a trench 4-6 inches deep and 4-6 inches wide, set up wood or flexible plastic forms, mix bagged concrete, and pour. For 150 feet, figure 25-35 bags of 60-lb concrete mix at $4-6 a bag, so $100-210 in material. Add $30-60/day to rent a concrete mixer if you don’t want to hand-mix that much. The catch is time: a weekend DIYer realistically pours 20-30 feet a day working alone, so a full border takes a week of evenings and weekends.
Precast blocks are the more forgiving DIY project. You still need a trench and a bit of sand or gravel base, but there’s no concrete to mix on a deadline before it sets. A reasonably fit person can set 50-75 feet of block edging in a weekend. This is the category where the cheaper option is genuinely fine for most yards — unless you specifically want the seamless look of poured curbing, precast blocks hold up almost as long and cost less in both money and aggravation.
Where I’d push someone toward hiring a pro: curved beds, slopes over 10%, or any edging that has to tie into a driveway or patio grade. Poured curbing machines handle curves cleanly; DIY forms fight you on anything but gentle arcs, and a bad curve looks bad forever since you can’t easily rework set concrete.
Costs people forget to budget
Removal of old edging isn’t free. Pulling out 150 feet of landscape timbers or plastic edging and hauling it off can add $200-500 to a pro quote, or a half-day of your own labor plus a dump run. Soil excavation spoils also need to go somewhere — if your beds are built up with amended soil, you’ll generate more spoil than expected digging a 6-inch trench.
Rebar or wire mesh reinforcement isn’t standard on most residential curbing quotes but it should be if you have expansive clay soil or freeze-thaw winters. Ask specifically; it typically adds $1-2 per foot and prevents the hairline cracking that shows up in year two or three on unreinforced curbing.
Sealant is another line item that gets skipped. A penetrating concrete sealer applied every 2-3 years keeps curbing from pitting in freeze-thaw climates and costs maybe $30-50 in materials for a typical border, applied with a basic pump sprayer. Skip it and you’ll see surface spalling (small flaking chips) within 5-7 years in northern climates; in mild climates it barely matters.
Tools you’ll need either way
Even if you hire a crew for the pour itself, you’ll likely do the trenching and prep yourself to save money, and that’s where a decent flat spade and a half-moon edger earn their keep for cutting a clean trench line before anyone shows up with concrete. If you’re going full DIY on precast block edging, a basic rubber mallet and a 4-foot level matter more than people expect, since uneven blocks are the single biggest reason precast edging looks sloppy within a year. For the actual pour, most homeowners end up renting a mixer rather than buying one, but if you’re the type who does a lot of hardscaping projects, a compact concrete mixer pays for itself after two or three projects. Setting trench forms straight is easier with a string line level kit, and anyone doing the trenching by hand will want a solid landscape edging spade rather than a standard shovel.
What to actually budget
For a standard suburban lot needing 100-200 feet of edging, expect $1,000-3,000 for professionally poured curbing, $600-1,800 for professionally installed precast block, or under $600 in materials if you’re doing precast block yourself on a flat site. Get at least two quotes if you’re hiring poured curbing specifically — the per-foot price varies more between contractors than almost any other hardscaping job, since it’s driven heavily by how many jobs they’re stacking that week and how far they have to drive the curbing machine.
