Grounds maintenance is the scheduled upkeep of a site's external landscaped areas - grass, planting, hard landscaping, and seasonal tasks. Optus Glean UK provides grounds maintenance nationwide on fixed monthly pricing, as a strand of our soft FM offer, so the outside of your building is kept to the same standard as the inside on one contract.
What grounds maintenance covers
A grounds contract keeps external areas presentable and safe year-round: grass cutting and edging, hedge and shrub trimming, weed control, leaf and litter clearance, and the upkeep of car parks, paths, and planted areas. It is the external counterpart to the internal cleaning contract - and for many buyers the two are best run by one provider, so nobody argues about where the cleaning stops and the grounds begin.
Seasonal and winter works
Grounds work is seasonal, so the schedule flexes: more frequent grass cutting through the growing season, leaf clearance in autumn, and winter gritting and snow clearance to keep car parks and paths safe when the weather turns. External glass and facade work can be added through our window cleaning and high-level teams, so a single provider handles the whole exterior.
Grounds within a soft FM or FM bundle
Grounds maintenance is one of the classic soft-FM lines. In the Crown Commercial Service framework RM6378, grounds maintenance sits in Lot 3 (Soft FM) alongside cleaning, security, catering and waste. Buying it inside a facilities management contract means one account manager, one specification, and one invoice for inside and outside the building.
Directly-employed teams, one national standard
Like our cleaning operatives, grounds teams are PAYE-employed on guaranteed hours and DBS-checked (Disclosure Scotland / AccessNI in Scotland and Northern Ireland), working to documented method statements and risk assessments. For a multi-site estate, one contract delivers the same grounds standard in every town - the national alternative to appointing a different local gardener at each site.
What a grounds maintenance contract typically includes
| Task | Typical timing |
|---|---|
| Grass cutting & edging | Growing season, on a set frequency |
| Hedge & shrub trimming | Seasonal / scheduled |
| Weed control | Scheduled through the season |
| Leaf & litter clearance | Autumn / year-round |
| Winter gritting & snow clearance | Reactive, cold weather |