Prices for landscapers

I need your advice before I ask "them" directly to avoid getting a shock from quotations or maybe falling into an "overcharging" trap. So any help would be appreciated.

Here's the deal: I had before posted some pics of our garden and outlined the plans we have, some of you may remember. On Saturday we visited our bank to get a loan, mainly to consolidate and pay off our credit card and made it a few quid over to have some cash for the garden. The offer was so good that we now have more than we expected and we have been thinking about getting a professional landscaper in for the hard work, which would be as follows:

Ripping down and disposing of an old shed and erecting a new one (we would have the ground ready, it's not in the same spot)
Taking out the lawn and "sort of" cultivating the ground ready for further development (we would get the new lawn in ourselves as well as laying some new patio tiles and gravel)
Ripping down and disposing of an old fence and erecting a new one - which is quite a long fence and likely on both sides of the garden!

Anything design-wise we would do ourselves, as well as any later planting and such. We have some work colleagues who want to go into joinery later who gladly agreed to build our new timber deck for their future portfolio.
So it really only is for the "big" parts of getting the garden done, the preparation work if you want. No plants, no border design, no turf laying or anything.

What quote should we expect?
(Most of all I would not look forward to erecting x amount of fence panels myself!) :rolleyes:

 

If you get a quote for a new shed from a joiner (rather than a 'cheap' garden centre one) then you can ask them to deliver and errect it on site as well. That way they are responsible for the whole job being completed to your satisfaction.

Fencing depends on what you want done. Height of fence, tanalised v. pressure treated, hammered posts or concreted in etc. You have to draw up a spec and make sure its done right. Again there are reputable fencers out there who will do a good job.

Really that just leaves the old shed to be demolished and removed and the 'hard graft' getting the garden ready for you to work on. Probably a gardener can be found in your your local press and you can expect to pay a minimum of �£10/hr - maybe more in the Central Belt with you supplying all materials (weedkiller, plants, gravel, slabs etc.) Any removal of rubbish from site will be charged extra as it normally costs to dispose of anything these days and it's still their time and fuel. Your local authority may also do uplift but again you will be charged (Fife charge about �£25/load of up to 10 black bags) and it may take a fortnight or more for them to get round to physically lifting it. Cost of disposal can be reduced by composting as much as possible and/or having bonfires if you are allowed. BTW, old turf rotted down makes excellent loam for compost

 

I rember this garden, i thought it looked quite small from photos
1) removing fence . in my experience removing things takes only a short time, its the disposal and tidying that takes time, thats the prob .. a skip costs �£120 max, plus labour say �£80 for a day ....... add on profit = cost �£400 - worse case scenario.
2) removal of shed, is this asbestos or is it metal ........ if asbestos then it will be expensive, say �£500 max, if tin ,,,, then labour �£80, skip as before [maybe all would go in one]
3) laying a lawn ....... i would rather spend my money on this than try to do a job myself [ i seem to think you struggled with a pond]
4) Fence: if the guys think they can lay decking to a pro standard, why not get them to do the fence first and see how they get on? else get two estimates from local firms - much safer!
5) Decking: myself i would rather have a patio than decking, which gets slippery over the winter, and in 5 years time you might be looking at "black ash furniture"
6) erect shed .... often a local manufacturer will do this as part of the deal .. they are very quick as they are used to the design..... you say you will prepare the site .... is it to be laid with brick and cement foundations, is there a planning issue here?

...... rem all these skills take time to learn and like all things there are good results and bad ...... please note i ve seen some horrific work done by amateurs, i mean walls with no foundations, massive brickworks that are held up by gravity, turves thrown on top of soil = "lawn"
you don t mention landscaping of a sloping site ... i would have thought this is a priority
I m not convinced that you have thought all this though [ i hope i don t offend], but you dont seem to have planned the whole garden, rather, get the main work done and then decide what to use to fill in remainder ... i m not suggesting this is a bad way of working, just that there are other ways to go about things

[ 13. March 2006, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: Lady Gardener ]

 

Good points Lady G, I hadn't thought about an asbestos or tin shed! Asbestos removal costs are horrific and def one for a specialist and a lot of people will be wary of taking away and disposing of anything (wood or metal) that's had lead based paint on it.

 

yes the shed is an old air raid shelter from pics, and is corrugated . many were asbestos, there is no way round a pro job.

 

The shed is tin as far as I can see.

The garden probably looks smaller than it is - we counted the left hand side as 15 fence panels (6 foot panels) - it is quite narrow but long.
There is a slight slope but hardly worth mentioning - sloping away from the house.

It really only is about the hard graft, we have thought out a design we just would like the preparation work done.
As for the decking, we have come away from the idea of a big seating deck anyway, we just want a small strip of decking by the house with maybe room for a deckchair or two, but for barbeques etc we are now thinking of laying a nice slabbed patio instead surrounded by flower borders.