The Brew Cabin

I'll start by thanking you for your answers to my earlier enquiries - this is a great site that I'm so pleased to have stumbled across.

Talking of stumbling, I've just received a quote to provide and lay 84sq m of Haworth Moor in my garden.

No major excavation / earth removal to be done, only laying of the bed and stones themselves other than for the paths (see below)

One large continuous rectangle around a conservatory - approx 60m
One stone circle 2m radius
Two or three short paths and replacement of ugly slabs forming steps to my front door

A total of £10,250 is around £120 sq m.

Thoughts / observations / comments welcomed

(Edited by Tricky at 9:40 pm on April 27, 2004)

Rip off! :(

Even thought the Haworth Moor is not the most competitively priced of the imported Indian sandstones (despite its Bronte-like name, it's actually an import!), 120 quid per square metre is daylight robbery.

In NW England, the average rate to supply and lay a quality Indian sandstone to a patio area is around 50 quid per m², plus yer VAT. In the over-priced SE, it's nudging 70 quid. I have seen ridiculous prices such as this before, usually in the leafier parts of Surrey and Sussex, but that's because demand for good flaggers far outweighs supply, so the labour rate is grossly inflated.

Get at least 2 more quotes - in writing!

Quote: from TonyMcC on 12:32 pm on April 28, 2004
I have seen ridiculous prices such as this before, usually in the leafier parts of Surrey and Sussex...

Sadly that's exactly where I am. Doesn't stop me from having a keen nose for p*ss taking though....!

Nudging £70 was the high-end of my expectations. Even that would be £4k less.

I asked for a breakdown between supply and lay, and eventually extracted the fact that the total labour cost was somewhere around £6k. Contractor suggested that the job would require about 5 days, with 2-4 people on site. I make that about £2k per person for a weeks work.

Apparently he's booking work upto 6 weeks out at these rates.

Not from me. Additional quotes on way....

Yes it seems quite steep, but not suprising for the SE. I've just paid £6000 in "leafy surrey" to have 70 sq yd of yorkstone laid in a front drive, but that didn't include the stone.
There are always cheaper flaggers out there but it is a skill to lay it properly and sometimes it's worth paying a little more for a quality job.
Given that your job is only a week for 2-5 blokes (mine took 2 blokes 3 weeks), it might be worth you buying the stone direct and getting a crew from the north and putting them up in a B&B for a week

Sorry ecco, but 6 man weeks to lay 70 sq yd of yorkstone is serious, industrial quality, olympic standard urine extraction!

6 man weeks?? 30 man days?? I could lay it quicker than that on my own, and I'm a cripple!

In all honesty, a good streetmason with just one labourer would expect to lay a minimum of 20 square metres per day, so that's 8 man days to lay your driveway, and the 'going rate' would be somewhere around 15 quid per square metre for a small residential driveway job such as yours.

What the hell were they doing for all that time? 30 man days?? That's only 2½ m² per man per day - that is, quite frankly, shameful, and I'd have sacked the lot of them long ago. :(

Paying a little more for a quality streetmason is always a sound investment, but paying these arseholes 6 grand to loll about for 3 weeks is just encouraging them to carry on ripping off folk.

That included demolition of front garden, removal by digger of 2 ft of soil, laying sub-base, installing drainage,sub-base, cutting & laying of flags.
It was the best of many quotes, and these people are'nt short of work. The customer has to decide whether they want the work done or not.
Shame some of your northern crews don't advertise down south. Could benefit everyone.

Well that puts them in a slightly better light but still, 3 weeks to complete a 70 sq yd driveway is excessive.

And some of our brave Northern lads do venture down to the heathen lands of the South.... occasionally - for the right kind of job! :)