Might not be quite on topic for here, I'm not sure, but you gave me some excellent advice years ago about concrete imprinted driveways so I thought I'd see if you could take a look at our current project.
We're looking to have our rear garden completely re-done, literally the lot - turf, paving, walled edges to borders, and an almost complete perimeter fence.
In our perhaps naïve minds my wife and I pulled a £5000 budget out of the hat to cover the garden work and a further £2000 for the fencing.
For an idea of scale, the garden is approx. 9 metres x 12 metres. The fence would be ~18metres plus a further 9 metres in length.
The first landscape company we had to visit (after much research!) were great, their ideas and previous work fitted us perfectly, but when we started to talk about budget they felt the £5000 was not enough, by the time they considered the turfing and clearance/prep work involved.
In all honesty, the budget was plucked out of thin air, we had no idea on realistic costs, so they may well be right. They came back and suggested that it would be closer to £9000 for all the ideas we discussed (including main patio area, additional corner patio with pergola, walled edging etc.), new lawn and all the planting. They actually said this would be a lower profit margin than they like to work on, but who knows!
We are awaiting pricing on the fencing, but I suspect we're probably about right for this £2000 budget, whether we go concrete post or full wooden design.
I guess I'm curious if people think this £9000 figure for full landscaping, Indian sandstone paving work for the patio, second corner raised patio with pergola, then walled edging to borders and a path front to back seems about right? This was with all planting and we need to confirm if this also includes an 8 metre section of walling in the front garden as well.
It is a reasonably large garden area, and pretty much the whole lot of it needs stripped out within this £9000, however never ever pricing up this type work, I'd be keen to know people's thoughts
We have a second company visiting this week, so we will get some idea of comparisons, fingers crossed the £9000 is actually a good price as we really liked the first company and their portfolio of work!
£9000 is not an unreasonable of money if you are looking to employ an experienced landscaping company who are going to do a proper job. I am sure you could find cheaper if you look around but you are only cheating yourself.
A professional company will plan the project out properly saving valuable time on site, materials will be good quality, foundations and sub bases will be to the correct depth.............................
This job needs to last for 15-20 years I assume. Do it once, do it right
Cheers, it wasn't so much about finding cheaper, more that the price was 'reasonable', I think from further research it is very reasonable. I think the company may have thought they were out of our price range based on the conversation we had after they'd given the project some thought, obviously there would be a final quote from any company involved before we agree to anything
Not sure on mentioning company names on here or not?
Some local work we've seen and plenty on their website.
They are putting a full quote together and design/planting plan at the moment. The patio door was fitted late last year and was the first stage of getting the garden up to scratch, the rest of the house internally has pretty much been done in the past 10 years.
We liked their testimonials but they don't have much to look at on their website, so we need to find out a bit more and see if they have anything local we can look at.
The garden is, well, tired! Not been touched for the most part in many years, the non-orange fence and the wooden one across the back is the one to be replaced:
We are also asking about getting the wooden log roll replaced with a stone wall, it's pretty much rotten now and hard to garden around:
I have met Nigel Walker from Nigel Walker Paving Services and John Roberts from Sharp Paving who are both based in your area, 2 great guys and excellent Marshalls approved contractors, both of them have just won another gold award at the Holker garden festival in the lakes last weekend, they both did the same in 2012 too so my money would be on one of these contractors to be working on your back garden
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Good to know, John said he was at Holker when I called him to ask about the work
It'll come down to price and what that includes - both companies have excellent credentials. If price is very close between each then it will come down to who we personally liked the best when speaking to them during the quote/plan aspect.
John was round last night, good chat and he's gone off to do an initial design plan with some pricing. The initial sketch he did from his measurements was pretty similar to the ideas from Gardens Transformed so we'll see how the pricing and designs pan out
Basics from us were a patio area near the rear door, a pergola/patio section in a corner and further paving where the BBQ currently sits. Most likely a new lawn along side the fencing.
The quotes are all in and decisions made, though it took a good bit of discussion
Sharp Paving quoted and broke the pricing down nicely, including the fencing.
Gardens Transformed did a similar thing except we have the ground clearance and fencing quotes direct to us.
In short, GT got the work - both companies were superb to deal with though we felt that pricing aside GT had a bit more passion and also got our concept a bit more than Sharp. I'm sure Sharp could have worked in the ideas from GT but then the price difference may well have increased further.
Overall the GT project comes in around £2000 cheaper, mostly on the fencing (£800 cheaper via a local specialist, Graham Howe Fencing) and the ground clearance etc. (around £1000 cheaper). We have gone for concrete fencing with decent panels over wooden purely for longevity - that and all our neighbours have the same thing, and we have this fence already that our neighbours put up on one side so if nothing else it will at least match.
Pretty large area of Indian sandstone paving for the patio and raised pergola, Alston stone path along one border and up to the pergola, then a gravelled BBQ area and 'bum seat' Alston stone wall. Plenty of planting, and a replacement of the rotten wood roll border edge in the front garden with another Alston stone wall with some 'tickling' of the front planting as well.
We're not planning on re-visiting the hard aspects of the garden for a long time, we've stretched the budget pretty far but it'll be worth it! Piccies to follow once things start - this afternoon! :0
