Landscaping advice needed please

[ian_marshall]

Does anyone have any experience of dealing with Landscapers, and if so are you able to share any good advice?

 

We're looking to get the front and back gardens landscaped, it's about 217msq, with the back garden on slight 15° sloping gradient which we want levelling, but the majority of the work will be paving, with a small 17ft x 3ft bed at the front and nothing fancy like fountains, lights, etc. 

 

The prices we've been quoted are silly money and there is a huge variance between contractors. 

 

Just wondered if anyone can shed any light on rough costs for a garden of this size as it's the first time we've had any dealings with Landscaping companies. 

 

Many thanks. 

Edited 20 May 2018 by ian_marshall

[Carl the Llama]

Do it yourself with a beard trimmer.

[Babylon]

17 hours ago, ian_marshall said:

Does anyone have any experience of dealing with Landscapers, and if so are you able to share any good advice?

 

We're looking to get the front and back gardens landscaped, it's about 217msq, with the back garden on slight 15° sloping gradient which we want levelling, but the majority of the work will be paving, with a small 17ft x 3ft bed at the front and nothing fancy like fountains, lights, etc. 

 

The prices we've been quoted are silly money and there is a huge variance between contractors. 

 

Just wondered if anyone can shed any light on rough costs for a garden of this size as it's the first time we've had any dealings with Landscaping companies. 

 

Many thanks. 

 

I got a quote recently for imprinted concrete front and back and that was about £10,000. That was just breaking up concrete, shifting away and relaying and imprinting. Probably about 140sqm

[Bellend Sebastian]

Ground work is generally expensive, and I can only assume that's because it's labour intensive - anyone in the trade have any thoughts on this?

 

My mate had his drive done in a sort of block paving (it was tasteful, not that really uniform 1980s style) and that was £5,000 for an area barely big enough to fit two (small) cars on. The builder did loads of other work for him that wasn't that expensive, so I doubt he was ripped off

[ian_marshall]

53 minutes ago, Babylon said:

I got a quote recently for imprinted concrete front and back and that was about £10,000. That was just breaking up concrete, shifting away and relaying and imprinting. Probably about 140sqm

Thanks Babylon. Tempted to look into imprinted concrete myself as where we live nature plays havoc with the garden in terms of weeds and I'm conscious that paving might lead to weeds forming between the gaps in the paving stones. 

[Webbo]

23 minutes ago, ian_marshall said:

Thanks Babylon. Tempted to look into imprinted concrete myself as where we live nature plays havoc with the garden in terms of weeds and I'm conscious that paving might lead to weeds forming between the gaps in the paving stones. 

I had a customer who had a quote for that imprinted concrete and decided that block paving was massively cheaper.

[ian_marshall]

Just now, Webbo said:

I had a customer who had a quote for that imprinted concrete and decided that block paving was massively cheaper.

Good to know Webbo, thanks. To be honest, the initial plan was to go with larger paving stones as opposed to block paving as we aren't looking at doing anything to the driveway so they won't be weight bearing. 

[lifted*fox]

I was out running yesterday and as I was winding back through our streets on the way home it seemed like every man and his dog has had work done by the same company in the last couple of months. I'm going to give them a ring and get a quote because the quality looked good and they must be reasonable if every ****er down the street has used them. I'll report back when I've had a quote.

[Webbo]

1 minute ago, ian_marshall said:

Good to know Webbo, thanks. To be honest, the initial plan was to go with larger paving stones as opposed to block paving as we aren't looking at doing anything to the driveway so they won't be weight bearing. 

You can get slabs cut from stone which are quite expensive and being a natural product aren't always that uniform. 

 

We've got a space in our garden that I'm going to gravel. Gravel is only £40 a tonne and I'll need about one and a half tonne and it doesn't take any skill to lay. It'll be more expensive getting a skip to take away the soil.Its the cheapest option.

[ian_marshall]

6 minutes ago, Webbo said:

You can get slabs cut from stone which are quite expensive and being a natural product aren't always that uniform. 

 

We've got a space in our garden that I'm going to gravel. Gravel is only £40 a tonne and I'll need about one and a half tonne and it doesn't take any skill to lay. It'll be more expensive getting a skip to take away the soil.Its the cheapest option.

Thanks Webbo. Judging by the comments so far I might be best to get a digger and skip and do the excavation and ground work myself. 

[ian_marshall]

39 minutes ago, lifted*fox said:

I was out running yesterday and as I was winding back through our streets on the way home it seemed like every man and his dog has had work done by the same company in the last couple of months. I'm going to give them a ring and get a quote because the quality looked good and they must be reasonable if every ****er down the street has used them. I'll report back when I've had a quote.

Thanks Lifted. Would be good to hear how you get on. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

6 hours ago, Babylon said:

I got a quote recently for imprinted concrete front and back and that was about £10,000. That was just breaking up concrete, shifting away and relaying and imprinting. Probably about 140sqm

Imprinted concrete is horrible in winter. Water settles in the grooves, nowhere to drain off to, forms a lovely sheet of ice in the morning!

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Imprinted concrete is horrible in winter. Water settles in the grooves, nowhere to drain off to, forms a lovely sheet of ice in the morning!

There is a natural gradient thankfully, so we'd just have drainage at the end... not getting it done anyway, I'm not spending that! 

Edited 21 May 2018 by Babylon