I am looking at getting the garden cleared at the house project I am on. Currently heavily brambled , some grass, scrub bushes/trees plus 2 reasonable size trees (5" -8" diam trunks), plus an old big stump to grub, plus a hedge line of small trunks, plus great piles of old vegetation where we hacked the brambles down initially plus an old raised bed and about a skip load of building rubble. i.e just a typical back garden that has been untouched for 15 years. I want the whole lot cleared, killed back, cultivated and grass seeded. We are talking an area of about 35m x 10m and a smaller area down the side of the house 10m x 3m. I have a quote in for just over £3K plus vat from a very professional outfit, but there is so much potential variability in quality and outcome it's difficult to get a feel for what is good value. I'm actually having trouble getting the smaller outfits to quote. I think it's pretty fair price for a properly done job but wondered what others think?
I just had 2 large stumps grinded last week. Used a company call Stumpbusters which are a franchise. Cost £180 to do both. The guy had a radio controlled machine and stumps were 3Ft and 2 ft dia.
Hi Rusty, sounds reasonable to me however I would be keen on knowing details of the work they will carry out e.g. will they put 6mm or 10mm top soil on the ground before seeding, to what depth, will they level and roll it or just seed over what's there. I am very sceptical of all trades, not that I don't trust them, but if you don't specify exactly what you want doing, then you don't know what they will do and end up with. At the least I'd want to know split of labour vs materials. I do hate it when I'm just given a price without some details of what the job involves. As a guide, my tree people quoted a day rate for 2 people with chipper of £490 + VAT as a guide, that's proper tree people rather than unskilled labour to do hedge trimmer and general clearing. Stump grinding is normally around £350+VAT for a day which IU guess is £50 per hour...this is in Surrey. Hope that helps.
Thanks. I am somewhat sceptical too, but have no worries about the outfit who have quoted - they are actually a very well respected landscape contractor http://www.bartongrangelandscapes.co.uk/- it's more I am wondering if they are maybe a bit too big for my little job, hence asking for a sense check on the quote because I don't have the experience to estimate how much work it actually is. I will be getting another quote hopefully next week so we'll see. The ground has really good topsoil - why the weeds are so prolific, and was originally well cultivated with beds and veges but has been allowed to go wild. They are quoting to cultivate the existing topsoil and seed which is fine with me. It sounds about right to me - I can see best part of a week's work for a couple of guys + a couple of skips, and they'll have to bring in various machines to do it.
Just to update this - it wasn't a week's work for a couple of guys - it was 2 days for a team! they rolled up with a lowloader with a tractor and 3T digger, 2 wagons for waste, another wagon towing a chipper - 6 guys including a tree surgeon - they even brought a portaloo!. Treated the ground with something, stripped it all out, cultivated it with "farm" machinery, used some sort of rotating rake to drag out most of the weed roots, harrowed it, and seeded it. 3 weeks later it's looking good - one small slightly low patch holding a little water after after all the rain we've had but the rest looks like a football pitch now . They also removed a skip load of assorted **** which couldn't be composted or chipped. In the end we only had 2 real quotes - the one we went with and another at 50% more I approached 3-4 smaller companies, but none were interested in this job which obviously required a fair bit of machinery! Pleased with the result and definitely a thumbs up for https://www.bartongrangelandscapes.co.uk/ for anyone else in our neck of the woods.
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