Landscaped garden cost

[HoggleHoggle]

We have a small garden which at the moment is fully paved. We want to turf the majority of it, leaving a small patio area with new paving laid.

We've just had a quote for turf at £675 and patio at £1600 (or £1400 if we supply the slabs). So about £2300 altogether. Is this too much, do you think? It includes all preparation work including getting rid of existing slabs which is a fair amount of work. They've estimated about 4 days to complete the job. Access to our house is difficult and there's no room for a skip, so I think this will be pushing the price up to a certain degree.

I'm trying to get more quotes to compare but it's a bit of a nightmare - there's not many landscapers round here, and the other company i'd organised to quote just didn't bother turning up.

I like this company but I really don't want to be ripped off. I'm east England in case that helps at all.

I was wondering about asking for a revised quote based on us taking up the existing slabs and disposing of them ourselves...I'm hoping that may knock off around £500? We'd have to hire a van and do tip runs but any way to bring the cost down would really help.

[justwhatineeded]

Sounds fair to me. A lot of work has to go into the preparation in order to do a good job. So it is worth paying for.

I cant imagine them cutting the cost by as much as £500 but it is worth asking. They are saving labour and expensive dumping fees so they should give you something off.

Someone might want the old slabs which will save you a dump run. Try advertising them on www.freecycle.org/

[HoggleHoggle]

Brilliant - great idea thank you!

[DoItTooJulia]

Sounds good to me too.

One thing, to dispose of the slabs or any waste they need to be licensed waste carriers, which is expensive.

But also worth remembering they're running a business: if you want it done so cheaply that there's no profit in it for them, they'll lose interest.

DH is a landscaper and one thing some clients don't realise is the expense of the materials that aren't obvious (sand and cement or fixings for decks, that kind of thing). If you like the company and have a good price I would book it in pretty quick-DH hasn't got any availability until October at the earliest and that's getting booked up as we speak!

[Nepotism]

Sounds incredibly cheap to me! I've just had quotes of £12k and £10k. Three others didn't bother quoting.