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Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Gardening

Removing a hedge and putting up a 4ft fence - cost?

20 replies

meltingsugar · 09/02/2018 16:22

Does anyone have an idea what would be a reasonable price bracket for this kind of work, in your mind anyway?

12m hedge that is very patchy and 5 ft high max to be ripped out, disposed of and a 4ft fence put in its place with gravel board underneath. Have had two quotes and one is quite literally double the other! We are in the east of England. Don't want to be ripped off nor under pay for a poor quality job.

I know this is how long is a piece of string, but some idea would be amazing! Anyone got any thoughts on what you'd expect to pay?

OP posts:

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Biggreygoose · 09/02/2018 16:25

What sort of fence? There is a difference between post and rail, lapboard etc.

meltingsugar · 09/02/2018 17:30

A picket fence

OP posts:

meltingsugar · 10/02/2018 09:29

Cheeky Saturday morning bump. The quotes I have had are around £800, and then £1600, so rather different

OP posts:

lamettarules · 10/02/2018 10:24

I feel your pain -I never know what I should be paying !

Off the top of my head say it's 2 days work - so say £200 labour ????
And I 'm sure you could find the price of materials on line and add the 2 together .£1600 sounds a lot to me .

Maybe ask over on www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property ?

user187656748 · 10/02/2018 10:26

The ripping out and disposal of the hedge will be a big chunk of the price. How old and established is the hedge? You'll need a skip or else your contractor will be factoring in the disposal costs too. Would it not be better to run the fence alongside the hedge for aesthetic reasons?

TheBrilloPad · 10/02/2018 10:36

DH has a landscaping company (nowhere near you), and says his price would be somewhere between to two.

He said if you are going with the cheaper one, check to see how they are getting rid of the waste (if they have a shredder that explains how they can do it cheaper), and make sure you have seen examples of previous work because he said £800 would be very cheap.

meltingsugar · 10/02/2018 10:47

Thanks all, this is really helpful.

The hedge isn't really straight to the boundary anymore so we want the fence to reinstate it where it should be. It's really not a very good condition hedge it has been left to it for a long time and is very gappy in places and has a dip in the middle where it shrinks in height, and then kinks into our front garden at the end, not sure on its age.

I got a breakdown from one of them, hedge removal and disposal was £450, the fence itself £700 ish and then £250 for the gravel board with VAT on top. Didn't get a breakdown for the other one, but it's detailed in terms of exactly what materials. Both are local firms, one is a one man band I think the other a small company.

Got to get my cam belt done as well as some other expensive things, so we are trying to work out what we can afford to do this year..!

OP posts:

user187656748 · 10/02/2018 11:04

I would put the fence in on the correct boundary line and then cut the hedge right back but leave it there. It will then hopefully grow back healthier and if it has the hedge to lean up against that might help too. You can plug any gaps as it grows.

Biggreygoose · 10/02/2018 11:05

Sorry I missed your reply yesterday.

Based on some estimation books: picket fence is about £70 a meter Inc labour and materials - So £840 for the fence, hedge removal at day rate - £150 to £200 is reasonable for two labourers a day. Day and a half a work so approx £300. £250 skip or shredder hire.

Total: £1390.

I would get another quote.....

worriedowner · 10/02/2018 11:26

Interesting idea about leaving the hedge there. I had gotten used to the idea of growing roses through a picket or similar, but I guess we could cut it right down as well as back and see what it does. It's like this currently:

Removing a hedge and putting up a 4ft fence - cost?

Removing a hedge and putting up a 4ft fence - cost?

worriedowner · 10/02/2018 11:27

I've just had a nc fail for something else pet related, but it doesn't really matter! I am OP

user187656748 · 10/02/2018 15:41

yep, if that was mine I'd cut it down to about half its current height and also cut it back, put the fence up behind it (as long as that doesn't encroach on NDN's boundary and then you have both there. That is an established hedge and will soon fill out. It will look much better than a stark fence.

user187656748 · 10/02/2018 15:42

Plus would your NDN even want a picket fence with roses entwined though it? It's a very particularly look.

worriedowner · 10/02/2018 18:46

Thanks, I'll have a chat with the people who have quoted I think with that in mind.

I don't really care if NDN doesn't like it to be honest, it's not going to be an eyesore whatever we do (they do have a bare picket fence themselves on the boundary they are to maintain) and the NDN is selling up as well. Our garden was mature but had gone without attention for a long time so we are in the process of getting it all under control which has meant cutting a awful lot back so far.

BarbaraOcumbungles · 10/02/2018 18:56

As PP said, if you cut that hedge down by half you’ll find that it’ll come back much thicker and healthier and be much more attractive to both people and wildlife than a fence. Do you know what sort of hedge it is?

SummerDaysAhead · 11/02/2018 07:07

I paid £1800 for getting rid of a bramble hedge (11m), digging out of tree stumps (about 5, a small digger was needed) flattening out the area, and putting up panel fence with gravel board. It took 2 days and was a two man job.

worriedowner · 11/02/2018 08:40

Thanks Summer, I did think it sounded like a lot of work for £800!

No idea what kind of hedge, it has black, round berries but I imagine that doesn't narrow it down hugely? Half the issue with it is the ground has moved so the bottom chunk of the hedge is a good foot inside the boundary. I imagine we will have to get the ground built up to try and regrow that bottom bit but hopefully the people who have quoted can help with the thought process behind it.

BarbaraOcumbungles · 11/02/2018 09:50

Is it very thorny?

MrsBertBibby · 11/02/2018 10:16

Do try to keep the hedge, it's such an important resource for wildlife. A picket fence is totally sterile, roses notwithstanding.

worriedowner · 11/02/2018 18:43

No, not notably thorny.

It's not a good place for wildlife to be honest because all the cats from the neighbourhood seem to sit in it. That's why we don't feed the birds, don't want to tempt them into cat-zone. We live very rurally so there are much better places for wildlife to be.

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