professional gardners / landscapers, how much would you expect to pay up front?

[breeze]

About to have some work done, quote was £1000, I just wandered how much you would expect to pay up front.

I think I have seen to many programmes like house of horrors and gardners from hell etc etc.

[TracyK]

nothing up front!!

[WigWamBam]

Don't pay anything up front, only pay once the job is done.

[TracyK]

or stage payments if its a long term project

[QueenOfQuotes]

I agree about paying nothing upfront, although some (reputable) companies do ask for a nominal 'deposit' in those cases for a £1000 job I wouldn't pay anymore than £100

[Twiglett]

depends how big the company is ... personally I'd expect to pay for the plants up front, but not for any labour

[lemonice]

I would emphaise engaging a reputable company/person who can give you references or is personally recommended.

It depends how much work the contractor has to do eg plans before doing groundwork and also how much of the spend is for materials. I think it is reasonable to pay for materials if they are specially ordered but you can get round that by purchasing them yourself.

[elliott]

We had quite a big job done (about £8k) and had to put down a deposit and then staged payments, of which I'm pretty sure one was up front but the final one was on completion.
I think for a smaller job I probably would'nt expect payment up front. In fact we had a £800 fencing job done and the bill arrived so many months afterwards I assumed I'd already paid it so ignored it

[TracyK]

they may want a deposit - just to make sure you are serious about the work needing done. But as said before no more than £100 just to book their diary.

[elliott]

I did think that the terms we agreed to were quite favourable to the firm - but they were very professional and I guess that's how they achieve it - being pretty stringent on payment deadlines. We did have a lot of materials that they needed to buy (although not until the later stages of the project). It was fine though - we needed a few things finishing off to our satisfaction at the end so we didn't give them the last cheque until it had all been done.

[Twiglett]

as an aside its nice to see the same peole on this thread who are helping me out re my architect fees .. common interests in money perchance??

[TracyK]

tight arses you mean??

[Earlybird]

I had a major job done that involved regrading with soil trucked in, reworking/installing drainage, building a fence/deck/terrace, laying paving stones, raised beds, planting, etc.

I paid 1/3 upfront, 1/3 midway through, and 1/3 upon completion.