Devastated - can't believe my builder did this

Look the existing work has overrun and the builder sounds like a bit of a shambles. Lots of people have said that this could have been a misunderstanding as lots of projects involve a full landscaping job at the end and it’s not clear what the DP said.

If the OP unilaterally deducts money due to the builder for work he’s actually done she’s setting herself up for months of aggro or worse (some builders come back and smash it up), and I don’t seriously think she’s got a hope in hell of getting her existing builder to re-do the garden as she wants it.

Far better to chalk it up to experience and move on- take the opportunity to make something even better and not spend the next 6 months wrangling with an angry builder while the garden gets worse.

Pulling out established trees - really does not make sense.

There has to be because it just doesn’t make sense otherwise

I hate to say this, but every builder I've ever used on a long term project has a wife or daughter or mum with stage 4 cancer. It's a standard excuse in the trade. Last time I was told this and smelled bullshit I just laughed and said, poor women attached to blokes in the building trade, they do tend to end up with stage 4 cancer. And it was clear from his reaction that he had been caught out lying. So unless you know this to be true, I'd take it with a pinch of salt.

I would be gutted. That is really sad.

I would start by very calmly (& swiftly) informing him that ‘clearing the garden’ was obviously clearing it of building materials / mess and state that you would like your plants returned immediately (and if he has disposed of them to sort replacements)

This is bizarre

Exactly

I think there’s a hefty about of hyperbole involved

Yes I don’t quite understand how they took out more than one tree without him stepping in? Completely tearing out a garden takes a long, long time!

Pretty shocked they manage to do all this whilst your dh was at work!

I love my garden. I would be furious to be honest but, what was your husband doing while they were ripping all the stuff out. I would be furious with him too. I would get your husband to replace every thing. I would also have a word with the builder and ask why he did it. I think this is your husbands fault he was there In the first place.

He owes you. Hugely

Misunderstanding my arse. Clear the garden of the mess. Yes. Remove mature planting and lawn- that’s called landscaping or preparation for landscaping.

Call him back- ask for the plants back and if not then a huge reimbursement for the loss. Tally it up and send him an invoice. Mature trees cost £100s!

When I had a very large extension, my garden sure as heck wasn’t used as a dumping ground.

they hired skip after skip and this was removed and emptied very regularly.

Why has it over ran by a year? There is no need to go "mental" but you definitely do need to speak to him.

I disagree. The work had overrun by a year, so the garden was a dumping ground for a very long time, not temporarily like a few weeks or months. 2 summers was stated, which presumably doesn't include the current summer as it's not nearly over.

Many building projects would include a full garden makeover after the garden being neglected and used as a trash dump for presumably a couple of years, so it isn't beyond reason that the builder assumed when instructed to "clear the garden", it meant clear the garden. Sadly neither party clarified that OP meant "apart from x, y, z", or "of waste and rubble from the build" unless there was more detail in the scope of works.

I honestly would not care why he did it - the fact is that he did, and he shouldn't have, it wasn't in his remit, he's a builder not a landscaper, and he needs to put it right.

I honestly can't believe you are suggesting that OP should have a whip round her house for stuff she can sell on Vinted to correct the error of a so called professional who has come into her house to do a specified job, and ended up ripping out her entire garden without consent.

"Having had various work done I know that builders are often not really brilliant at communicating and need supervision."

In the case of causing huge damage to someone's property, it really doesn't matter. They are coming into your house to do a job, as 'professionals', and if they don't do it properly, they have to rectify it. Ripping out someone's garden without a written agreement of the work to be done is not doing a building job properly.

It's completely irrelevant whether or not he 'thought he was doing OP a favour'.

That is do sad and I understand that entirely how upset you must be. I think I would have done to say something to the builder about that this.

Did he cut the shrubs down or totally remove them? If just cut down some of them will grow back. How awful though x

Can you ask him where everything is that he dug up?

I know a builder who dumps stuff by his lockup and then when there's enough stuff orders a massive skip.

Could he still have any of it?

Did he cut all the plants back or dig them out ? Digging plants out is a pain so it’s really odd if he decided to do that?!

Are all builders Philistines who are too thick to know a weed from a shrub, or just this one?

This is really crap! I’d be devastated too.

Once you are in a better mind frame and out of shock mode, sit down and plan out how you want your new garden to look. You have an opportunity to completely redo it and put plants and trees where you want them.

Once you have a plan, pop to a few garden centres and look for the reduced trees/ plants. Our neighbours chopped down all of our trees (thinking they were doing us a favour). We were able to source some beautiful magnolia and red robin trees (very tall established) at £30 each!

As much as I felt that gut wrenching feeling, I much prefer the layout of our trees now.

He sounds like a total cowboy. For everything. I wouldn’t be paying him anything. Please tell me it was a set price and you haven been paying a day rate for an extra year?

So what’s your explanation- he did it on purpose? He’s not asked for extra money yet and I can’t imagine there’s much of a market for weed-ridden lawns and struggling second hand plants.

Having had various work done I know that builders are often not really brilliant at communicating and need supervision. It sounds like the lawn was on its last legs and the other stuff was not in a great state- to a builder it probably all looked like worthless weeds. He probably thought he was doing the OP a favour. Everyone I know who’s had substantial work done has had something similar, whether it’s getting rid of an original door/ cupboard/ fireplace etc, painting something the wrong colour, building something in the wrong place, or (like me) laying the wall tiles on the floor and vice versa!

That’s why I’d personally be more annoyed with DH- after a bit of experience with builders I’d have spent 5 minutes talking the builder through the job and checking they understood what I wanted (“take x but leave y and z”).

What a ridiculous response. The two are not connected. Of course the cancer is indescribably awful but that has NOTHING to do with the fact that OP’s entire garden should not have been removed. I don’t see how this can even be a misunderstanding. A builder finishes their work, they would remove all their equipment from the garden and that’s that. Not rip out established trees and plans unless that’s something that has been specifically discussed in detail. OP has absolutely every reason to be upset by this, that’s going to cost her a lot of time, money, and effort to put right, and to ask the builder to take the money it will cost to replace the plants and trees off of her final bill.