To ask for material and labour costs for Garden landscaping

[BbqFanatic]

I've got a quote for planting trees and shrubs and have been given a total cost. The landscaper has sent a design but no indication of how much is labour vs planting costs. Is it reasonable to ask for a breakdown and costs of plants? He has given me the names of the plants and trees but not the breakdown of what's costing what?

Unsure how to proceed because I don't know if he has chosen budget trees to keep the costs down and is charging me excessively for labour instead? The whole reason is to get lovely plants and trees so I would want my money to go more towards that.

Just ask him to split it or say that you will provide the trees and ask him to do Labour only quote

Prepare for it to say something like:
Materials and labour £x

Materials without labour £0
Labour £0
As they won’t do the job

Good contractors don’t like to be questioned like this as their knowledge and experience is factored into the supply and procurement of materials.

It's not about questioning the knowledge or experience.

If I was buying handmade curtains, they would give me the price of the fabric and making charges. Now I could choose how much to spend on the fabric in relation to making. I wouldn't pay £1k making charges on fabric that is £300.

I wouldn't pay £1k making charges on fabric that is £300.

This is exactly why they won't break it down. If something takes 3 days to make then it takes 3 days to make it it's made out of cheap or expensive material. You have to decide if you think the whole job is worth what you are being charged. If material was £3000 would you think making of £1k is fine?

You are always free to get a quote from a different supplier and can see if it is close in costs or miles off. If that quoting method is losing them work then they may change but if it isn't then it is unlikely they will change it for you.

You can ask, but they may not be prepared to do it. And you may not like what you see!!

What you class "labour" isn't really just that - you're paying for expertise, experience, use of their tools, insurance, costs of the vehicles they're using, tax, NI and the list goes on and on.

I had my garden cleared of trees and shrubs and an old swimming pool. They left it flat. This was £2,600 and I think it was very undercharged as it was 7 days labour, plus diggers, and 3 workers.

I then had my pre-flattened garden landscaped very basically. They planted some shrubs I provided and raked a truck full of top soil to create borders. They charged £2,000 which I think for two days labour for two men was overpriced.

I then did the seeding of the lawn afterwards so it didn't include the grass.

There's no harm asking them to split the costs - however do you have a set budget? If you do then putting more money towards quality plants / trees takes away from your labour budget, so you'll either need to up the budget so you can include labour or be prepared to DIY the planting. They will have a set labour cost per head per day so won't be charging "excessively" for it. Our local rates are £100-250 per day for landscapers depending on skill levels etc.

If material was £3000 would you think making of £1k is fine? - Yes

I don't mean only manual labour, they can add their expertise and that's fine.

I have more budget than quoted and the tree selection is okay, not fantastic but I can't say how much extra I'd be prepared to go without knowing where we're at.

While I'm paying so much to get them installed, I'd like to spend more on the trees. I'm trying to figure out why the selection is so mediocre and if putting more money towards it will make the project better but he won't tell.

I wouldn’t be happy with this if you aren’t impressed with the plants. Obviously decent and mature trees and shrubs are expensive but he’ll be getting them at trade prices and charging them at normal retail prices.

When I had my garden done I was able to get the ceramic tiles via a friend with a trade account which probably didn’t thrill the landscaper but I’d spent a lot so he was fine with it.

If you are mainly concentrating on planting have you considered working directly with a proper nursery?

I have more budget than quoted and the tree selection is okay, not fantastic but I can't say how much extra I'd be prepared to go without knowing where we're at.

While I'm paying so much to get them installed, I'd like to spend more on the trees. I'm trying to figure out why the selection is so mediocre and if putting more money towards it will make the project better but he won't tell.

Are the trees mundane, common and unexciting? I don't think you should go ahead with the current plan if you're feeling "it's OK but not fantastic". When you're investing a lot of money in your garden like this, you ought to be really pleased with the plans. You don't want to be irritated every time you look at the garden. I'm not sure I'd be worrying about the ratio of planting to the labour costs at this stage, I'd just want to be happy with the plants chosen. It's a BIG deal!

Small plant selection is really nice but the trees are just regular evergreen stuff. Anyways will pay for the design and get another quote. Thank you for your replies

@BbqFanatic

Small plant selection is really nice but the trees are just regular evergreen stuff. Anyways will pay for the design and get another quote. Thank you for your replies

Maybe could you tell them directly? That you are happy with small plants, but would like to see an alternative option with wider tree selection, how much it would add to the cost/what you can get for extra ££? They supposedly want to do the job for you, so telling them what you don't like will be in the best interest of both parties.