Garden maintenance cost blew my mind.

[Boleynforsoup]

I had a gardener round to quote for trimming some hedges back from my back gate that overhang from the property behind, weeding the patio and jet washing it. Taking all garden waste with them He’s said half a days work for a couple of them max. He’s just emailed me the quote: £750!!! My flabber is truly gasted…. Is this really the going rate?! 5 years ago without the jet washing I paid someone £45!!!

I think this is crazy and I live in London!

Was it Fucktastic (Fantastic) Services? It's a franchise model and they overcharge horrendously for everything.

Yes if you prefer to put poison on your garden rather than water

I’m a qualified (RHS - circa £4500) gardener, I charge £25-30 ph depending on location/ proximity to other jobs or my location, tooling needed, fuel for mowers etc.

Chainsaw work (no climbing) has a half-day rate of £450 due to the insurance cost, maintenance and fuel. I’m qualified (circa £3k outlay) There’s also a requirement for a second person on site with a first aid qualification- I once had a customer suggest they were capable of phoning an ambulance… chainsaw injuries would often lead to death a lot faster than that call can be made.

Waste removal is charged per task (commercial licence needed) as is chipper work (extra qualification and machinery).

Some of my large sites allow waste to be burned with an environment agency licence. This requires me to have extra insurance.

I also have to pay regular gardener insurance, tax, NI, accounting software, accountant, tooling, servicing, maintenance, specialist vehicles and trailers.

That's ridiculous!

go on 'Nextdoor' and ask for a recommendation, they'll be falling all over you to quote & much more reasonably.

Dont pay £750!!

We need more tradespeople like your DH. 😊

I do the patio with a karcher and patio attachment. We bought it after the last patio cleaning quote which was ££££. Bit of weeding, clean the patio. It doesn’t take long and is very easy to do. Maybe get a quote for cutting back the hedging after the summer and sort out disposal of the waste yourself if you can to keep costs down?

I would say overpriced by about £400. Shop around, you'll find cheaper, unless you're in London.

My gard3ners day rate is 200 so for 2 people half day he would hsve charged that. 750 is ridic.

May depend on where in the country you are, the level of qualifications of the person doing the job, and whether they want the job (they may charge more if they don't want it to put you off).

Last year we paid £500 for a gardener ( one that knows plants rather than someone that just cuts lawns etc) to do work in our garden.
He spent two days (solo but worked solidly in that time) clearing weeds, taking out plants that were no longer working for us and trimming back shrubs that we wanted to keep. He also took all the waste/cuttings away.
We were very pleased with the work and the price and expected it to be more.

The year before we had someone take down and take away a shed, build a new shed in a different area of the garden, and rebrick the area underneath the old shed so it could be used for parking on. The quote for the whole thing was around £1500, which we thought was reasonable. To clean the drive ( which is a reasonable size because it goes down the side of the house as well as behind it), was I think around £300, but due to having other work planned we didn't end up getting that done at the time.

Not several. Two. So it's miles off

I’m a gardener. I get paid £15ph, my boss charges £25ph and we work our backsides off on jobs and provide company and a chat with some of our older clients who live alone. Find a small independent gardener or handy person, don’t go for landscaping companies with their newer branded vans etc as they will be expensive.

There are handy men on my local FB pages who do fortnightly grass cuts for £20. My dad uses one to get his hedge cut and it costs him £50! £750 is insane, it's not skilled work like say an electrician, my teenager does our garden and does a good job.

Rip off….

There is a huge difference between tree surgery and gardening. I was a professional gardener for many years. Tree surgeons pay a huge amount more for insurance. Plus they have a lot of risk personally just doing the job.

That seems a ridiculous amount for half a days work. But you need to consider the following
Removal of waste requires a license and the final destination charge
A decent strimmer is in the region of £500 .
A mower at least £300...£600 is more like it...I actually bought cheaper ones because the expensive ones don't last much longer. 2 years if I was lucky but they were getting used at least 15 hours a week 30 + weeks a year
Liability Insurance for a gardener is quite cheap. But personal accident isn't and it's vital if your self employed.
Petrol...say no more
Other tools....I used to carry about £2000 around in the van. Most of it wouldn't last a year...expensive secateurs are just as likely to break or get lost. Often they are a bugger to sharpen and you have to simply throw them away

The thing you are paying for is experience and knowledge....give me an old unpruned apple tree and I'll get it producing more fruit that you've ever seen in 2 years. Let me loose on that hedge and it will look brilliant

Unfortunately what has become normal is for people to think gardeners should all be cheap, are unskilled, unqualified and don’t deserve to earn a proper living. That was the same years ago when people in half a million pound homes didn’t want to pay the gardener than £7 per hour too. All my son ever had was people wanting it done cheaper or for free. If three different plumbers all gave them a similar quote to repair their boiler they wouldn’t ask them to do it cheaper or free but for some reason gardeners are seen as unworthy of earning a proper income. My son even had one woman say ‘I wouldn’t pay my cleaner that!’. That’s how some people view gardeners, as not deserving to earn more than a cleaner. They have thousands of pounds worth of equipment in their vans which a cleaner doesn’t, they have expenses and bills to pay, they have to pay to remove rubbish, they have insurance to pay, staff to pay, fuel, etc. We really need to get away from this mentality of quibbling over gardeners fees because everyone thinks gardeners should be cheap while not being nearly as picky and tight fisted over any other trades. If you want a service you need to pay for it.

Clueless….

Nope, it really is a rip off.

That’s rubbish. It’s half a days work for a semi skilled job. I’m in a professional job which required post graduate training and I don’t earn that in a full day let alone half a day. I’d be doing it myself.

No that's ridiculous. Get another one

Hi and yes that is excessive, my ex husband used to fo it of course. Now I just need a boyfriend to come and offer lol. Seriously that quote is ridiculous but I am sure someone else will pay that. I think they are chancers. I was quoted last year £30 an hour for gardening it might cost a bit more if they have to pay to leave your hedge cuttings at the recycling centre as for them its trade waste.

I think that's ridiculous. Would people seriously pay that?!

In fairness, you dont need a skilled gardener to cut a hedge back and powerwash.

2 people at 25 per hour, 6 hours (include 2 hours each for travel time, admin etc) is 300. If accountant charges 600 for tax return, thats 50 a month, so say 5 per job. Costs of running van and machinery per one day job - say 30 max. 335, but lets call it 350. Obviously waste disposal costs, but for hedge trimmings I imagine they whack it through a big shredder and give it away for paths, under play equipment, etc. Im guessing at costs, but 750 sounds v steep.

Friend paid £550 to have a tree cut back and all the bits taken away. I paid £300 last year (tiny back yard) to have all the weeds dug up in the yard and at the rear of my house in the communal alley dug up and removed and weed barrier put down in my yard. I thought £300 was quite reasonable. I could have done it but it would have taken me ages and I have bad hayfever so it makes me feel grim. Of course all the weeds round the back have returned and I am too skint to get someone in to dig them up this year so will have to sort it out myself.

I'll show this to DH as he thinks our gardener is expensive ... charges £25 to cut front and back lawns, lightly trim a few hedges and a bit of weeding twice a month. We don't have a big garden but even so I think it's extremely reasonable, esp in London.