How much is reasonable for garden clearance.

[wandringstar]

The reason we ask a client whay their budget is to ascertain whether the job is viable or not- fiver says your the sort of guy who wanta to know exactly what the garage or plumbers hourly rates are before going ahead

 

wrong, I know there is no hourly rate, I get 2 or 3 quotes, but don't always go on price.

 

often,the reason a client is asked, is to hope they put their foot in it by revealing too much, that's not saying you do, but its my experience. The customer roughly knows prices, they are asking for a price, not to be quizzed in return.

 

I am not a rich man, so a £50 saving gets me a night on the beer, but I always pay a fair price and don't shaft people, however, I have been shafted many times and had dreadful service, often having to sweep up as it wasn't done.

 

 

regarding diggers comment about charging for quotes, its a bad idea, its not a free market idea and would be counter productive in the least.

Edited May 5, 2017 by wandringstar

[Walker570]

I would certainly get at least two quotes if I could. I would have a go at pricing it up myself of course to give me some idea as well. It doesn't mean that I would go for the cheapest either. Bear in mind a lot of 'waste' has to be got rid of and we get a load of such stuff tipped down our lanes because the cost of getting rid legit' is outside the quote.

[wandringstar]

waste is a massive cost in a job, my brother and I dug out mountains of soil to level my drive, we filled a skip so densely it broke the spring on the skip truck, the amount of skips was incredible, grab loading was cheaper.

[Delwint]

It's no more than a £3k job 👍🏼

[Mice!]

Another possible route could be something like princes trust, I know they do this sort of work just not sure if you can ask them to do work or if its all council type land they work on.

 

Could save yourself a few quid by cutting back some of the brambles and burning them possibly with the shed if its kaput( not the felt roof tho) I always find brambles burn well once the fire is going even if there green, just leaving someone else to dig out the roots.

[scotslad]

Must admit there is no way i'd be telling him my budget.

 

Depending how fit u are, but can u hire walk behind mulchers? In ur area. That would make fairly short work of brambles etc as not a massive area and no vegetation to cart off. Be almost as easy as pushing a lawn mower, 1 of my neighbours just had a local boy in with his 1.5T mini digger and mulching head wot a cracking job its made, first time i've seen one on such a small digger.

 

Some garden hire shops also have heavy duty walk behind strimmers that should handle it althou u'd still have to rake all the vegetation up, dunno if u'd get away with a bonfire where u are? Can save a lot of work.

 

To give u a ruff idea for stone/areas etc very approx but 1T of stone roughly does about 10m2 at 4" thick covering, ur garden is 36m2 if my sums are right, so u could could be roughly 3.6t, .

If ur quite handy/common sense hire ur self a digger/ small dumper/tracked barrow and do it ur self esp if u have a decent area where u can't hit anything or do any damage.

Not rocket science to work at a basic level if u have a bit of common sense and kep the revs down and can take a massive ammount of hard work out of the project.

[Delwint]

1m3 will stone up 10m2 at 4" thick, which equates to approx 2.2 tons

[Delwint]

So the OP would need 8 tonnes at 4" thick of whatever material he chose

[Me matt]

often,the reason a client is asked, is to hope they put their foot in it by revealing too much

Wrong- the reason we ask for a clients budget is to tailor the quotation and specification to help win the contract.

 

I'm astonished at the amount of grown ups commenting here that have failed to grasp that- but hey- it's Friday, fill ya boots 😂

[Delwint]

Never in all my years of building have I ever asked a client "what is your budget" I look at the job, quote it, and I'll either be too high, too low (yes it happens!!) or just right. 99% of my work is repeat work or reccomendation. And books full till next year says something don't you think!!

[Mice!]

I can understand asking for a budget if it was a remodal say so you new which materials you could use plants to buy water feature maybe as there would be no point putting a load of work into a quote and being told no I just want a lawn and shed, but for a job like clearing brambles some fencing pathway and shed I would just expect a quote for the job maybe what budget I had for the shed as there is a massive difference in cheap and dear.

[Me matt]

Never in all my years of building have I ever asked a client "what is your budget" I look at the job, quote it, and I'll either be too high, too low (yes it happens!!) or just right. 99% of my work is repeat work or reccomendation. And books full till next year says something don't you think!!

My books full too, four guys, three vans, 70% of my work is recommendation- also says something don't you think? Finish quality and guarantee speak volumes.

[Delwint]

I don't disagree,people work in different ways. Just putting across my view on asking what's your budget.

[Sprackles]

Is there a reason OP you can't do this yourself? If you bought the materials yourself, purchased a good shed and did the digging shifting yourself you could probably come in under £2000. Quite a few shed companies will erect your shed on site for you. Just a thought. You could spend the left over on a nice new gun or two.

I have heart failure. Not bad enough to stop day to day activities but heavy work is out of the equation now I'm afraid.

[scotslad]

Wrong- the reason we ask for a clients budget is to tailor the quotation and specification to help win the contract.

 

I'm astonished at the amount of grown ups commenting here that have failed to grasp that- but hey- it's Friday, fill ya boots

 

But surely u'd do that while out at the job looking at it for the quote face to face, not over the phone esp with a brand new customer.

 

Yes i'm sure u might get some time wasters or folk expecting the work done for next to nothing but i'm sure an experienced boss will spot them almost instantly 8/10 times.

[wandringstar]

Wrong- the reason we ask for a clients budget is to tailor the quotation and specification to help win the contract.

 

I'm astonished at the amount of grown ups commenting here that have failed to grasp that- but hey- it's Friday, fill ya boots

 

but my full sentence said 'that's not saying that you do that'. But you left that bit off.

[Wb123]

I dont object to paying for quotes and suspect it would be a better way to do things.

 

Most of the people i send privatewards will phone secretaries for rough estimates of costs before choosing who to see for a serious paid consultation with a view to quoting for the full job.

 

Do you really want to pay the extra it takes to cover your man going out and quoting five more jobs to get his next bit of work? If you pay for the quote or pay for the job it is included each way but you dont pay for the other four quotes he spent the time on and didnt get.

[sako751sg]

I see where some are wary regarding giving their budget but when some folks expectations exceed their supposed costs when chatting ill downright ask their budget to save wasting both our times.

 

You can usually gauge pretty early if its a viable job but when i start getting the odd sob story,or a "nothing fancy" route ill try and get the budget then you can direct the job in a direction to suit.Obviously the less honest can take advantage of this but to say that its a downright no-no to give your budget away is very short sighted.

[HDAV]

If people were honest life would Be simpler,

 

If you spend £5k that might be reasonable if you spend £10k it will be better just because you have a budget doesn't mean you'll be ripped off if tell

Someone what it is........ also your budget may be totally wrong....

 

 

PS I hate tenders as they are judged on everything but the quality of the finished job....... best way to work is costs plus agree a margin and get what you want at the best quality you can afford!

[craftycarper]

It's not rocket science is it, I mean it's just a clearance job and waste removal, which he needs a waste license for to be able to do so unless you get an idiot who pockets the money he charges for waste removal then flytips it down the road so whoever does it I would ask if they have such a license. At the end of the day it's either a days work or half a day plus waste removal so what's a day £150 + profit margin + waste removal. Obviously to me that's just a days hard labour + strimmer / brush cutter if needed, if say a digger or any other machinery was brought in at would be costed to you as well. Another option is if you think it will fill a skip, pay for one and pay someone a days graft to fill it..... happy days!

Edited May 9, 2017 by craftycarper

[sako751sg]

It's not rocket science is it, I mean it's just a clearance job and waste removal, which he needs a waste license for to be able to do so unless you get an idiot who pockets the money he charges for waste removal then flytips it down the road so whoever does it I would ask if they have such a license. At the end of the day it's either a days work or half a day plus waste removal so what's a day £150 + profit margin + waste removal. Obviously to me that's just a days hard labour + strimmer / brush cutter if needed, if say a digger or any other machinery was brought in at would be costed to you as well. Another option is if you think it will fill a skip, pay for one and pay someone a days graft to fill it..... happy days!

 

Did you actually read the post and what the op was requiring done?

[Twistedsanity]

We had a similar issue a few years back, prices went from 8-15k! We needed a shed Base, some fencing, clearing and levelling about 30ft x60ft, to advertise as a gardener apparently all you need is a lawnmower and old van! We called in 15 people and for three quotes back. In the end I hired a mini digger for a week for £500, paid £250 for a skip and for a labourer in for a week(350), had a few bonfires and banked the other £7000! I have a **** back so all I did was sit in a digger and bark orders. Got a 8x14 ft shed delivered and erected from a company I found on eBay for £1000. You can add another couple of hundred for the concrete I got for the shed Base and some sleepers but people really take the Mickey pricewise if it looks like they will actually have to do some work for once

[Me matt]

We had a similar issue a few years back, prices went from 8-15k! We needed a shed Base, some fencing, clearing and levelling about 30ft x60ft, to advertise as a gardener apparently all you need is a lawnmower and old van! We called in 15 people and for three quotes back. In the end I hired a mini digger for a week for £500, paid £250 for a skip and for a labourer in for a week(350), had a few bonfires and banked the other £7000! I have a **** back so all I did was sit in a digger and bark orders. Got a 8x14 ft shed delivered and erected from a company I found on eBay for £1000. You can add another couple of hundred for the concrete I got for the shed Base and some sleepers but people really take the Mickey pricewise if it looks like they will actually have to do some work for once

From April onwards pricing can become really erratic for garden works. There's few companies local to me that I often come up against during pricing, nearly every job had an extra 1-2k added and I can't for the life of me see why, although I suspect if your already flat out and don't really want/need the work it's a bonus if you get the job, wouldnt have thought that type of tactic would result in any referal work.