Wildly differing quotes for fencing/tree removal

poorlittlefish

I'm after having four fir trees removed, 14m new featheredge fencing along one boundary and 4 1/2 bays fencing replaced on another boundary with featheredge (approx. 8m, original posts to be re-used).

Contractor 1:
Removal of trees £580
14m featheredge £980
Removal of existing bays, fix 8m featheredge using existing posts £465

Contractor 2:
Removal of trees £1,085
14m featheredge £630
Removal of existing bays, fix 8m featheredge using existing posts £280

As you can see, on one the tree removal is half the price of the other, but the fencing is twice as much, so I don't know whether I should try and negotiate with one of the contractors. I don't suppose they'll be too happy if I get one to cut the trees and the other to do the fencing.

The first guy measured everything, but gave me an estimate. The second guy just relied on the measurements I gave him but gave me a quote so I'm unsure what to do for the best and would be grateful for some opinions!

zaax

Does one of them include stump removal?

poorlittlefish

Neither of them mentioned anything about that. There are other trees that were removed at some point and their stumps left behind, so that doesn't particularly bother me.

phill99

But there is only £40 in it when you total it up.

Go with the one you feel most confident with.

keystone

You could ask both of them to give you a comprehensive breakdown of the prices or you could ask for a comprehensive description of the work each will do to include material specifications or you could ask another to quote or you could ask both of them to requote against a comon specification written by you or you could just follow Phil's advice.

Cheers