Garden clearance rates

strawb_shortcake

Hi all,

We are looking for some garden clearance, we've done a fair amount ourselves but we need help finishing off.

A local chap just starting out gave us a quote of £180 a day, it will be labour intensive and he won't need to get rid of the waste. 
Power tools are going to be difficult to use due to a lot of junk we've found behind the fencing. 

He did say he was flexible on payment, but wouldn't allude to what, he's quite clearly keen for the work and I do want to pay fairly but £180 as a starting point seems quite steep! Or am I being tight? 

Oh and he also said he couldn't say how many days work it would take. 

I guess ideally we need someone to quote for the job but getting people put is tricky.

Based near Gloucester not close enough for Bristol prices 

twopenny

I know that my handyman charged £150 a day a couple of years ago and was worth every penny so the price is ok I'd have thought.
Especially if there's a lot of manual work.

The not knowing how long is perhaps true to a point but I'd expect some idea of what he'd expect. But then, if you were surprised by things you found perhaps he's thinking of that. 
There's no telling how long it can take to get roots out or dig if stoney. I found great lumps of iron that took me ages to get out and when planting a broadbean enough stone came out to make a small rockery.

Could you do it in a day?

I sometimes guage these things by saying ' would I do this for someone else and how much would I want'

macman

So ask him how many days and agree a fixed price based on that quote. Agreeing a day rate is signing a blank cheque. 
£22.50 an hour is on the high side for labour only, but if he;s supplying tools and equipment then not so unreasonable.

TELLIT01

£20 to £25 per hour is not excessive in my opinion.  My brother-in-law is a general builder and charges £25 per hour for labour.  I am also in the Gloucester area.

strawb_shortcake

Thank you, I've gone back to say we need to be able to agree a firm price for the job completion.

TELLIT01

Fixed price for the job is definitely the way to go.  We got a quote for work in our garden and I thought he was optimistic with the time he thought it would take, and as it turned out I was right.  He had done a really good job and didn't ask for any more money.  In that case I actually did pay more, but that was entirely my decision.  He certainly seemed genuinely surprised when I offered the extra money.

JGB1955

I'm in the Gloucester area too- just thrilled to find someone who is willing to tackle our garden project.  £24K so far.....3 weeks of work, £10K of supplies... 3 people on site.

GDB2222

annabanana82 said:

Thank you, I've gone back to say we need to be able to agree a firm price for the job completion.

I think that's a bit unfair if it's not clear what work is needed. 

Perhaps, a compromise is to get him in for a day, and see how happy you are with what he gets done? 

Brie

In the spring I got a chap to quote on a tidy of our garden (nothing basically done in it for 12 months).  He said that as a start he recommended 4 hours work with 2 of them working at £20 an hour each and extra to take things away (think it was £20 a builders bag).  Price paid in the end was a total of £200 as there were 4 bags of pruning to take away.  Bags were about a meter cube and they had trouble carrying them off as they were so full and heavy.   Well worth the money.   South coast not Gloucester.

strawb_shortcake

GDB2222 said:

annabanana82 said:

Thank you, I've gone back to say we need to be able to agree a firm price for the job completion.

I think that's a bit unfair if it's not clear what work is needed. 

Perhaps, a compromise is to get him in for a day, and see how happy you are with what he gets done? 

That was more a shortened version, I did leave it open to further negotiation, and will wait and see what he comes back with, he had already said he was flexible in price. 

If my Husband was fit and well I know he'd have it cleared within 3 days, but I know how hard he used to work. 

GDB2222

The other point is that it’s quite hard to get people at all at the moment. 

I needed a plumber, and I paid £120 an hour. Plus vat. I tried half a dozen other firms, who didn’t have the experience to do that work. 

It’s annoying because I could have done it myself, but the experienced plumber undoubtedly did it better.