Landscaping costs

FlyDragon

Hi all, hoping someone can help out from experience as I don’t want to waste a landscapers time coming out to quote if it’s going to be beyond what I can afford!

I inherited my garden 3 summers ago, i’d love to sort out the old past-it patio area at the back (that’s where the sun is all day) and the hard standing behind the garage that has the previous owners shed on.  

Any my ideas what it might cost to rip it up and start again?  Including those beds at the back of the lawn.

please excuse the mess, it’s very much a work in progress and i’m doing everything on my own!

FlyDragon

Oh and this is what it looked like when I moved in, so even though it’s still a bit of a mess I have done some work on it!

Perki

It going to be expensive , I am no landscaper it doesn't really interest me. What materials are you replacing the concrete with ? Skips cost a lot. I would take a wild guess and pluck and price out of thin air ( probably like a lot do anyway ) I would say around £3000, it wont do any harm asking for a quote though you'll never know otherwise. 

BenCotto

Based on extensive landscaping work we have had done on our garden, I would say that if you had a budget of £5000 - £10000 you would get a transformation to be proud of. The value of your house would probably increase by a few 000 as well.

As the design is likely to radically reshape the lawn, I would get that taken up and returfed. The brick planters at the front are rather ‘heavy’ but their appearance could be softened with lush planting. I would ask the landscapers if there was anything they could inexpensively do to widen the narrow gap between the planters but I would not be optimistic. Maybe forfeit one of them. How is the quality of the paving in front of the planters? If it has seen better days I think it would always irk me to be having to look at and past it to see the transformed garden behind.

Hmm ... maybe allocate £10000 - £15000 for this project.

Lizzie27

I think @Picidae, that might be way too much to be affordable. Judging from my own experience, the going rate round here is about £150 per day. I would estimate that the poster could get at least one main area down for around £650 - £1000, but should get 3 quotes if she can to compare prices. I used a local social enterprise company (which trains unemployed young men who are then supervised on the job) and was pleasantly surprised at the good result on a recent project. There may well be a similar set up wherever the poster lives.

FlyDragon

Thanks very much guys!  Picidae while a full overhaul would be lovely it would require borrowing money which I don’t want to do. 

I’m not afraid of getting stuck in, everything that’s been done so far has just been me alone with zero knowledge!  But I think getting rid of the old flags/hardstanding and replacing it competently is beyond my knowledge and way beyond my physical strength!  It’s just that area I want ripping up and sorting, possibly the path alongside the garage too as that’s ugly, the lawn and the beds at the  side and back can stay. 

I may replace the brick beds at some point with a more attractive type of raised bed, I have a sledgehammer ready to go! 

Lizzie, I love the idea of finding a social enterprise similar to the one in your area.  Thank you, I would never have thought of that. 

BenCotto

I agree, but would say £150 - £200 per day and would guess that the work might take two men one week. That’s perhaps £2000 in labour costs. Add to it the cost of raw materials, a digger, skip hire, turf, plants, VAT and you have soon reached £5000. With luck there might be change to buy a new set of garden furniture but even that can easily reach £500.

For the higher price you could probably get a water feature, maybe a pergola and classier paving rather than the ubiquitous Bradstone. You might want to consider the option of taking electricity to the end of the garden as well.

JennyJ

I can't really see whether the patio slabs are badly damaged or just overgrown. If the latter, a cheap alternative (maybe while you save up for what you'd really like) could be to clear the grass and weeds out of the patio area and go over it with a pressure washer.

Perki

Can you not tidy up the old flags up ? Re level uneven ones - clean them and re point them ? Just scraping the weeds off with a spade will make a difference. 

we11ington

I disagree entirely about the brick beds.. beg borrow or steal a jet washer and spend the day REALLY cleaning them and any paving around them. Even you can manage that... ;-)  Then take the top six inches of old soil out and check the drainage is good through what is left and replace it with good compost.. ( you can chuck the old stuff up the garden ) that will give you a great start and something to plant up while you think about what to do with the rest. You can spend almost any amount on "landscapers"  If the patio is really uneven and past it then hire a local builder to relay the slabs. there are thousands of designs all over for the size of garden you have. I think you are half way there.

FlyDragon

JennyJ said:

I can't really see whether the patio slabs are badly damaged or just overgrown. If the latter, a cheap alternative (maybe while you save up for what you'd really like) could be to clear the grass and weeds out of the patio area and go over it with a pressure washer.

Hi Jenny, they aren’t terrible but are quite uneven in places, and there’s a change of level/material down to the concrete that used to have a shed on.  

I also have have the dreaded mare’s tail, in abundance, especially coming up through the cracks.  The brown stuff all over the patio is what i’ve killed in the last few weeks.  Next year i’m going chemical free and i’ll try to pull up the first shoots as soon as possible.