Poor landscaping work - garden resembles a swamp

[Adam]

I would just use a strimmer on a lawn that size.

Costs I’d expect to pay.

£200-250 per person per day.

£200-250 per skip.

Mini diggers and small plant are surprisingly very cheap to hire in especially on a week hire rate. A powered wheelbarrow for muck shifting maybe £125 a week.

Plus materials ofc.

Based on your logic of £250 * 3 people per day * 10 days (I think it was longer originally) = £7500. They had 8 muckaways at what I was told is £350-400 per load but even using £250 that's another £2000. Then there's 40sqm of patio at £40 per sqm which is another £1600 taking us to £11,100.

Then there's been the digger, materials for building the wall, split face tiles, topsoil, turf etc etc. At least he saved some money on drainage originally

But the point is I don't think the £14,750 I paid goes very far. He certainly won't be spending the summer in Florida based on what i've paid him.

 

[Adam]

Materials have increased massively, but the biggest factor is labour. Builders don't get out of bed for nothing these days.
We had lots of quotes for a small patio last year and that was £11k. The builders who did our driveway years ago (reliable and decent) had some Jan/Feb offers on at 20% discount labour, so managed to get a new fence thrown in for £10k.

Question I have for the OP. Why is your plot so low down compared to your neighbours.

Good question and I don't have the answer. The town I live in is reasonably hilly, we are on the corner and the road is sloped. The garden has always been useable for that very reason.

 

[glenimp617]

No builder/landscaper is working for £250 a day. If they are, they are crap.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

No builder/landscaper is working for £250 a day. If they are, they are crap.

And have to come back and redo the entire job?

 

[norm]

Interesting way of doing it. I think it could have been done a lot better by making sure it runs the same way. I'll let it go, choosing to pick my battles etc but it doesn't look great.

That still bothers me, could they not have linked the two ACO channels either side by linking them by drilling a hole in both and using a bit of Flexi pipe around the downpipe.

I don't follow why there aren't two drainage points either, where was the gutter from the conservatory draining to?

 

[Curlyriff]

No builder/landscaper is working for £250 a day. If they are, they are crap.

Depends on location though. Center London of course not, be about double that. Up north though yeah I can see that just fine.

This project total was quoted at £11,185 from myself with two others to complete over 7 days. (Edit price as had quote to hand but knew the price was slightly different as had slightly more patio and planter than originally quoted).

Landscape garden 01

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[Berger]

.

 

[Raumarik]

Does your lawn actually drain ? My parents had a similar problem (not as bad) and all we did was put in extra drainage on the grass to take the water away from the area surrounding the patio.

I honestly wasn't it to be this bad when I opened the thread, I hope you get it sorted mate!

 

[PermaChanged]

Any updates @Adam ? Intrigued to follow this one through!

 

[HungryHippos]

Any updates @Adam ? Intrigued to follow this one through!

Nope he's been buried under the patio

 

[tom_e]

Nope he's been buried under the patio

Don't worry, he'll float back up in a week or 2.

 

[HungryHippos]

Don't worry, he'll float back up in a week or 2.

You sure he won't be out at sea with the drainage?

 

[booyaka]

Miles beyond their "6 days to fix it" quoted timescale

No way the guy is making profit on this job now.... The labour costs alone for build, strip out, and rebuild must be massive.

 

[Adam]

No real updates. The weather has been sub zero which I understand aren't great conditions to be laying the patio.

He therefore didn't come Monday and Tuesday which is fair enough but on Tuesday he text to say he won't be coming the rest of the week as he needs to go back to his other job to get paid. He'll be back on Monday apparently which should hopefully coincide with better weather (temperature wise at least).

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Miles beyond their "6 days to fix it" quoted timescale

No way the guy is making profit on this job now.... The labour costs alone for build, strip out, and rebuild must be massive.

6 days effort not duration presumably.

 

[Curlyriff]

No real updates. The weather has been sub zero which I understand aren't great conditions to be laying the patio.

He therefore didn't come Monday and Tuesday which is fair enough but on Tuesday he text to say he won't be coming the rest of the week as he needs to go back to his other job to get paid. He'll be back on Monday apparently which should hopefully coincide with better weather (temperature wise at least).

Please make sure he uses a slurry primer and SBR additive mix on the back of the patio slabs this time and minimum for a porcelain tile should be 40mm bedding mortar for a 20mm slab thickness.

This is the most important difference between laying traditional concrete or natural stone paving flags and omitting this process will most likely result in failure of the porcelain paving tiles to adhere to the bedding mortar. A characteristic of porcelain is an exceptionally low water absorption value, so the tile will not draw in moisture to the same degree as other paving materials. Porcelain therefore will absorb almost nothing from the bedding mortar and will not form a strong, sustainable bond. In order to ensure a good bond each paving element needs to be first primed with a priming slurry. Use Pavestone Priming Slurry (or similar) to ensure that a good bond is achieved. The Primer is powder-based which only requires water to be added to make a slurry paste.


The slurry primer paste is then applied to the underside of the porcelain paving element using a wide brush until an even coat is achieved, just before placing the tile onto the
bedding mortar.

 

[sigma]

Please make sure he uses a slurry primer and SBR additive mix on the back of the patio slabs this time and minimum for a porcelain tile should be 40mm bedding mortar for a 20mm slab thickness.

Will many traders take suggestions on board? They're 'experts' after all...

 

[Curlyriff]

Will many traders take suggestions on board? They're 'experts' after all...

It isn't a suggestion, not doing that as a min then I wouldn't let them finish the job because it will be redone a year or two down line.

 

[200sols]

It literally takes a few seconds to apply a slurry before laying the slab, if he wont do it he shouldn't be laying these patios but I think that has already been established to be honest.

 

[sigma]

It literally takes a few seconds to apply a slurry before laying the slab, if he wont do it he shouldn't be laying these patios but I think that has already been established to be honest.

In my experience, traders want to do things their way, and if you question it they get all funny about it. Will not get funny about charging you £10000000 a day though.