wrote in message
ups.com...

wrote:
My lawn needs levelling out and re-turfing. Given that it's about 300
sq.metres, I estimate approx £600 to buy turf.
In terms of labour, how long would you say it would take someone to
rotavate this area, level it out and lay the turf? I'm just trying to
get a rough estimate for the labour costs.

Well I had someone look at it a few days ago. Just got the quote. To do
the following:-

kill off existing grass
rotovate and rake level
apply grit sand to improve drainage
roll
lay new turf

grand total £1995.

I didn't expect such a high quote. And also I didn't think it was
recommended to user a roller in this situation, as it compacts the
soil.
But looking at this work, there's nothing really complicated that I
couldn't do myself. My only concern is the drainage. I'm still not sure
if we'll need drainage pipes.


Going on what we paid yesterday to have some work done in the garden, that
is a very good price and I would snap his hand off. "I" would be quite
content to pay that.
..
..
..
..
..
Just to get the job done and for me not to do it :-))

Mike

ps as an afterthought, why not concrete it all and paint it green? No
mowing, quick wash down :-))


--
--------------------------------------
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com

Mike wrote:

Going on what we paid yesterday to have some work done in the garden, that
is a very good price and I would snap his hand off. "I" would be quite
content to pay that.
.
Just to get the job done and for me not to do it :-))

Mike

ps as an afterthought, why not concrete it all and paint it green? No
mowing, quick wash down :-))


Nice idea, but I'd never get agreement on that from SWMBO

Do you really think that's a good price? I'm figuring £600 for the
turf, £100 for sand, seed and weed killer. That's still £1300 for 2
days work. Which is damn good money by my reckoning.

wrote in message
ups.com...

Mike wrote:

Going on what we paid yesterday to have some work done in the garden, that
is a very good price and I would snap his hand off. "I" would be quite
content to pay that.
.
Just to get the job done and for me not to do it :-))

Mike

ps as an afterthought, why not concrete it all and paint it green? No
mowing, quick wash down :-))


Nice idea, but I'd never get agreement on that from SWMBO

Do you really think that's a good price? I'm figuring £600 for the
turf, £100 for sand, seed and weed killer. That's still £1300 for 2
days work. Which is damn good money by my reckoning.
.................................................. .............

2 Days?
How many men?
What equipment?
Maintenance of equipment?
Fuel?
Guarantee?
Cover for days Rained Off?

If later there is something not quite right, a bump or a dip, would you
expect to pay for the rectification or have it done free?

As a matter of interest, do you work for yourself or run a business? With
all due respect I suggest not, otherwise the 'hiddens' would be known to
you.

As an example, when I moved into my second and bigger factory, still only a
nattygramme bigger than a Starter Unit, I did the exercise of county up the
'dead money'. Outgoings before I switched a light on, had staff through the
door, switched the heating on. Things such as rent. Rates. Insurance.
Telephone rental standing charge. Gas standing charge. Electric standing
charge. Water Rates standing charge. All those things that HAVE to be paid
whether working or not. Sunday. Christmas Day. New Years Day Bank Holidays
etc etc etc.

:-((

They have to be taken into account when quoting charges.

Thought you might be interested.

Mike


--
--------------------------------------
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com


Rained Off days?

Mike wrote:

2 Days?
How many men?
What equipment?
Maintenance of equipment?
Fuel?
Guarantee?
Cover for days Rained Off?

If later there is something not quite right, a bump or a dip, would you
expect to pay for the rectification or have it done free?

As a matter of interest, do you work for yourself or run a business? With
all due respect I suggest not, otherwise the 'hiddens' would be known to
you.

As an example, when I moved into my second and bigger factory, still only a
nattygramme bigger than a Starter Unit, I did the exercise of county up the
'dead money'. Outgoings before I switched a light on, had staff through the
door, switched the heating on. Things such as rent. Rates. Insurance.
Telephone rental standing charge. Gas standing charge. Electric standing
charge. Water Rates standing charge. All those things that HAVE to be paid
whether working or not. Sunday. Christmas Day. New Years Day Bank Holidays
etc etc etc.

:-((

They have to be taken into account when quoting charges.

Thought you might be interested.

Mike



Thanks. I will raise all those points, as the quotation I have contains
very little detail. For that kind of money I would expect a top quality
job, with some sort of guarantee.

In reply to Mike ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

wrote in message
ups.com...

Mike wrote:

Going on what we paid yesterday to have some work done in the
garden, that is a very good price and I would snap his hand off. "I"
would be quite content to pay that.
.
Just to get the job done and for me not to do it :-))

Mike

ps as an afterthought, why not concrete it all and paint it green? No
mowing, quick wash down :-))


Nice idea, but I'd never get agreement on that from SWMBO

Do you really think that's a good price? I'm figuring £600 for the
turf, £100 for sand, seed and weed killer. That's still £1300 for 2
days work. Which is damn good money by my reckoning.
.................................................. ............

2 Days?
How many men?
What equipment?
Maintenance of equipment?
Fuel?
Guarantee?
Cover for days Rained Off?

If later there is something not quite right, a bump or a dip, would
you expect to pay for the rectification or have it done free?

As a matter of interest, do you work for yourself or run a business?
With all due respect I suggest not, otherwise the 'hiddens' would be
known to you.

As an example, when I moved into my second and bigger factory, still
only a nattygramme bigger than a Starter Unit, I did the exercise of
county up the 'dead money'. Outgoings before I switched a light on,
had staff through the door, switched the heating on. Things such as
rent. Rates. Insurance. Telephone rental standing charge. Gas
standing charge. Electric standing charge. Water Rates standing
charge. All those things that HAVE to be paid whether working or not.
Sunday. Christmas Day. New Years Day Bank Holidays etc etc etc.

:-((

They have to be taken into account when quoting charges.

Thought you might be interested.

What I *would* recommend is these Polish blokes. They work like b'gg'ry,
charge very little, and do a good job in my experience. I had someone's
patio taken away, it was a mess of concrete, they did it all by hand using
pixkaxes, bagged up twenty fertiliser sacks of hardcore (they didn't take
them aay because they came by push bike, not having a driving licence), and
charged £30. Never asked for a cuppa even, although she gave them one, and a
sandwich. Whistling all the time. Can't fault them. They even asked if it
would be all right to work at the weekend.

Worth asking about, there are loads of them here in the East Midlands and I
know several in the Home Counties too.

Come on you British workers :-)

wrote in message
ups.com...

Mike wrote:

2 Days?
How many men?
What equipment?
Maintenance of equipment?
Fuel?
Guarantee?
Cover for days Rained Off?

If later there is something not quite right, a bump or a dip, would you
expect to pay for the rectification or have it done free?

As a matter of interest, do you work for yourself or run a business?
With
all due respect I suggest not, otherwise the 'hiddens' would be known to
you.

As an example, when I moved into my second and bigger factory, still
only a
nattygramme bigger than a Starter Unit, I did the exercise of county up
the
'dead money'. Outgoings before I switched a light on, had staff through
the
door, switched the heating on. Things such as rent. Rates. Insurance.
Telephone rental standing charge. Gas standing charge. Electric standing
charge. Water Rates standing charge. All those things that HAVE to be
paid
whether working or not. Sunday. Christmas Day. New Years Day Bank
Holidays
etc etc etc.

:-((

They have to be taken into account when quoting charges.

Thought you might be interested.

Mike



Thanks. I will raise all those points, as the quotation I have contains
very little detail. For that kind of money I would expect a top quality
job, with some sort of guarantee.


I don't think you will be able to get them to break it down to such a finer
detail as I have drawn to your attention. Such as the question "How much
fuel will you use?" and "Do you have a yard or base you are paying rent on?"
and "How much of your quotation covers your wet days and not being able to
work?", but you could ask, "What sort of guarantee do I have? How long is
your guarantee?" and "How long will it take?", "What grade turf have you
quoted for, I don't want a Bowling Green?" (On the other hand you might :-))

AND, is it a Quotation or an Estimate and do you know the difference? It
sounds like a quote, but it should be detailed to see what sort of turf it
is. He 'could' have quoted rubbish and when you see it, "Well that will have
to be charged extra if you want a better turf" and thus your quotation goes
up with 'extras' and 'work requested whilst in progress'.

Hope that helps :-))

Mike


--
--------------------------------------
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com

wrote:

Thanks. I will raise all those points, as the quotation I have contains
very little detail. For that kind of money I would expect a top quality
job, with some sort of guarantee.

I'm not sure I get it - rotovate then add lots of grit then the turf on
top of that? Doesn't sound like a quality job to me. If you want a
job done well you have to have a proper idea of what *you* want doing,
rather than rely on self-called experts.


So-called tradespeople these days can quote whatever they like - it's
up to you whether you go ahead with the work.

If the soil is totally sodden then you might need french drains, if
there's somewhere to drain to. If it's just surface water then you
just need somewhere for the surface water to go and that can be as
simple as a shallow layer of stable but well draining soil. If you're
going to put grit in then you might want to consider adding some
compost too - otherwise you might get a concrete effect!

If I were you I'd spend the time to prepare properly.

wrote:
wrote:

Thanks. I will raise all those points, as the quotation I have contains
very little detail. For that kind of money I would expect a top quality
job, with some sort of guarantee.

I'm not sure I get it - rotovate then add lots of grit then the turf on
top of that? Doesn't sound like a quality job to me. If you want a
job done well you have to have a proper idea of what *you* want doing,
rather than rely on self-called experts.

No it doesn't sound a quality job to me either, hence my shock at the
amount quoted for so little apparent work, or detail in the quotation.
But I'm not a gardening expert, so I don't know for sure what is
required. However I do know that drainage is a problem in the garden,
so that must be addressed.

On 7/9/06 09:17, in article
, "
wrote:


wrote:
My lawn needs levelling out and re-turfing. Given that it's about 300
sq.metres, I estimate approx £600 to buy turf.
In terms of labour, how long would you say it would take someone to
rotavate this area, level it out and lay the turf? I'm just trying to
get a rough estimate for the labour costs.

Well I had someone look at it a few days ago. Just got the quote. To do
the following:-

kill off existing grass
rotovate and rake level
apply grit sand to improve drainage
roll
lay new turf

grand total £1995.

I didn't expect such a high quote. And also I didn't think it was
recommended to user a roller in this situation, as it compacts the
soil.
But looking at this work, there's nothing really complicated that I
couldn't do myself. My only concern is the drainage. I'm still not sure
if we'll need drainage pipes.


Do you have a supplier or suppliers of turf in your area? Try Yellow Pages.
If so, I'd get two or three of them to come and look at your lawn and advise
you on the condition of the soil and any necessary drainage. You could even
have a word with whoever maintains your local cricket pitch/football
ground/bowling green. You might have to pay them a few pounds for coming
out but it could save you an awful lot and you would get an independent
point of view. Ask the turf suppliers if they know of anyone who would do
the job and what they would think to be a reasonable cost to do it. If they
give you names, ask those names for previous-customers' references and go
and look at the work for yourself.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/

wrote:


No it doesn't sound a quality job to me either, hence my shock at the
amount quoted for so little apparent work, or detail in the quotation.
But I'm not a gardening expert, so I don't know for sure what is
required. However I do know that drainage is a problem in the garden,
so that must be addressed.

Surface drainage or drainage in general? The approach is different
between the two. If you get a boggy mess then there's a real
drainage issue and you probaly need drains of some kind. If its
surface water then it oculd be that yu only need to provide a
relatively small area for the water to drain off too. I guess you
could try a few soakaways or something first, see it it performs
if/when we get some more bad weather.

...or just go for the french drain option with surface drainage too but
pay for labourers rather than for so-called experts. The drains and
aggregates etc aren't expensive.