I agre, a jobbing gardener possibly wouldn't take on such a project as the duration of work would be too long imo and extensive removal of shrubs and soil would require a skip or 2
Last year a neighbour of mine, had a quote for a similar job of work. The contractor was required to grub up 12 mature shrubs, level the site for 2 new lawns. One lawn measured 30m x 5m the other 15m x 4m. 2 ton of top soil required for levels and for filling in excavated holes from the shrubs removed. Both lawns we finished with perimeter block edges. Cost £2,100 for 3 days work. He believes its the best £2100 he's spent based on the work carried out
My garden is 50 metres by 10 metres and I paid £1600 to have that stripped back to bare approximately 4 years ago. It was also heavily overgrown and the simplest solution was to rip everything out and start again because so many of the shrubs etc were well past their best anyway.
Your quote does seem a bit on the high side although if there is limited access for machinery it will take longer and therefore increase the cost.
I put the job up on Trustedtrader when I couldn't get hold of the person I wanted to use. Two of the quotes were within £100 of each other with the third being half the price. I discounted the cheapest immediately as it quickly became clear that his idea of clearing the garden was to cut everything down to ground level and leave all the roots.
The job actually did go to the person I'd been trying to contact. He'd been on holiday which explained why he hadn't responsed. He called me on the day I was going to give the job to one of the others, came round and gave a quote very similar to the other two. That at least gave me confidence that the figure being quoted was about right.
Can you get a couple more quotes for comparison? £1800 sounds a lot for 2 days' work if it's simply clearing. The costs of removal of hardcore do add up tremendously. Taunton Dean council wanted £4.85 from me to dispose of 4 bathroom tiles at their tip a couple of years ago (I broke them up and used them in the bottom of pots in the end) so I'd imagine a garden full of it could easily make up the rest of the quote. We're in Devon these days and I was recently quoted £35/hour for a man with a minidigger to dig out some soil to make a parking area. He said that he'd keep an ear out for anyone who needed topsoil because we could sell that to offset the cost. Do you have that option?
We are in a similar position to you in that we're just starting to restore an old cottage garden of roughly the same size. It's just me with hand tools for now which is quite fun although exhausting. I'm enjoying being able to keep all sorts of bulbs etc as I go as well as bits of broken pottery etc that I find in the earth. It's rewarding but when rain stops play it can get frustrating.
Please keep us posted of your progress though, your project sounds very interesting.
My friend is just about to buy a bungalow with a garden that size, on a slope, that has been neglected for a couple of years. I reckon the two of us, a couple of pairs of loppers, and the shredders, will clear excess brambles and overgrown clematis etc out in a couple of days. We will then reassess to see if we can find the veg patch and lawn that used to be there. I would go slowly, you never know what treasures may be there. I have my eye on what I think is a large daphne, and other shrubs that look interesting. There used to be a keen gardener there once upon a time.
Posts
I agre, a jobbing gardener possibly wouldn't take on such a project as the duration of work would be too long imo and extensive removal of shrubs and soil would require a skip or 2
Last year a neighbour of mine, had a quote for a similar job of work. The contractor was required to grub up 12 mature shrubs, level the site for 2 new lawns. One lawn measured 30m x 5m the other 15m x 4m. 2 ton of top soil required for levels and for filling in excavated holes from the shrubs removed. Both lawns we finished with perimeter block edges. Cost £2,100 for 3 days work. He believes its the best £2100 he's spent based on the work carried out
My garden is 50 metres by 10 metres and I paid £1600 to have that stripped back to bare approximately 4 years ago. It was also heavily overgrown and the simplest solution was to rip everything out and start again because so many of the shrubs etc were well past their best anyway.
Your quote does seem a bit on the high side although if there is limited access for machinery it will take longer and therefore increase the cost.
I put the job up on Trustedtrader when I couldn't get hold of the person I wanted to use. Two of the quotes were within £100 of each other with the third being half the price. I discounted the cheapest immediately as it quickly became clear that his idea of clearing the garden was to cut everything down to ground level and leave all the roots.
The job actually did go to the person I'd been trying to contact. He'd been on holiday which explained why he hadn't responsed. He called me on the day I was going to give the job to one of the others, came round and gave a quote very similar to the other two. That at least gave me confidence that the figure being quoted was about right.
Can you get a couple more quotes for comparison? £1800 sounds a lot for 2 days' work if it's simply clearing. The costs of removal of hardcore do add up tremendously. Taunton Dean council wanted £4.85 from me to dispose of 4 bathroom tiles at their tip a couple of years ago (I broke them up and used them in the bottom of pots in the end) so I'd imagine a garden full of it could easily make up the rest of the quote. We're in Devon these days and I was recently quoted £35/hour for a man with a minidigger to dig out some soil to make a parking area. He said that he'd keep an ear out for anyone who needed topsoil because we could sell that to offset the cost. Do you have that option?
We are in a similar position to you in that we're just starting to restore an old cottage garden of roughly the same size. It's just me with hand tools for now which is quite fun although exhausting. I'm enjoying being able to keep all sorts of bulbs etc as I go as well as bits of broken pottery etc that I find in the earth. It's rewarding but when rain stops play it can get frustrating.
Please keep us posted of your progress though, your project sounds very interesting.
My friend is just about to buy a bungalow with a garden that size, on a slope, that has been neglected for a couple of years. I reckon the two of us, a couple of pairs of loppers, and the shredders, will clear excess brambles and overgrown clematis etc out in a couple of days. We will then reassess to see if we can find the veg patch and lawn that used to be there. I would go slowly, you never know what treasures may be there. I have my eye on what I think is a large daphne, and other shrubs that look interesting. There used to be a keen gardener there once upon a time.