landscape contractor changing costs

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galway_blow_in

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we got a sizeable landscaping job done in the past few weeks , involved laying a near 1700 sqr metre lawn , a 24 sqr metre patio ,planting a hedge row with 113 plants and two shrub beds with bark mulch and shale stone , we also erected a pergola

the landscaper does good work but he was a poor communicator throughout , he did not provide us with so much as a basic sketch outlining the pergola , we only discovered relatively late that he had something in mind which we did not expect , his idea was quite quirky to say the least but thankfully no work had been done before the penny dropped that we were not on the same page , had he presented a basic sketch , we could have easily edited it to meet our expectations

anyway , he sent me a revised bill today which added 550 euro on to the cost of the pergola , this job already cost 8700 euro and he sent us a quote last november which we didnt haggle over , i think its unreasonable to add lib on like that but perhaps im wrong and if some things get " lost in translation " , the right must be reserved to revise accordingly ?

he could just as easily have added on another grand from what I can see as there was no breakdown of extra costs , just sent me a text saying thats the " extra " for the Pergola

Im not in anyway hesitant to raise this with him but thought id ask the room for their thoughts ?
 
Was the lawn 170 sq m or 1700 sq m the latter seems enormous . If this included all materials I'd just pay it that is a great price if they were included
 
Then again, you've got the job done now and seem happy enough with it. Pergolas don't come cheap, depending on what you got, so hard to understand the pricing on it. If I was happy with the work and felt it deserved it i'd have a bit of a haggle and shake hands on a price.
 

it just seems like a rather arbitrary revising of price ? , had he looked for a grand more , would i be just expected to take his word that there was an extra thousand euro in the job due to my being happy enough with the job
 
Did the changes to the pergola involve more timber? Or maybe it was slower to build the changed way, if there was a change that caused any extra work/materials then some extra is obviously needed. It's hard to quantify and 500 in the overall pricing doesn't seem to bad but of course that's without knowing what extra work/materials. I know I did a very small little job in the garden lately myself, materials timber/stone/few plants cost me in excess of 500 euro, it's amazing how it mounts up for what seems like a small job and that was without any labour.

Your price sounds very reasonable for the overall job.
 
I'd offer him €9,000, which is €300 more than agreed. You'd have come more than half way in the €550.

Surely that would be acceptable to all?
 
PaddyBloggit said:
I'd offer him €9,000, which is €300 more than agreed. You'd have come more than half way in the €550.

Surely that would be acceptable to all?
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That sounds like wise negotiation, he's a particularly rigid character however and will probably never do another follow up chore for me

Oh I forgot to add earlier, he also planted a weeping beech tree which had a cost of 500 quid ,here's the original quote

Lay new 1680 square metre lawn = 2200 euro

Supply and lay grey indiana sand stone patio ( 4.8 by 4.8 metres square) = 2200 euro

Supply erect pergola including 4 clementas = 620 euro

Path to patio with stepping stones and gravel + steel edge to side = 175 Euro

Plant shrub bed behind and to side of patio finished in bark = 705 euro

Plant shrub bed in front - to side of patio and finish in stone shale = 265 euro

Supply and plant 115 eleagnus for hedging = 755 euro

Kerbs = 115

Transplant some existing beech hedge plants = 90 euro

Supply and plant weeping beach tree = 500

Total = 7625 + vat = 8654 grand total

That was before he asked for another 550 for pergola
 
The materials or time needed changed for the pergola. His original quote seems reasonable. Did you ask for the beech? I would just pay up if you are happy with the quality of the work, and want to use him again.
 
Clamball said:
The materials or time needed changed for the pergola. His original quote seems reasonable. Did you ask for the beech? I would just pay up if you are happy with the quality of the work, and want to use him again.
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It's important perhaps to remember that most lawns are a fraction of this size as most people don't have one off rural housing, a 300 square metre lawn in Dublin should not be five times cheaper to lay than my near 1700 square metre lawn, lawn materials are not expensive and it's arguably easier drive a small tractor around a large area like mine when ploughing and tilling etc

I had a 1.5 acre field surrounding my house and decided to knock walks and expand lawn into what was a sheep paddock, 2200 for reseeding a paddock would be seen as extortionate if a farmer was asked to pay it

Point is , the scale of the area involved can mislead price involved
 
galway_blow_in said:
he sent me a revised bill today which added 550 euro on to the cost of the pergola , this job already cost 8700 euro and he sent us a quote last november which we didnt haggle over
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It’s fine if you think it is over priced, but you did agree to the quote. All I was attempting to say is that if the time needed the materials used in the pergola were more than planned in the original quote then it would be normal that the price increases.

When you discussed the revised pergola was there any discussion if this would change the price?

The same with the tree that cost €500, when it was proposed did you agree to it at that price?

It does not sound as if he was trying to gouge you, he itemised the quote, and if your budget did not allow you could have said, yes to the patio, no to the lawn, yes to the hedge etc. The only cost that changed was the pergola and you changed the original design which probably added to the cost.

I am not arguing that the original price was higher or lower than normal, I just don’t have that expertise, all I was saying is that what happened after the quote was accepted seems reasonable to me.
 
I think this is hard, if ye didn't agree, size, shape, location, finish, materials, foundation etc., for the pergola in the first place, then it is impossible to argue what the change in pergola spec should do to the price.

I don't know anything about the price of a pergoal but 1120 doesn't sound off the wall to me for one.

In hindsight ye should have had some drawing/dimensions etc. agreed, and when ye asked for change should have discussed the efffect on price.

Keep in mind, his original price might have included materials he already had, or a deal on materials he knew of.

500 is 5.7% of the total price. You said he did good work. I would probably explain I was surprised at the change, and ask him how we figured it out, but likely just pay it at this stage. If I felt it was a bit unfair, I might ask him if he would he do one another quick job for you, e.g. first cut of the grass.

As you said yourself, if you or family members want him back, it might also be good to play nice.
 
I think this reflects the mans lack of sophistication in terms of customer service etiquette , he just wanted to do everything his way and we would like it , as such he had a fixed price in mind based on a different idea , he didnt say that pergola would cost extra when both sides realised they had something different in mind

il raise the issue but will agree to a slight increase , probably half what he has in mind , if he is aggrieved , not much i can do
 
galway_blow_in said:
2200 for reseeding a paddock would be seen as extortionate if a farmer was asked to pay it
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Did you ask for a paddock or a lawn? While there are similarities, people generally expect lawns to be significantly more level and have a better quality grass.

galway_blow_in said:
That was before he asked for another 550 for pergola
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It's very difficult to say if you're getting value without seeing the two pergola designs. That said, 620 for a pergola and 4 clematas is quite cheap.
 
The whole quote sounds quite cheap to me, I have had garden work done in Galway rural area and it cost more than that and didn't include any plants or grass, mainly just hard landscaping/fencing and a lot of gravel. Now it was fairly extensive work and I am still quite happy with price charged, I had gotten a few quotes and felt I actually got a very good deal in that the job took way longer than he had allowed for!

I provided a fairly detailed to scale drawing of what I wanted that I did myself on a sheet of graph paper old school style, he suggested some changes which I agreed with and off it went, small items cropped up during work and were discussed as we went along. The job did go over original budget but extras were agreed and itemised on final bill.

Also I wouldn't necessarily assume a pergola would go over a patio, it's not really the original use of them at all, more often walkways or areas away from the house, it's only the recent modern lockdown variation of them that seems to be going over patios. My father had a beautiful award winning garden with a pergola enclosing a walkway/pathway up the garden leading you from one garden room to another.
 
I think I'd just pay the extra, overall for the work done it seems like good value to me, provided you're happy with the quality of the work.

galway_blow_in said:
Supply erect pergola including 4 clementas = 620 euro
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620 for the above sounds way too cheap so I'm guessing this was just down to him misunderstanding what you wanted, even with the extra 550 that's still less than the quotes I've heard of people getting for pergolas.
 
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Friend of mine did their own small 'pergola', more like a smoking area to me but anyways outside their back door lately and the wood/bolts/footings for posts cost more than 500
 
Monbretia said:
Friend of mine did their own small 'pergola', more like a smoking area to me but anyways outside their back door lately and the wood/bolts/footings for posts cost more than 500
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Il stick up a pic of the final product in a while , we bought the trellis and all of it cost around 160 euro ( eight sheets ), sometimes a contractor when individually itemising inputs can make it appear that one item was cheap , I would tend to look at the project in the round , 9k is still a decent chunk of change and as i said earlier , per square metre , a new lawn will always cost a lot more in a small urban property than in a one off house in the country , working in an open space where you are literally converting part of an agricultural field ( totally flat one ) in to a lawn is not that difficult compared to a confined space so you would expect it to appear cheap per square metre
 
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