Is this a reasonable price?

Grawns

Getting a turf lawn laid on a new build garden. Also cement Base for shed 11x 11 feet. Top soil.
Some loose blocks for access to shed. 5 or 6.

Quote €2200 cash

Seems extortionate to my husband

magicbastarder

well, a big factor would be the size of the garden.

Grawns

magicbastarder wrote: »

well, a big factor would be the size of the garden.

Sorry meant to say 60 square meters of turf

Grawns

Grawns wrote: »

Sorry meant to say 60 square meters of turf

So the bulk of the price and its a cash price is for the base for the shed. Anyone?

kerryjack

Where ye based

lazybones32

Haven't seen what needs to be done and there is usually more involved than people realise.
2200 might be acceptable if tax vat were being paid and there are overheads you haven't considered etc; but seeing as the materials account for about a third of the price, it sounds very steep for a cash-in-hand job that, theoretically, would be finished on the third day.

Grawns

lazybones32 wrote: »

Haven't seen what needs to be done and there is usually more involved than people realise.
2200 might be acceptable if tax vat were being paid and there are overheads you haven't considered etc; but seeing as the materials account for about a third of the price, it sounds very steep for a cash-in-hand job that, theoretically, would be finished on the third day.

The bulk of the job is preparing the base for the shed. I can do the rest myself! Spread topsoil, lay turf. Lay loose slabs. Going to wait and get family to help do the shed base. The way I see it is he's looking for €1500 cash in hand for essentially 1 days labour. Very greedy.

macraignil

Grawns wrote: »

The bulk of the job is preparing the base for the shed. I can do the rest myself! Spread topsoil, lay turf. Lay loose slabs. Going to wait and get family to help do the shed base. The way I see it is he's looking for €1500 cash in hand for essentially 1 days labour. Very greedy.

Sounds like more than one day's labour to me. Assuming the area is already cleared and level there will need to be shuttering timber and probably hardcore in place to hold the wet concrete before it sets. The hardcore probably should be leveled with a whacker plate also beforehand to make sure it dos not collapse in places later. You might not be too far off in the materials cost estimate but after doing the shuttering timber for the shed base, putting in some grid iron to reinforce the slab, mixing and pouring the concrete, putting a smooth finish on the concrete to avoid puddles of water under the shed, calling back a few days later to remove the shuttering timber, moving a couple of tonnes of topsoil onto the site, moving and laying 60 square meters of turf and placing some concrete slabs so they don't interfere with cutting the lawn afterwards, etc. Also having the liability of fixing anything that goes wrong, the cost of traveling to and from the site and to get materials on a number of occasions and with the normal business overheads that exist in this country I'm not sure 1500euro is that greedy. What some people forget is that each day the contractor needs to call to do work on your site they are very likely not going to be able to fit in another job for the rest of that day. I agree it does not sound like a very competitive price but if that is what they think they need to charge to make it worthwhile they can ask what they want. Maybe they are too busy with other work to be serious about taking on your garden project. Its great you have some family who can help you out to get the job done cheaper but I think your wrong to be calling some one greedy just because they want to make a profit on a job well done.

Lumen

Block-built shed, right? Because you don't need a poured concrete base for a wooden shed.

Grawns

Lumen wrote: »

Block-built shed, right? Because you don't need a poured concrete base for a wooden shed.

Wooden shed.

colm_c

Grawns wrote: »

Wooden shed.

Concrete base is overkill for a wooden shed.

Better off with some paving slabs or blocks on appropriate bed of hardcore/sand/cement.

Cheaper and a fairly easy job to DIY.

Mgit

60sqm of turfgrass would cost €300 max, i paid €150 for 30sqm from cooley grass, i'd expect a bit cheaper for 60