Quotes in the landscaping world range vastly in detail and cost which can sometimes give prospective customers a hard time when choosing the right landscaper for their garden project.
At Robson Landscaping we provide highly detailed quotes with technical descriptions that are line itemised so you know exactly what is being quoted for. Our quoting template is comprised of 270 lines on an excel spreadsheet. The quoting template is divided into sections covering paving, beds, raised beds, fencing, decks, lawns, artificial lawns, tool hire, waste removal, excavation and climbing walls. Each section has line items down to the last screw, labour costs, and sub total. At the top of the each quote we include customer details, quote date and valid to date, quote number and a technical description of each aspect of the work priced in the quote. At the end of the quote you will find the grand total.
The quoting process begins when Gordon makes a visit to have an initial chat about what you are looking to have done in your garden. When he visits he will ask 3 main questions,
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What do you want to use the garden for?
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What is your budget?
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What materials do you like and dislike?
He will ask a lot more questions but these three are the most critical in allowing an acceptable quote to be written.
Once Gordon has understood exactly what you want he will survey your garden. Sometimes this can be done at an initial visit but for larger/ more complex gardens a further visit will be required. At this visit Gordon and one of the team will measure the perimeter of the garden, triangulation distances and the spot heights in relation to a datum point.
Once all measurements have been recorded Gordon will create a 3D drawing of your garden using Google Sketchup. For flat gardens with a simple layout a drawing would usually take around 10 minutes. A larger, more complex garden with slopes and level changes could take as long as 4 to 5 hours to create. If levelling is required an excel spreadsheet is used for supporting volume calculations. This helps minimise materials brought into the garden and reduces waste exiting the garden. This all helps to keep costs down.
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After the 3D drawing and calculations have been compiled the data is fed into our quote spreadsheet. Once completed this is published as a PDF and sent by email along with screenshots of the drawing and a letter outlining payment schedules, start date and any other relevant information for the work to proceed e.g. choice of paving.
Once the email is sent we contact you either by text or Facebook to make sure the email arrived. After that we don't chase up quotes as we do not believe in pressure selling.
Pricing is something that most landscapers and other trades for that matter tend to keep close to their chests. As a company we believe in full transparency which is why our quotes are so detailed. Although the quotes are helpful for customers in letting them see how the grand total is calculated they don't divulge the way labour costs are calculated. The following are the main factors that affect our labour costs;
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Area to be landscaped - As a rule the cost for materials, labour and waste disposal can range from £25 to £120+ per meter squared. Most landscapers use this as a quick way to price jobs at the initial visit stage. Labour is usually 40% to 60% of the total cost.
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Volume of soil to be moved - If a garden is to be levelled the volume of soil to be moved can be a crucial aspect to pricing a landscaping project accurately. If the garden has a steep slope to be levelled and a small area to work in this can slow down progress and increase labour costs. Sometimes we include a section in our quotes that specifically outlines the costs involved in excavation and levelling.
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New builds - From our experience of working all over Edinburgh and the Lothians we have yet to encounter a new build garden that contains what we would consider to be good topsoil. Some builders are better than others when it comes to rubbish but all new build gardens we have worked in over the years have had clay soil deposited both as a sub layer and top layer. This soil gets saturated in the winter months and goes rock hard in the summer when it dries out. You tend to find plants struggle to establish and lawns become waterlogged in winter months and after heavy rainfall in summer. The other major disadvantage from a landscaping point of view is that it is incredibly difficult to dig and therefore increases labour costs. As a company we rarely tackle new builds now without a digger.
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Garden access - If access to a garden is through a house or garage this can dramatically increase the time and therefore labour costs of a landscaping project. In order to get a digger into a garden the narrowest point of a gate or path can be no less than 750mm with a height clearance of 2.5m.
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Distance from skip and materials - The distance we are working from our waste disposal and materials drop off point can hugely affect labour costs. In some gardens we can easily do 25,000 steps a day so the closer we can get materials and skips to the area we are working at the cheaper the job will be with reduced labour costs.
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Area for skips and materials to be placed - When we run a large landscaping project we like to have access to a large driveway so that we can have a number of skips available at one time. This allows us to rotate skips two or three times a day meaning we have no waiting time reducing labour costs. Also having an area to store materials means we are not slowed down by builder supply lead times.