ᐅ Is this landscaping contractor’s quote reasonable or way too expensive?

Hi!

I received a quote from a landscape contractor and I’m curious to know if you think it’s reasonable or excessively high. I knew from the start that it wouldn’t be the cheapest, but it would still be interesting to get your take on it.

It’s a bit disappointing that he initially said he could complete everything for €125,000 (around $135,000), including even a pool and lighting package, but now many things aren’t included at all—no lighting, no irrigation system, etc.

Unfortunately, in this area, there aren’t many alternative quotes available. If you don’t plan from the beginning and are ready to proceed, it’s hard to get other options offered.

And here is the plan showing approximately how it is supposed to look. The terrace stairs will be widened. I think it cannot stay like this.

Good price! NOT.

The garden is very expensive, and the offer includes a lot, but definitely not 125,000 euros. I would rather say, for the scope of work, about 75,000 euros.

If you carefully review and optimize, it can be done for 50,000 euros. However, you need to plan skillfully.

One example: instead of a drainage channel costing 3,000 euros, install a small soakaway and gully. That costs 500 euros. As you can see, that saves 2,500 euros.

This approach can probably be applied to many items.

The workload for landscaping contractors is probably very high, but as a customer, you don’t have to accept everything.

So would you rather try to reduce the scope of work instead of negotiating the price for the offered services? Bringing it down to €75,000 (about $80,000) would already be an incredible step. I had talked to several landscape contractors back then, but none of them promised anything under €100,000 (about $106,000).

In any case, I’m sure the provider is top-notch and would do an excellent job. Looking at our neighbors, they are actually in court with their landscape contractor. I wouldn’t want to deal with that. I also think it’s fair to pay for quality work. Still, as a layperson, you want to know that you are paying a good but not an inflated price.

Bookstar schrieb:
An example: Instead of a €3,000 (about $3,190) drainage channel, install a small soakaway chamber and drain. Costs €500 (about $530). As you can see, you save €2,500 (about $2,660).

In the conversation, he mentioned that there are those kinds of channels that make a clacking noise every time you drive onto the property with your car, and he said he certainly wouldn’t want that for a project like this.

Nowadays, I don’t know anyone who actually lets a landscape contractor handle everything, not even people who have a lot of money.

Find an affordable paver, maybe Polish or something, and have them do what you can’t manage yourself, because paving is really tough...

And you’ll have to take care of the trees and plants yourself. Order turf online from the Netherlands.

Unless you just have too much money.