Garden landscaping disaster or does it really have to be this expensive?

This probably sounds a bit weird now, but that's my experience. My neighbor commissioned the landscaping work 2 years ago. Nothing crazy, so absolutely reasonable. After the appointment was postponed again and again, the company finally announced they would come in November. Exact words from a year ago when he wanted to know when they would finally come:

"I understand that you want this done now, but we just can't keep up. I would like to give you the contact details of my competitors, but I know they are all booked up to the brim as well. If you find someone else, just let me know, no problem."

With the prices asked, you should be glad. You have to kiss these guys' feet or generously round up the amount so that hopefully they come soon. Currently, everyone is fully booked, there is no more personnel on the market, they pick the most lucrative construction sites and sometimes start 5 projects in parallel to calm the customers down. If you ask for a discount in this trade at the moment, the boss looks at you questioningly, "Discount? What's that? We don't do that. Just get in touch when you want to award the contract. Thanks, bye!"

They wanted €60k from us, of course I was shocked too, the next one wanted €68k. I had asked mostly out of laziness, but I basically already knew I wouldn’t commission anyone. We have all the machinery in the family, so I just did it myself.

Unfortunately, not everyone is in such a lucky position, so I do have some sympathy for all the others who can/must only pay these high prices. You also don't want to walk in forever over pallets.

You don't have to skimp on the paving stone itself. The labor and everything else around it is so expensive that it hardly matters whether you choose a basic concrete stone or something decent. In other words, whether it's 25,000 or 28,000 doesn't really matter.

For us, garden landscapers were also completely overpriced. We moved in in December and wanted to have the outdoor facilities done this spring. The tender was something like in January.

The first didn’t submit an offer at all, the second said he would gladly submit an offer but could only execute in spring next year. The third submitted an offer: €55k. Also still in the running was our main contractor, who had already completed the shell including plaster and development and the concrete carport. €21k. In the end, it became about €23.5k due to a few additional reports.

So I can only recommend that you also inquire with construction companies that also create outdoor facilities, ideally then the company of your house.

With the prices being asked, you should be glad. You have to kiss the boys' feet or generously round up the sum so that they hopefully come soon. Currently, everyone is fully booked, there is no more staff available on the market, they choose the most lucrative construction sites and sometimes start 5 simultaneously to calm the customers down. If you currently ask for a discount in this trade, the boss looks at you questioningly "Discount? What is that? We don't do that, just contact us when you want to place the order. Thanks, goodbye!"

We are also from Hesse (25 km from FFM), the regional GALA company approached our architect asking if they may make us an offer — so I haven't had to kiss anyone's feet in any trade yet and we have negotiated discounts/early payment discounts in every trade. Of course, that could be luck. I can't say much about the price yet, as we are not that far along. But the GALA people are currently working at the neighbor’s and are supposed to be very good.

Well, it apparently really seems to be because they all have enough to do – it will be interesting when the construction boom is over and not everyone has an excess of orders, but there’s nothing to do about it now.

We will still wait for the last two offers, and if nothing changes there, we will probably do it ourselves after all. It would have been nice if someone had done it for us. But we don’t see why we should pay around 20,000 in labor for about 6,000 in material value. (We already requested the necessary materials ourselves at the start of choosing the company because we originally wanted to do it ourselves.)

As I said, the 20,000 we planned should be enough for everything, including the 15m rain drainage channel and also filling in topsoil and the few plants that need to be replaced. If no company does it, then we just have to do it ourselves. I’m not going to put the money for the carport and patio roofing into that if I can barely get the essentials outside for it.

It’s also a disadvantage when you have a very large property; the money has to be enough for everything.

Still, thanks already for your opinions

The landscape gardeners who have time are certainly not good.. Hands off!