Hiring a good Landscaper!

[eastender3]

And hiring a rotten apple.

After my disaster with Irish builders recently, who got Romanians labourers to do the work but I got rid of them, with difficulties. Many of my neighbours get Romanians and Indian builders to do their garden, though cheap, quality is not that good. No one got pukka Landscapers by people I know.

So next time, I thought I am going to go expensive and get a proper English Landscaper who would do the job properly and less stress, though price will be far more expensive, but it will be worth it with high quality work and less stress.
I looked at Garden centre and contacted them and he came around and took the measurements and gave a higher price and would not go any lower. I agreed the price with him and a start date.

He sent a grumpy English elderly paver with two young teenagers to assist him. The quality was poor and he was aggressive and argumentative. I expected the person who took the estimate to do the job but instead he sub-contracted the job to somebody else, who he uses for this sort of thing. I know you should look his previous work, but how can you? Expensive and being English landscapers does not mean a good job or good work.

 

[r896neo]

Why do people not ask for and check references? It is by far the easiest way to check a landscapers work and demanour by asking recent customers.

Paying a high price does not mean quality.

With landscaping work larger companies and people who simply sub contract everything should be used with extreme caution. Sub contracting specialist work such as brickwork, garden lighting, pond building etc is fine and often wise but sub contracting the bread and butter work like paving is often the hallmark of someone who wants to make a quick easy buck rather than someone who enjoys and takes pride in their work.

Some of the large nationwide chains who offer paving simply turn up with a glossy brochure, quote 50%+ above the real cost and then sub it out to a random local company short of work who do it for bottom dollar and therefore have no incentive to do a good job.

Of course there are exceptions and some good landscapers who sub contract to skilled people who they have worked with for many years but generally any talk of sub contracting set alarm bells ringing for me.

This is purely landscaping i am talking about and things are absolutely different in the building trade were sub contracting is the norm.