Small Drive Extension

Soldato
Joined
26 Aug 2012
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North West
Our drive currently fits mine and my partners cars no problem with enough room for most people to walk through without having to go on the garden areas.

However, it still gets a bit tight if we leave enough room for people to get in on either side of each car, as well as to allow pram access / people carrying large parcels / gardeners going around the back with lawnmower etc.

So to help, we are looking to extend our garden as per the picture below up to the hedges. This edge is roughly 1.5m x 10m. We've had a quote for ~£1,500 for the work to be done for the same people who did the drive originally (new build so part of overall package), including excavation, materials removed, weed membrane and permeable sublease etc.

I have no idea the going rate for this kind of thing. Does this seem reasonable?
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Soldato
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7 Feb 2004
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North East
I ended up getting a whole new driveway, as widening would only ever have been a stop gap and the drive was a bit worse for wear, but when I did enquire about widening the old drive a couple of years ago, the quotes I had were disproportionately expensive compared to a whole new driveway. I presume that it's either not much less work, or they just don't want the work!

Bearing this in mind, £1500 seems reasonable
 
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Soldato
OP
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North West
So after what I thought was a reasonable price, the tradesmen has done the excavation, laid the membrane and foundation etc over the last two days. So basically everything but the top layer.

He came to me at the end of the day and said he would need another £500 for the job as he measured wrong originally and the price of the bricks has gone up double since he quoted. Frustrating as the measuring is obviously his problem and he shouldn't start a job without buying the materials, or at least reserving them at the quoted price etc. He told me originally that he had them left as they were the people that originally did our drives for the builders.

I told him like most people, £500 is a lot just to cough up unexpectedly especially when the job should have been finished by now. He said he would take it on his back and finish the job which is good.

What's the right thing to do here? Do I give a token amount like another £100, £200? Do I meet halfway? Or just let him learn from the mistakes? He's not walking away from the job by the looks of it anyway so far...
 
Caporegime
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7 Nov 2004
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30,194
Location
Buckinghamshire
So after what I thought was a reasonable price, the tradesmen has done the excavation, laid the membrane and foundation etc over the last two days. So basically everything but the top layer.

He came to me at the end of the day and said he would need another £500 for the job as he measured wrong originally and the price of the bricks has gone up double since he quoted. Frustrating as the measuring is obviously his problem and he shouldn't start a job without buying the materials, or at least reserving them at the quoted price etc. He told me originally that he had them left as they were the people that originally did our drives for the builders.

I told him like most people, £500 is a lot just to cough up unexpectedly especially when the job should have been finished by now. He said he would take it on his back and finish the job which is good.

What's the right thing to do here? Do I give a token amount like another £100, £200? Do I meet halfway? Or just let him learn from the mistakes? He's not walking away from the job by the looks of it anyway so far...

I'd see how it progresses, it's entirely his fault tbh.

If it's done on a decent time frame decide then, long as you have something saying the world will cost X amount.
 
Associate
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14 Apr 2011
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Stafford
Maybe he was being honest maybe he was just trying it on, by the looks of your house he probably thinks you can afford it!. I also do not understand how the cost of bricks he already has can go up? lol

If I was you I would just have a small conversation with him and ask him if he has any proof of his claims of additional costs. If he isn't trying to pull a fast one then that should be an easy thing for him to accomplish. I would then compare the figures and ensure I paid enough so he wasn't losing out.

Its happening everywhere at the moment contractors are being shafted because they quoted jobs and material costs are going through the roof and they have to eat those costs, some contractors are hording materials to offset the increases which just makes the situation worse because the lead times get longer and the prices get higher because there is more demand.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Nov 2006
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23,712
That’s a ridiculous increase, especially as a % of the original quote! There’s no way a competent person could measure it wrong by that amount.
 
Soldato
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Winchester
Brick prices are going up so that's fair enough but you shouldn't pay for his mistakes. You can argue yiu would not have gone for him if you knew it was £2k.

For the bricks, ask for a printed cost estimate from his supplier. Then you can check for yourself from a other supplier if he's misleading you.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2011
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Near Northants / MK
I think the issue here is he is a small time contractor, speaking from a contractors perspective we would have Terms of Business that would been invoked as if our cost of material goes up by a number way less than 100% (which OPs contractor is stating) we can revise our costs, this is only really invoked for long standing projects but that's a moot point. OP I personally would probably meet him in the middle, just as if you bought something that a shop had listed due to a mistake they'd have the rights to cancel the order, the contractor probably won't but at the same time do you really want him to rush it, and if there is any additional works you want doing in future, would you want him on side?

Sure I think you're in every right to tell him to jog on, he could just say that he'll have to wait for costs to stabilise until he can finish.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Oct 2002
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10,267
Location
Stoke
We recently had a quote to do pretty much the same with ours (although wasn't quite as long as yours but similar width) as we now have a third car with the 17yo's becoming old enough to drive and he wanted £1600 as long as he did the other work in the back garden we wanted doing - without that he wanted £2200. I would say at £1500 the price was probably a bit under but if he's happy to take it on the chin then why not. Like another poster said, pay him cash or maybe meet him in the middle at £250 if your conscience gets the better of you.

There is no doubt blocks have gone up as have all other materials.
 
Associate
Joined
21 Oct 2020
Posts
98
If the bricks were cheaper would he have discounted the job? I suspect not. However, if I was happy with the job, I'd probably give him £1650 in cash. You're then effectively meeting him halfway, probably more so if you take his profit on the £500 out of the equation. But maybe I'm too honest....
 
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