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  Colin Hunt January 7, 2014 at 4:45pm

  It is all going to depend on the state of the ground, the preparation work that will be required ans spec. When I first quoted for 'commercial work' I just priced it at my normal rate and crossed my fingers! No point getting work at a cheap rate you can't afford.
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  Thermo January 7, 2014 at 7:09pm

  if its a housing developer you need to allow for the following

  large amount of wall ties, scaffolding brackets, hardcore, wire and celotex insulation to be rotovated into the ground
  Ensure all manhole covers and frames are left loose right in the middle of the lawn
  Make sure any useable topsoil has a large amount of mushroom compost, clay and anything else that looks remotely brown thrown into it to improve it
  ensure garden has various points where water ponds and doesn't drain away
  give it all a rough rake over with a tarmac encrusted rake, or your boots and throw down the grass on top of it. water once a few weeks later

  based on my experience of watching it being done on a large development and dealing with many new development gardens afterwards. hope it helps:)
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  Doug January 7, 2014 at 7:28pm

  :) ^ what Thermo said.
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  Eugene Baston January 7, 2014 at 8:35pm

  Thermo - for the first three lines of your post above I thought you were in serious mode.....but now....I remember lol lol.

  Please add:

  Pathway Edging: ensure it is not haunched in any way at all by supporting all hard materials with 'quality' top soil. Quality builders top soil can only include anything inorganic in matter.

  NB: If it lives....it's dead before you get the site to work on :->

  Cheers, Eugene
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  Colin Hunt January 7, 2014 at 8:51pm

  Let me tell you of an estate we were working on in the 80's. Appearently, one Friday afternoon before we were on site, they had still had a dumper load of concrete but didn't really want to start another pathway, so they called up the site JCB, dug a big hole in a front garden and hey presto, the groundworkers were off an hour early!
• PRO

  Nick @ NM Garden Services Ltd January 7, 2014 at 9:13pm

  
  I have a colleague who turfed part of an MOD site last year which required an additional 600 tonnes (six hundred, no typo) to be brought in to bring the levels up. I think the area to be turfed was around 4000sqm
  Although not my colleagues fault (the developer brought in more soil and roughly levelled it) it added about 15 man days to the job to complete it - mostly as the guys turned up on day one and were presented with this unfortunate situation.
  
  This could not have been easily prevented due to the distance the site was away from base and the problems of gaining access to security restricted sites.
  
  Thermo said:

  if its a housing developer you need to allow for the following

  large amount of wall ties, scaffolding brackets, hardcore, wire and celotex insulation to be rotovated into the ground
  Ensure all manhole covers and frames are left loose right in the middle of the lawn
  Make sure any useable topsoil has a large amount of mushroom compost, clay and anything else that looks remotely brown thrown into it to improve it
  ensure garden has various points where water ponds and doesn't drain away
  give it all a rough rake over with a tarmac encrusted rake, or your boots and throw down the grass on top of it. water once a few weeks later

  based on my experience of watching it being done on a large development and dealing with many new development gardens afterwards. hope it helps:)
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  Thermo January 7, 2014 at 9:48pm

  Was working on one new village in sussex for a lady who worked in the sales office. We watched the site lanscapers turf all the front gardens and verges. They were literally throwing turf off of the back of a truck that was going at walking pace to a couple of blokes who threw it down on the ground as they walked behind it. No prep, no care, no nothing in fact. The dales woman came back and saw it and went ape.

  In reply to your question you really need to tie them down on the spec before you even consider your price level
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  John Baker January 7, 2014 at 11:06pm

  I laid a lawn privately on a site still being developed...ended up doing about 25% of lawns on that development, privately. A year later got a call from the developer to lay the first couple of lawns on his next site, to enhance the entrance. I ended up laying 48 lawns on that site for the developer. I charged pretty much my standard rate, but as he was less impatient than a house owner I could wait until 4-6 were ready and then do them in a day and one that suited me. As we had a good relationship, he would top soil to my spec and remove stones on completion. USP was that I gave first three cuts so delivered a lawn rather than a seedbed. Have done several since for him, but unfortunately he was ahead of the game and is not developing any sites at present, although I still get one-offs from him, or on his recommendation.
  My point is, first,not all developers are looking for a cut price job..just like commercial maintenance contracts they often prize appropriate quality and reliability higher than cost. Second, a good relationship can be mutually beneficial for many years.
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  Carl lant June 8, 2014 at 10:00am

  Hi to be competitive you need to go in at £4.50-£5 per metre for bigger contracts. You won't get a look in if any higher.
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  Neil Copeland June 8, 2014 at 11:31am

  I'm in cheshire and quoted £7/m. I didn't get the work. Found out the winning contractor quoted £4.50/m