Gravel Drive Quote, sound reasonable?

Gravel Drive Quote, sound reasonable?

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Discussion

MrChips

Original Poster:

3,263 posts

209 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
Hi All,

Just hoping for a quick sense check on how much it should cost to have a gravel drive put in. I'm looking to put in a double length gravel drive, next to my existing garage and tarmac drive (1 Space).



This will involve digging out the area, putting in some timber sleeper "retaining" wall.... which won't need to be structural, and then laying the hardcore/gravel etc. Also would like them to remove the soil from the site.

I've had various quotes but they've all come out very differently.... from £1100 - £3000!! The company i'm thinking of using are quoting £1700 including taking the soil away. I'm hoping to get them down to £1500 but has anyone had something similar done? If so, the does this sound reasonable?

I'm not looking to cut corners, and want a decent job, so am not chasing the cheapest quotes. Just wanted to get some opinions on whether this sounded about right?

Cheers
MrChips smile

dirty boy

14,688 posts

208 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
Gravel will be about £300
Sleepers (depending on what type) about £15 each for reclaimed
The sheet to stop weeds will be bugger all

Labour is pretty much the only cost

Up to you to decide whether you think it's worth £1000 in labour (depending on how long it will take and how many people are involved)

GKP

15,099 posts

240 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
Don't forget to cost in the purchase price of a dedicated vacuum cleaner for the cars and inside the front door area of your house.

maser_spyder

6,356 posts

181 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
There's a chap on the business forum that does driveways who's been posting about how quiet it is as he won't cut corners and do a bad job for the lowest quote. Sounds like a nice chap, might be worth asking his advice?

http://pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&amp...

MrChips

Original Poster:

3,263 posts

209 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
Thanks Guys,

I'll pm m3jappa to see his thoughts too. Shame he's over in Essex tho!

Part of me is thinking of doing it myself but i'm not convinced it won't end up costing a fair bit (think i'd need to rent a digger, plus something to compact the hardcore etc?) and i'm not naive enough to think that i'd do it as neatly as a professional!

Davi

17,153 posts

219 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
GKP said:
Don't forget to cost in the purchase price of a dedicated vacuum cleaner for the cars and inside the front door area of your house.
Is my family the only one capable of having a gravel drive without this apparent excursion of stones into every corner of life?! In my bi-annual interior clean of the car I may have found 4 or 5 stones, but couldn't be sure if they came from the driveway or the beach, or a gravel car park at some point. Certainly didn't cause me any major headaches removing them.

mk1fan

10,507 posts

224 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
dirty boy said:
Gravel will be about £300
Sleepers (depending on what type) about £15 each for reclaimed
The sheet to stop weeds will be bugger all

Labour is pretty much the only cost

Up to you to decide whether you think it's worth £1000 in labour (depending on how long it will take and how many people are involved)
It's not £1000 in labour though is it? Unless it's a team of pikeys who happen to have some gravel then the whole job will include business overheads, disposal costs etc..

To be fair I'd say that was a good five man-days work there so two and half days for a two man crew.

Is the £1700 inclusive of VAT? What - if any - sub base are they proposing? Are you going to park on it or is it just a path? What edge detail are they going to do to retain the drive paving / tarmac? There looks to be quite a height difference between the 'wood' and your drive. It doesn't look like a railway sleeper is going to be big enough to accommodate this. How are the sleepers being retained?

Did you sort out your boundary issue?

Edited by mk1fan on Wednesday 29th April 16:39

V8mate

45,899 posts

188 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
dirty boy said:
Gravel will be about £300
Sleepers (depending on what type) about £15 each for reclaimed
The sheet to stop weeds will be bugger all

Labour is pretty much the only cost

Up to you to decide whether you think it's worth £1000 in labour (depending on how long it will take and how many people are involved)
These are just spurious figures. How can you say the gravel will be £300? An idea of the total measured area from the OP would have been handy for both pricing the groundworks and then the gravel. What depth hve the companies quoting recommeded; all too easy for a thin sprinkling of stone on a cheapie job.

Also, as mentioned, the base, or not, plays a pricing role. I'd probably want the whole are thoroughly weed-killed ahead of sheeting too (which does cost a wee bit more than bugger all)

dirty boy

14,688 posts

208 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
V8mate said:
dirty boy said:
Gravel will be about £300
Sleepers (depending on what type) about £15 each for reclaimed
The sheet to stop weeds will be bugger all

Labour is pretty much the only cost

Up to you to decide whether you think it's worth £1000 in labour (depending on how long it will take and how many people are involved)
These are just spurious figures. How can you say the gravel will be £300? An idea of the total measured area from the OP would have been handy for both pricing the groundworks and then the gravel. What depth hve the companies quoting recommeded; all too easy for a thin sprinkling of stone on a cheapie job.

Also, as mentioned, the base, or not, plays a pricing role. I'd probably want the whole are thoroughly weed-killed ahead of sheeting too (which does cost a wee bit more than bugger all)
Okay.

I had a sloping grass front garden. The turf was removed, some sort of 'kill all life' sort of stuff put down, then a layer of something to stop weeds growing through (works pretty well - although I get the odd one or two) and some concrete retainers along the side and at the front.

I paid £500 for one man to do all in - took him two days.



It's guesswork.

But i'd say materials would be circa £500. Now it's not specialist work like carpentry, bricklaying, mostly labouring. Labourer £100 per day as an employee? x 3? two days work? £600?

Just thinking out loud.

brum

5,892 posts

205 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
Simply glue rice crispies into the tread blocks of your tyres to get that expensive gravel drive sound with none of the expense

ThatPhilBrettGuy

11,809 posts

239 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
brum said:
Simply glue rice crispies into the tread blocks of your tyres to get that expensive gravel drive sound with none of the expense
That is worthy of being a Viz quote. Classic hehe

mk1fan

10,507 posts

224 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
Doing it right is just as specialist trade as carpentry or brick laying.

It's a push to compare the two jobs as - from the photos - DB's job was a simple lift and replace. The OP's job looks like it needs some thought and competence to be done right.

Edited by mk1fan on Wednesday 29th April 17:48

MrChips

Original Poster:

3,263 posts

209 months

Thursday 30th April 2009
quotequote all
mk1fan said:
Is the £1700 inclusive of VAT? What - if any - sub base are they proposing? Are you going to park on it or is it just a path? What edge detail are they going to do to retain the drive paving / tarmac? There looks to be quite a height difference between the 'wood' and your drive. It doesn't look like a railway sleeper is going to be big enough to accommodate this. How are the sleepers being retained?

Did you sort out your boundary issue?
Thanks for all the replys!

I prob should have put all this in the original post rolleyes

The £1700 is inc Vat. They're quoting for digging it out, membrane, then 150mm of type1 Mot then 20-30mm of gravel. To retain it against the field bank, it'll be 2-3 sleepers high.

It's not as much of a slope as it looks (overall height rise is about 2 feet so the sleepers shouldn't need to be secured using posts/concrete but should be ok simply to lay the first one in a channel underneath the soil level, and make sure the sleepers are all bolted together securely?

The driveway tarmac already has a retaining border which looks like a thin strip of concrete so hopefully if the new subbase layer is compacted enough then I wouldn't expect any issues with the existing tarmac "shifting"?

The dimensions of the overall area are 11.5m x 2.8m. Oh and luckily there's no boundary issue (thanks for your input on the original post btw). It's all a bit complicated, but essentially there is nothing to designate this area as anything different from the rest of the front garden, so long as i'm using permeable surface then it shouldn't be an issue. Council haven't been v.helpful tbh!

The more I look at it, the more I think i'd rather leave it to the experts, maybe I can offer to labour for them instead so save a bit of cash (depends on how the contract out their labourers I guess!)

Cheers
Dave


Edited by MrChips on Thursday 30th April 08:28

blueyes

4,799 posts

251 months

Thursday 30th April 2009
quotequote all
Don't forget to buy a rake because, unless you glue each stone in place, it'll move.

Put aside some time every month to make it level.

mk1fan

10,507 posts

224 months

Thursday 30th April 2009
quotequote all
Bolting the sleepers together should be fine. If they put the sleepers in first then run the MOT up against them. That should be enough to keep them in place.

That sounds a reasonable price for the work you've listed. It's enough to cover proper disposal of spoil, materials and quality workmanship. In these times you could probably find it cheaper but you'll need to do some hunting - and of course - make sure they do the same 'proper' job.