Guys,

Handover is in approx. 8 weeks so we have gone into overdrive mode organising fencing, driveway, landscaping, windows coverings etc etc.

Just heard back from a company that does the lot i.e. driveway, paving, retaining wall, landscaping etc.

He has quoted me $20,000 for..

- exposed aggregate driveway. garage is about 6.5m wide with 6m setback.
- plain concrete paving 900mm around the house. the house is approx 15m wide and 21m long.
- retaining wall of 900mm tall out the front so that we will have flat lawn. about 10m wide with 6m return on each side. double brick retaining wall filled with concrete in between. We will use the 700-800 bricks leftover from building and he will supply another 500 bricks.
- exposed aggregate porch area and alfresco area totalling 20m2 or so.

We have seen thier work and its top quality. But does $20,000 sound about right for that amount of work?

u need to break up the jobs and type. You need to actually work out the square meters for concrete.

i know i should get the breakdown from him but if it is already a very very good deal, i would rather not annoy him making him sit through the night and re-write the quote. I guess that's the reason why i am asking for your take on this.

so is this a good deal?

When i mean break Down i mean work out exactly how many square meters of concrete you have so we can get an idea.

Also from past experience when people round up to round figures then they are usually trying to make as much money as they can.

sorry i misunderstood i thought my first post was quite clear.

anyway, i will be needing approx
driveway - exposed aggregate - 7m x 7m = 49m2
porch and alfresco - exposed aggregate - 4m x 3.5m + 2m x 3m = 20m2
paving around house - plain concrete - back 18m2 + LHS 21m2 + RHS 16m2 + front 10m2 = 65m2
retaining wall - double brick - 20m2 (although we will be supplying more than 50% of the bricks).

hope this is easier to work out the cost now?

I have been quoted $100 psm for exposed aggregate and $80 for plan concrete so going on that your break down will be something like this:

driveway - exposed aggregate - 7m x 7m = 49m2 $4900
porch and alfresco - exposed aggregate - 4m x 3.5m + 2m x 3m = 20m2 $2000
paving around house - plain concrete - back 18m2 + LHS 21m2 + RHS 16m2 + front 10m2 = 65m2 $5200
retaining wall - double brick - 20m2 (although we will be supplying more than 50% of the bricks). $7900 ?

personally i would get another quote as i would expect some sort of discounting if i was giving someone a 20k job. These prices are what i have been quoted in Adelaide.

Ok so we have 70 square meters exposed ag = $8000
Plain concrete = $6000
Foundation for Retaining wall. $1500
additional Bricks $500
Bricklaying extras $250
Bricklaying $1500

I get $17750. I have been fairly modest with my allowance and they are not the cheapest. Based on these figures tell him if he can do it for $18K for the same conditions he has got the job (incl GST). That should be more than fair.

get an itemized quote.

thanks blacklab and B STAR. i was quoted $22500 + gst initially but managed to haggle it down to $20000. i thought i did well but looks like i definitely need another quote or two from different people.

do you guys happen to know anyone who does 'the lot' and is good at what he does? someone in mernda/doreen area or someone who doesn't mind travelling?

H1 member recommended lmpact paving services 11972228 Greensborough

Just make sure that any concreting next to the house has expansion joints. We used a H1 recommended concreter who didn't use expansion joints. Now another concreter who did use them out the front has told us we're going to have problems in another year...we can already seen crack lines between path and house....friendly advice to ask lots of questions.

I can highly recommend Blue Gum landscapes. Mark lives in Doreen and is great. He did an excellent job constructing one of the retaining walls out the back of our place. Very professional and good workmanship. He also kindly fixed up the mistakes made by the last tradesman who erected the previous retaining wall.
Blue Gum Landscapes
0424 369 674

I am with Rowena, Mark did our Pergola, some paving, fixed our retaining wall and landscaped our front garden. He built our steps to the front door with old railway sleepers and they look great. He is a really great guy and is a perfectionist.

thanks pattycake4, rowena and deb17.

i will ring both impact paving and blue gum. i have heard a lot of good things about impact paving but i also like perfectionist.. i may have a hard time choosing between the two.

If you need another concreting quote try Ronnie at RPC concreting, he is from Bundoora. Did our exp agg driveway and plain colours down the dead side and back of house. Did a good job and at a competitive price. Check out my thread for photos.

Definately get a few quotes for each job and for the ones who will do all the jobs, get a breakdown for each job separately.

thanks ring09.

keep them coming. can never have too many options.

Has anyone dealt with Luke from LTF Landscape before? Are you happy with his work?
Rang Mark of Blue Gum. Mark only does retaining wall, decking etc and he recommended Luke for driveway and concrete paving. Seen one of the driveways he did and it looked okay.

Luke did our concrete under the pergola. He did a good job. Mark did the pergola and got Luke to do the concreting. Mark does paving.

A couple of people on the Doreen forum use Shannon SMA Conctete 0418126945 and say he is really good. I have heard he is 2.

Thans deb17. just given shannon a call. will be meeting him on site this saturday.