Getting charged for the material that was cut off. Does it m

My landscaper over charged me for all the material he cut off and threw away. is it normal????

He over charged every matetial; turf , deck, pavers etc.

For example,
Deck he built is 30 sqm that has already included frame & the deck he use on the sides too and his rate is $300

30 x $300 =$ 9,000 Right? However, he charged us for 33sqm x $300 = $9,900. So $900 extra, right? When I questioned what is that 3 meter extra for? He said that 3 meter is the part that he cut off & threw away in Bin.

But $900 is not only material price but include installation price. I don't know if he can do that.What do you all think?

Hi SandyKS

This is very normal as every item you use has to account for about 10% wastage. You can never buy the exact amount of tiles or flooring or carpet or bricks or anything due to the way cuts are made and some products get damaged during installation. Particularly with tiles, you will never be able to just use the exact amount of square meters as tiles get cut to fit and you cant always use the piece that has been cut off and it gets thrown away.

They key question for you, is are you happy with the quality of the job?

He shouldn't be charging you for installation as well though. But why didnt he just give you a lump sum price?

cheers

Simeon

Someone has to pay, and it is always the consumer.

SHouldnt this be covered in the price? i.e. if you quote someone 30m, the pricing should reflect 10% waste in the overall figure? I think the issue the OP is getting at is being quoted one price and then being stung 10% charge on top of that after th ejob is done. Its not an insignificant amount of money.

if that's the case to be quoted one price and then charged another price the OP needs to hold their ground and just pay the $9,000 originally quoted

Ask your landscaper to accept revised payment of $8,100. Let him tell you you can't just change the quoted price like that!

I like this on many levels

Noname is right. If the quoted price is $300/m2 that that is inclusive of wastage, stand your ground.

First of all, I am not happy with the quality. He has done the bad job and so much issue with deck. The deck has very little air gap than normal/standard one too but I am willing to let go all of these and be done with this.

If disputes about payment is getting worse, can I hold the rest of money and just report him to fair trading?

Or pay him first and report to Fair trading. I don't know what fair trading can do it for this kind of issue.

Thank you for replying everyone. I do really appreciated as I am not from this field and know nothing about all of these before.

Long story short, the real issue is that he has written wrong measurement in his initial estimated quote (33 sqm). The document has title which says "estimated quote". He said he will fix all the measurement in his final invoice when I requested him to rectify it.

The actual deck is 30 sqm. He measured it again and he know his measurement is wrong.

However, he still insists to charge me 33sqm after sending me final invoice

He is telling me that 3 sqm extra is for the part he has to cut etc. and refused to rectify.

If you both agreed on the size of the deck prior to construction (regardless of M²) and you agreed on the price quoted and the builder built the deck too the size you had both agreed to, then he has supplied as per the quote.

If he just gave you a quote to build at a M² rate then yes measure what has been built and pay the price based on that.

If I quote a job it is to do the job, I would never give a M² rate for exactly this reason.

Yeh, I have been telling him that it is only 30 sqm we have to build & don't write it 35sqm. He keeps saying he will change in final invoice.

After building, he measured the deck in front of me again & calculate, it is 30 sqm. However, he still sent me invoice with 33 sqm.

He did the same for lawn and pebbles with paver steps too. Lawn is only 17 sqm in his origial quote and actual size is 17sqm too but it has written as 22 sqm in his invoice but I think I will be able to make him change for this one but deck is complicated.

Did you agree to the price he has charged you?