I am in the midst of gathering estimates from landscapers for our backyard. The general plan seems to be to put in a catch basin at the part near the corner of the house (and where the foundation is cracked) to collect all the stormwater, and then send it in underground piping to the creek at the back of our property. We also will grade the entire yard and either lay seed or sod.
Lanscaper #1 came on Friday a week ago, and gave me an estimate. It included underground pipes (also hooking the two downspouts to the pipe, sending all the runoff to the creek), killing all the weeds in the yard, grading everything, then laying down fescue sod. He said that they have to lay fescue no later than April 15th, so we can’t dawdle on the decision. Another option is zoysia grass, but we’d need to cut down some of the branches that make our backyard so shady. Since we don’t want to spend the money on that now, we’re fine with fescue.
Landscaper #2 came last Monday. He was 45 minutes late and didn’t apologize at all. He suggested a ditch of sorts (he called it something else, but I’m blanking right now) and of course grading. I can’t remember whether it was sod or seed. He promised a quote by Wednesday, but I have yet to receive it. I wasn’t as impressed with him, so I don’t think I’ll try to follow up. (I don’t understand why people take the time to come all the way out, and then never give a quote.)
Landscaper #3 was supposed to come on Tuesday. I waited 2 hours but he never showed, and I had to run errands. He gets crossed off in my book.
Landscaper #4 came on Wednesday. He was very nice, and very approachable with all my questions. He said something similar as Landscaper #1, but he looked at our foundation and said we shouldn’t put our money towards sod right now. He suggested seed, and then we’d reseed in September. He was very concerned with keeping our price down. He called with a verbal quote later that day – about two-thirds of what landscaper #1 said. I’m sad, though – I had visions of a beautiful yard, of being able to play out there before the weather got too hot… I guess the smart thing is to lay seed, but I selfishly wanted to make something really nice! Oh well. He promised to send over the written quote, but I haven’t gotten it yet.
Landscaper #5 is due to come on Wednesday of next week. We’ll see what he says; hopefully he’ll have a solution because I really like to have three estimates to choose from. We had the same trouble with the foundation – I searched for companies but ended up with only two estimates. Others came by but either said they couldn’t help or they never sent over their quote. Again, I don’t understand that, but Landscaper #4 told me that it’s common in the business. I guess the economy isn’t that bad for them!
Hopefully we’ll get this taken care of before too long. It’s been storming badly today and this evening, and I just imagine the water washing away more important dirt from the foundation. We also need to put up gutters along where the sunporch used to be. I know, we’re terrible! It’s so hard to keep on top of all the things we are supposed to be doing.
I will update after next Wednesday, with hopefully another estimate. :-)
To keep costs down but have grass faster, you could have the landscaper prep the yard, then you can buy and lay sod yourself. Steven’s been doing that in our yard over the years, as the previous owners laid some sort of grass that looks great in winter, but doesn’t grow right the rest of the year. (Can’t remember the type.) You don’t even have to cover the whole yard. Checkerboard your sod, and it’ll eventually grow in. It doesn’t take long.
And if you don’t have a vehicle for picking up and hauling sod, neither do we. We rent a truck from Home Depot for a couple of hours.
By any chance was the ditch the second landscaper mentioned a French drain? Steven keeps saying he needs to install one in our yard. That will hopefully help us with our own drainage issues.
Where can you buy sod, and how much does it cost about? (Trying to compare prices to what the landscaper is charging.)
I can’t remember what he said, but it wasn’t a french drain. I actually assumed that’s what we’d need and I asked about that, but they said french drains were more for erosion control, and we would have too much water flowing through, or something like that. I can’t remember now.
Oh and we got the written estimate from Landscaper #4 yesterday, phew! Still no sign of an estimate from Landscaper #2. Another one comes tomorrow – I’m anxious to hear what he says.
Well, we’ve never done the whole yard at once, just quarters of it. (We have approximate 1/4 acre for reference.) Seems like it’s been about $200 each time. There’s a place off the highway in our town that sells sod. You could probably find a place with a google search.
I have no idea if laying sod yourself would actually be a savings or not. I just assume it is. But if a landscaper is doing all that other stuff, you may get a break on sod.