VeeshanVault

Anyone have any experience with getting landscaping done?

First off, I have a couple problems. On one corner of my house, the ground dips down toward the house a bit, and I'd like to get it built up a little so runoff moves away from the house. Also, there's bad drainage near my front walkway, and water is washing out the ground underneath one section of the cement, causing it to crack. I need to get that replaced, a better drain put in, and something filled in under my driveway where it's also in danger of happening.

While I'm getting those things fixed, I figured I might as well see about getting some other trees and things put in to help beautify my yard.

My question: do you call in a couple different landscapers to see what they recommend, get estimates, etc? Do they usually do that sort of thing for free (the estimate part)? Is now a good time to do that (all of our snow has melted, but could come back at any time), or should I wait until spring?

Thanks

wait until it warms up and do it yourself!

Agreed! Part of the charm of having a house vs an apartment is having your own garden - which means gardening! It's actually quite rewarding, believe it or not. The only time I would say to bring in a professional is if you're too impatient to wait for a tree to grow to a decent size (could be as little as two years). Make sure you have yourself an herb garden! And fruit trees. And berry bushes. And lavender. and... and... and...

Sylvus wrote:Anyone have any experience with getting landscaping done?

First off, I have a couple problems. On one corner of my house, the ground dips down toward the house a bit, and I'd like to get it built up a little so runoff moves away from the house. Also, there's bad drainage near my front walkway, and water is washing out the ground underneath one section of the cement, causing it to crack. I need to get that replaced, a better drain put in, and something filled in under my driveway where it's also in danger of happening.

While I'm getting those things fixed, I figured I might as well see about getting some other trees and things put in to help beautify my yard.

My question: do you call in a couple different landscapers to see what they recommend, get estimates, etc? Do they usually do that sort of thing for free (the estimate part)? Is now a good time to do that (all of our snow has melted, but could come back at any time), or should I wait until spring?

Thanks

I would get quotes from a few people. If you have someone give you a quote you don't have to get too specific about how things are done, just what you want done. This way you can see what approach they take and how much it will cost, and the different ideas you get from different contractors will probably be fairly different. Generally speaking they won't charge you for a estimate.

I would wait until spring. They will probably want to wait too, just because it's hard to say what really needs to be done with the ground not settled like it will be once everything thaws and dries up.

As far as the comments about doing it yourself, that's fine for a garden, but for the stuff you are talking about I would suggest against it. Getting ground leveled and proper drainage underneath said ground is a lot tougher and easier to screw up than planting vegetables.

Funkmasterr wrote:As far as the comments about doing it yourself, that's fine for a garden, but for the stuff you are talking about I would suggest against it. Getting ground leveled and proper drainage underneath said ground is a lot tougher and easier to screw up than planting vegetables.

What about planting... A SHRUBBERY?!

Aslanna wrote:

Funkmasterr wrote:As far as the comments about doing it yourself, that's fine for a garden, but for the stuff you are talking about I would suggest against it. Getting ground leveled and proper drainage underneath said ground is a lot tougher and easier to screw up than planting vegetables.

What about planting... A SHRUBBERY?!

Well that depends on what KIND of shrubbery, of course!

The first year we were here I paid someone 20K to do my backyard, sprinklers, concrete etc..

After that, I did all the sprinkler, grass, planting myself and actually loved it. I liked the stuff I did better then the stuff I had paid someone to do. Our yard has evolved in 14 years, we added on to the house, I built a wall along the hill to give the yard a more defined look and when we built the pool and basketball courts a few year ago, I installed the fencing that separates that part of the yard from the grassy area. I saved thousands just installing the fence and learned something new for me.

I agree with the others that said it, building and working on your yard is one of the things I truely enjoy about owning a house. I do it the way I like it, it costs a lot less, and if you decide to change something, you are not thinking about the 20K you had spent.

If you want to go the contractor route though, it is the best time ever, you should not have to pay for the estimate and I would get several of them. Work is slow so costs should be down and people hungry for work.

For basic landscaping stuff, I agree with doing it yourself unless you're just absolutely opposed to doing so (I kind of enjoy it, myself). I have no first-hand experience with hiring landscapers. I would think that you should be able to get some suggestions for free, and you can get quotes for installation of trees / shrubs if you know what you want. If you want them to spend time actually doing design work at all, though, you'll probably end up paying for it. With the economy crapping itself, I would expect that people in businesses like this will be going the extra mile to land whatever business they can get.

I've got a similar problem with my front walk and driveway. The concrete hasn't cracked yet, but it will happen soon if it doesn't get addressed permanently. Last year, I tamped gravel and sand into the void, but that was more of a quick-fix, temporary solution. I've been thinking about installing a french drain along the side where the water is entering the space below my driveway to divert the water. I'm going to pump concrete into the void that's been created once the drainage situation is resolved.

This spring, I'm going to be tearing out some shrubs along the front of the house and redoing the landscaping, and I'm also thinking about putting a few fruit and nut trees into the back yard. This fall, we're planning on putting in a privacy fence in the back yard, and possibly a retaining wall to bring the back yard up to grade (our back yard has a sharp slope that drops about 5 feet at the rear of the property that I want to get rid of). There are some things better left to the pros, as Funk said. The fence and wall are things I'm unlikely to do myself, so I'll be getting quotes on those jobs later this year.

A French drain may be your answer. I am not very experienced with this stuff, but my brother put his own in to help with some drainage issues. Look it up--may just be the ticket.

I was under the impression from Matt's post that he was going to contract out the drainage crap and was using that as an opportunity to get some landscaping done.

and that is what I get for posting before coffee....

...

A big part of landscaping is making sure you select plants, trees and decorative grasses that will last the bitter arctic winters you have up in the A2. River rocks make for a pretty inexpensive hardscape feature as well.

I guess the concern I was trying to raise is just that a lot of times, there is more to the issue than meets the eye. I worked in construction management for 3 years and saw my share of do-it-yourself work gone wrong. Now that's not to say that some people aren't capable of even doing some of the harder stuff on their own, and some of what you mentioned I wouldn't be as concerned about.

What I would be concerned about is the sinking by your house. It may appear to just be a matter of back filling some dirt and tossing some sod over the top, but there may be a more important issue that's causing what you are seeing, and if you just cover it up you could end up having bigger issues down the road, ie:foundation issues, etc.

Just my advice from what I have seen.

I'm relieved this thread is about actual landscaping...

Funkmasterr wrote:I guess the concern I was trying to raise is just that a lot of times, there is more to the issue than meets the eye. I worked in construction management for 3 years and saw my share of do-it-yourself work gone wrong. Now that's not to say that some people aren't capable of even doing some of the harder stuff on their own, and some of what you mentioned I wouldn't be as concerned about.

What I would be concerned about is the sinking by your house. It may appear to just be a matter of back filling some dirt and tossing some sod over the top, but there may be a more important issue that's causing what you are seeing, and if you just cover it up you could end up having bigger issues down the road, ie:foundation issues, etc.

Just my advice from what I have seen.

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating taking on anything beyond what one is capable of. When talking about doing it yourself, I was mainly referring to plantings and so forth. I mentioned my particular driveway issue only because I thought it was interesting that he was having a similar problem. In my specific case, I know exactly what the problem is, having had someone look at the problem and suggest a couple of different solutions. We're on top of a big hill (people here call it a mountain), and bedrock is literally a foot or two below the soil, most of which was brought in to the neighborhood because much of the property was originally exposed bedrock. The developer did a poor job of planning for water runoff when this place was built 10 years ago, and drainage issues are common in the neighborhood. The choice for me is whether I'm willing to pay someone to do work that I'm perfectly capable of and willing to do myself.

I wasn't suggesting he fix the problems with his driveway himself. I was giving my opinion on the landscaping which is (from my understanding) what he was asking about. Of course, I didn't answer his question but at least I referred to it.

In response to his actual question, as with any work you're going to have done to your house/land, I would shop around and get a few quotes. I have never heard of landscape architects charging a potential client to give a proposal but it could be different in Michigan. In my opinion, paying a landscape architect to do what you could easily do yourself (unless you're planning to have your garden featured in a design magazine) is a waste of money. It's not cheap in the slightest. Now if you wanted to do the designing of it yourself and pay someone to do the manual labor, that's completely different.

I was thinking of a landscape company for doing the drainage work, grading, etc. While they were there, I"d probably ask what he'd recommend/charge for throwing in some arborvitaes or somesuch.

I'm not much of a do-it-yourselfer.

You should be able to get someone to do the work pretty easily right now then. As for not being much of a do it yourselfer, When I bought the house I knew squat, but over time you get really good at it. I have changed out faucets, done lots of plumbing, learned to install and wire up a sprinkler line and much much more.

Be careful where you plant trees though. We had the landscaper do it first like I said and he built the main water vaults for the sprinklers next to a tree that was about 6' at the time. Today it is 60 feet tall and it took me a month to just get the piping free of the roots, then another month to dig up all the sprinklers that were now just root pathways.

The City also approved a tree that was planted two feet behind the water main for my house. When we bought it, I never gave it a second thought. Last year that tree was lifting the driveway and I realized that it was sitting right on the watermain and would soon be a very very bad thing. The city came out and took the tree down (it was about 25' tall). So think long term when deciding on tree placement.

One other thing about do it yourself landscaping, it is a great workout, you can get a nice tan and it really can be fun.

Animalor wrote:I'm relieved this thread is about actual landscaping...

I thought it was going to be a wild story about his girlfriend's wild pubic hair.