Groundwork labour costs?

[Oboulez]

Does anybody have any ideas as to what the hourly rate might be for somebody to level off some excess soil mounds from a recently completed house (soil from digging the foss / foundations etc). It is merely a case of shifting a couple of small mounds of topsoil with a mechanical bucket & spreading it around the rest of the garden - no removal of spoil or rubble. I have had a quote but think it might be a bit on the high side (300).

[BIG MAC]

I need the same and am thinking of  asking our commune's digger driver if he could do us a favour I dont know if you are in a commune with such a facility?

 

[idun]

BigMac,Is that really what happens in your commune........ the Mairie does landscaping for folks instead of people having to employ landscapers or gardeners? I am quite surprised if it works like that and the landscapers and gardeners haven't been kicking off or at least complaining bitterly that their work is being done for free. Would it even be legal? In fact it feels plain wrong on so many levels.

L&G, if there is so 'little' then would it be so hard to do it yourselves? And if you hired a mini pelle yourself? Although to hire from say kiloutou, would be about 200€ for a day. So, I would have thought 200-300 euros for someone else to do it was probably about right.

 

[Benjamin]

It's a Saturday morning or late afternoon job. You'll get the best cash price from your local digger man if you ask if he can "fit it in to suit himself".

[dave21478]

Hiring a digger looks like a reasonable idea until you remember that you also have to hire a trailer to transport it on and then hire a van, truck or 4x4 to tow it too, or hire a flatbed truck to carry it if your licence permits. Assuming you know how to operate one in the first place.

60 euros per hour would be an absolute minimum for someone experienced and equipped to do the work. Fuel and travelling time are often on top of that too. From what you describe, there is probably not even an hours work for a digger of 2.5 tons or so.....but most people would want half a days pay for a small job like that, so 300 seems feasable.

[Quillan]

I rented a digger once from the local hire shop. Cost me 100 Euros, gone up 10 Euros now,  for the day (dropped off at 08:00, picked up at 18:00) plus fuel. I got a 30 minutes 'lesson' then left to my own devices, great fun. If you hire you need to tell them what it is for so they can bring the right bucket.

[Oboulez]

Spot on Dave re the logistics & practicalities of hiring - plus I am in the middle of the sticks, that said, the groundsman who gave the quote lives 5 mins away and is doing a job across the Chemin. I really do not think that it would be more than an hours work, and I fear that he (he is British) either thinks that we are rich - or that we have just came off the banana boat. He has suggested that french labour costs are high, however we have just moved from another area in France where there is no way that we could afford a house like we have here, and having paid for plumbers etc, found it much cheaper than the UK - at least in the south. Re the suggestion of tapping up the Mairie, spookily enough a local here has suggested that the commune tractor driver might do it. If feasible, I would rather give a donation to the commune than be ripped off. Even in the event that the job took 2 hours, that equates to €150 an hour which is rather expensive!!

[idun]

I have never ever ever found a french plumber or builder cheaper than the UK. Not when they are working legally. Their cotisations are so high that they have to charge a lot.

So if they charge 150€ an hour, surely the government would take about half that and then there is the 'hire' of their digger and their time.

 

Still seems OK to me. Ask someone else for a quote, they cannot be the only landscaper in the area.

 

RE living nearby, I was never discriminated against if we lived half an hour away from an artisan, they will have fixed prices.

 

 

Personally if someone was going on about the price, I would probably say I was 'busy'.

 

The funny thing about this is that in the UK we have a friend who is 76 and he too has a big mound of soil to shift and some foundations to dig. He has been doing a bit each day for the last few weeks and has nearly finished. It isn't as if he cannot afford to get it done, he can, but decided that he'd have a go himself, wheelbarrow and shovel and job's a goodun. 

[PaulT]

[Quote Louise & Gary]Spot on Dave re the logistics & practicalities of hiring - plus I am in the middle of the sticks, that said, the groundsman who gave the quote lives 5 mins away and is doing a job across the Chemin. I really do not think that it would be more than an hours work, and I fear that he (he is British) either thinks that we are rich - or that we have just came off the banana boat. He has suggested that french labour costs are high, however we have just moved from another area in France where there is no way that we could afford a house like we have here, and having paid for plumbers etc, found it much cheaper than the UK - at least in the south. Re the suggestion of tapping up the Mairie, spookily enough a local here has suggested that the commune tractor driver might do it. If feasible, I would rather give a donation to the commune than be ripped off. Even in the event that the job took 2 hours, that equates to €150 an hour which is rather expensive!![End quote]

It is the old story, you ask 'how much' they say 'this much' and if you are happy with it you agree to go ahead. If not you say 'thank you but no thanks' - you are not forced to accept anyones quote.

I have known contractors to give high quotes because they already have enough work on. If their quote is accepted then they have a problem doing the work but the extra money makes it worthwhile.

Your contractor may have enough big jobs on thaqt he does not want a small job but if the pay is high enough he will do it.

Paul

[NickP]

I'm sorry to say that I think you are being a little unfair to the guy who quoted for your job, do you think that the tooth fairy gave him a digger or puts the fuel in it; services it insures it? So if you don't like his quote fine turn it down, buy yourself a shovel and a wheelbarrow and shift the "two small mounds" yourself. You will then save yourself €300 and you are happy, simple. [:D]

[Oboulez]

Thanks to all for the various contributions. I was merely interested to hear if anybody had experience of what a realistic or excessive price quote might be. It is hardly unfair to the chap who gave the quote - indeed how can it be unfair to research something which you have no knowledge - having read & contributed to this useful forum for a couple of years, examples of posters being ripped off are legion - and of ex-pat tradesman who prey on the unsuspecting Brit who may or may not be otherwise confident in dealing with local artisans. Neither did I consider that the tooth fairy gave him the digger & covered it's running costs - that said, neither did the tooth fairy kit out the swanky VW dealership where I had my car serviced a couple of weeks ago yet charged a fraction of the €150 per hour labour charge that is being quoted!

[NickP]

OK as you didn't like my reply I will change it, No I don't think your quote was excessive I think it is realistic,  I would think that a quote less than that would  only be possible by employing unregistered; uninsured labour who probably wouldn't have the correct equipment. By the way your local artisan doesn't sell swanky cars or spare parts to pad out his profit margins so I think your analogy fails.[:)]

[PaulT]

In addition, labour raqtes can vary depending upon which part of a country you are in so it is very difficult for anyone to comment on the 300 euro charge - I presume that you are a QS and can therefore accurately calculate that it is 2 hours work (does that include the time to get the digger to and from your house, setting up the correct bucket for the job etc?).

The normal way of checking if something is reasonable for an area is to obtain a number of quotes (remember that the tradespeoples time will also be taken up with looking at and providing q1uotes that will not be taken up, those costs will be added to their hourly rate for jobs they do get *) and then compare them.

* where I used to live my next door neighbour did fencing and other types of work. Very often on a Saturday late in the afternoon I would chat to him and he would tell me that he had spent the day looking at jobs and preparing quotes which may well come to nothing because the people either used other tradespeople or did not realise how much it would cost and not have the work done.

I cannot agree with NickP that you will save 300 euros because you will have to buy a wheelbarrow and shovel so a little bit less but it certainly seems the way to go - at the end of it you will know exactly how much work was involved and there will be no resentment shown to the chap with the digger should he do the job.