Design Process
Initial Consultation
Once you have made contact. We will arrange a free initial consultation for one of our landscape consultants to meet with you to discuss your design requirements. During the visit we will listen to your ideas and what your personal preferences are, We will then make suggestions about the design theme and proposals regarding the site conditions. All this information will help to create a design brief for us to create your new landscaped garden. At the end of the meeting we will be able to provide a price for the service that meets your specific design requirements.
Garden design
Once the survey has been carried out we can then create a design tailored to your specific requirements. Allowing you to visualise the final layout of your garden. A garden design drawing allows us to provide a detailed quotation of the works. If you decide to have a design then 50% is payable up front and 50% on the completion of the design. If you decide to have the work carried by Adapt Landscapes then we will deduct 50% of the design fee from the final build invoice.
Prices start from £595.00 Inc Vat for a single concept garden design for a small garden.
Survey
If your garden is large, sloping with awkward levels and slopes or very overgrown a topographical survey may need to be carried out by an independent land surveyor. Once the survey of the garden is complete a scaled drawing can be produced to start working on your garden design. This is a service we can organise and provide prices for should your garden require it.
Structural Engineering
Depending on the site and build we may need to employ the services of a Structural engineer. Gardens on sloping ground may requirement retaining walls to hold back vast tonnes for soil or a large garden structure may need structural calculations to remain safe.
The build
Once you have confirmed you would like to continue with the build we will set a date for the works to commence. The project will be managed so we can carry out the work in a efficient manner whilst minimising disruption to your daily life.
Setting a budget, how much will the garden build cost?
The vast majority of the cost involved in transforming your garden is taken up by the hard landscaping, or garden build. Installing a new garden should be thought of as an investment in your property, and a realistic budget to consider would be between 4-10% of the value of your home. For a home worth £200,000 that would mean a build budget of between £8,000 and £20,000.
This figure is on a par with the cost involved in installing a new conservatory or kitchen, and there is an equivalent amount of work involved. While this might sound like a substantial investment, consider the return – Ian Stuart, of Savills Estate Agents, wrote in the Financial Times that a designed garden can add 10-15% to the sale-ability of your home.
The importance of setting a budget
We have one overriding objective when working with you: to deliver the best possible garden for your money. For us to do that we need a realistic budget to work with. Your budget figure will directly influence the choice of layout and materials in the designs we present to you, and it is very difficult to meet your expectations without one.
It is possible to work withinout a budget but in this instance we present the design with two different different pricing options based on differing levels of finish. Subsquenent changes to the design will incur design and pricing costs outside of the original design costs.
Ways to spread the build costs
If you are committed to transforming your garden but don’t have the full amount available, it is possible to build your garden in stages. The first thing to do is to commission the design plans and have the garden build fully costed. Then you can decide which parts you can afford to have built now and which could wait until some time in the future. We would be happy to provide you with advice on staging the build.
