Newbie needs some grass help

12 years ago

I usually spend my time over in the home forums, But today i turn to you. DH and I closed on our first home in december. Just before closing the previous owners had to replace the septic system. What we now have is heaps of straw, with no grass growing underneath and lota of huge rocks all over the place.

What we want is a lush, rock free lawn. Enter the landscapers. 1st quote came in at 5k to rake up all the rocks, level out the yard with the leftover sifted fill from when the septic was replaced, seed, and cover with peat moss

2nd quote came in at 3k for basically the same thing, except rocks are manually raked, and straw is used as a seed cover instead of moss.

Being that this is our first time. Are these quotes average? high? low? Is moss really worth that extra expense?Is there anything else I should be aware of?

We are in NJ and our yard is about .75acre.

TIA

Stacy

Comments (4)

texas_weed
12 years ago
They are rip-off Union wages for a days worth of work. You can rent the equipment and do the work yourself for $200. In other parts of the country would cost you $500 to do the same job with contract labor.
Super-Sod
12 years ago
If you decide to take texas-weed's advice, then please make sure you know where your power and/or gas lines run on the property. Since you don't have a huge yard, you might find some. If you do decide to go with a landscaping business (which the quotes did seem pricey but without knowing what state your yard is in, it's hard to say), make sure they are insured and are getting their materials from a specialized supplier.
dchall_san_antonio
12 years ago
You're talking about a job that a couple of high school kids would do for pizza. Well, maybe not on 3/4 acre, but $3-5k is way out of line.
brettn_10
12 years ago
Is there any law against hiring high school kids for minimum wage in New Jersey? We don't have union laws out here, and your job sounds like one that I would just round up a couple kids from my church to come do. I would work along side them but make them do the heavy lifting. $8/hr and you'll probably be out about $500 to get it to the point you talked about. The leveling is the biggest job and probably what the bids are charging you for. A couple of 17-18 year old boys could level it in about a day with your instruction.