How to Avoid Pitfalls of Getting Some One to Build You a Water Garden

So many of you out there can picture this rosy domestic scene: the family happy, jolly, smiling, tucking into their breakfast on a bright golden spring morning. This was a new house, a new home and a new garden; an opportunity to make a fresh start. Dad suddenly swishes the morning newspaper closed with a flourish.

  • " Gosh, I've suddenly had an amazing idea!" He cries.

  • " What's that Dad? " Mum and the children sing in unison.

  • " I think we ought to have a water garden, wouldn't that be wonderful ?" He replies.

  • " That would be AMAZING!" Comes the chorus.

  • " Of course I'd need a little help, I cant see me shifting all those tons of soil." Laughter. " Besides I wouldn't know where to start ! " More laughter. " I'll get on to it right away."

Dad reaches for the Yellow Pages whilst licking his thumb, to flick through the tome. Now he is a man with a mission.

" I suppose it's Landscapers that we need........aaaahah ! Here we are Bodgit and Scarper -'Specialists in WATER GARDENS '! Perfect, it must be ordained. "

If this were a film scenario that last comment echoes on and on whilst a shot of Dad's hands pick up the phone and we see him speaking animatedly into the mouth piece.

The next shot sees a gnarled hand reach for the door knocker. Dad swings the door open with a prepared smile and as he looks towards the shadowy owner of the hand, his breath is obviously cut short. Does he see a premonition of what is to come in the face of he who stands before him! The contractor from Hell!

Confessions of a Waterscaper

I've been and seen this movie dozens of times and I generally feel like walking out at this next bit. I do eventually but not straight away.

Dad shows the beast (the landscaper) round to the back garden whilst rabbiting inanely about the sound of water and maintenance free gardening. The beast just grunts. Dads imagination has obviously got the better of him as he waves his arms about as though he is trying to do the breast-stroke backwards and says;

"It's a blank sheet of paper; where's the water garden going to be? You're the expert."

Dad's fate is sealed. He is on the first step to making his own hell whilst in search of paradise.

If we skip to the end of the movie we see Dad drowning in a sea of letters he has sent, threatening litigation. This is cut with him dancing round what seems to be pool with brown water in it and a pile of soil at one end of it dotted with a few randomly placed stones.

A concrete chute that answers for a stream deposits water into the pool from underneath what might be an ugly cement smeared waterfall. Dad's dance is in fact him trying to kick himself.

There are so many reasons for wanting water in the garden, even as the major part of a garden scheme; I could break a coffee table with them with the pile of reasons. But when I have my landscaper disguise on, I wish people would share their reasons with me. Different styles suit different gardens and situations.

It is a fact that more formal water gardens with large amounts of hard landscaping are much more expensive. Also different characters have different preferences, but what very often rules the ultimate decision is the cost. Really the cost should come secondary to the quality of the materials used and the craftsmanship you employ and in this way you will get much more value for money AND be able to sleep more soundly at night, rather than embarking on a bitter period of your life when everything seems to go wrong from then on and the vast eyesore of the water garden serves as a permanent reminder..

Building a water garden is no mean decision. It is going to be expensive even if you do it yourself. To some people the idea seems almost innate; like one of these 'bubbling up' decisions that make people go out and buy a cat or a dog for no 'real' reason. It's just something you have to do. But before you embark on this project you must have a clear idea of your budget having researched what this thing is liable to cost. (Twice the cost of the retail price of all the materials is a good rule of thumb in the UK. In some countries labour can be as little as a quarter of the cost, but supervision and ensuring a conscientious attention to detail can be a major drain on your time.)

Get a Little from your Friends when coming to water gardening

Lets face it, good water gardens dont come cheap and there are some people out there that think if you are weighed down with enough spare lolly to spend it on a hole in the ground then you should be more than willing to let them lighten the load for you. So first of all, get a good grasp of the subject. Read a bit (up to date literature, because materials are always changing). Also, ask your friends.

Hey, we're your friends. We can keep you straight on all the best products and the best techniques around. We will show lots of amazing water gardens, some you'll like, others too kitsch to be real - but at least you will begin to feel sure how you want your water garden.

Become 'au fait' with the materials and terminology. Some of the cheaper materials are not even worth considering, especially for the bigger projects.

Find out how things work (basically), for instance, that most streams in small water gardens are run from recirculated water pumped up to the head of the stream by an electrical pump sitting in the bottom of the pond! No missus, they dont need to be plumbed into mains water!

Ask your friends how their water garden was built. Would they recommend the team they used? No? Why not? Learn from their mistakes.

If you have no friends with water gardens or you have just moved into the district, ask at the local water garden centre or garden centre. But dont use this as a recommendation unless it comes from another source as well. They may have some 'backscratching deal' going. Try to get to see something successful project that they completed successfully to everyones pride and satisfaction. (More of this later.)

If you have no idea, nor care about water garden construction, but want something to look really good and appropriate for the setting whilst making sure you won't get ripped off, then you will have to dig deeper into your pocket in order to pay for some inspiration and conception.

Garden designers are good at inspiration but not necessarily the practicalities, although they are getting better all the time. Their streams tend to be too long for the pond and they fill the pond with so much junk, like stone and pebbles, there's hardly any room for anything that matters! (Sorry generalisation.)

 So get a designer with water garden experience and when you do get a good design, keep the designer on to oversee the project, they're jolly useful for sorting out those beastly contractors. If the designer has a preferred contractor it is probably best to use them, even if they work out to be slightly more expensive.

This is probably because they have done an accurate quote to preserve their standing with the designer. Also it is not unusual for designer and contractor unfamiliar with each other to lock horns at a critical moment and everyone walks off site in a huff.

Designing water gardens and Contractors Package

Some designers are contractors too. If you take on a firm that does a design and build service then generally you are dealing with a business that has a fair amount of overheads and running costs that have to be passed onto the customer whether you have the design or not. But there is a corresponding extra efficiency, which more than compensates for any of the usual problems that can prevent these projects becoming such predictable disasters.

If the design and build company is involved in doing a whole garden scheme, I have known them offset the costs of the more expensive parts against those with greater profit margins, so that in some grand full garden designs, the water garden might get included almost as a 'lost leader'. Thats worth investigating if you have a whole garden scheme in mind.

Credentials for landscaper

For a designer as with a landscaper, their best credentials are his or her past projects. His or her greatest advocates should be their clients. Try to get to see some. If they are in the Society of Garden Designers then they have come a long way to proving that they are amongst some the best and innovative garden designers in the country. This prestige is naturally reflected in their fees.

But if you have a plan or design that you are happy with, which may have been a product of your own talents, what sort of credentials recommend a landscaper.

Well, as with the designer, his greatest advocate is someone he has worked for and not someone down the pub.

Another qualification is membership of a trade association like BALI or APL. Landscapers should be in APL (Association of Professional Landscapers) or BALI (British Association of Landscape Industries). Look out for their logos. Not only does their standard of workmanship have to be first class to get into these associations, it needs to stay of a consistently high standard to stay in. Insurances and certificates have to be kept up to date and the staff are generally fully trained in what they do. The association can give you peace of mind as well, since any complaints you may have against an individual company are handled and dealt with by the association.

Being a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen means nothing to the clients. Also being BS5750 certificated or Quality Asssured only means that they are good at paperwork. If there is a plant missing, for instance, they can very quickly tell you where it should be, also where it was yesterday and the day before that and the day before that....

But despite any recommendations, as I have said before, try to get to see something the contractor has done for someone else.

Getting Quotes for your Water Gardening

Get a quote, not an estimate and go through it with the prospective contractor. Make sure everything is covered that you have envisaged. It makes it clearer and fairer for everyone, especially if it is a competitive quote, that all aspects of the project are itemised.

Dont ask for a "ball-park-figure" on first site meeting, it is always an underestimate and terribly misleading.

It is probably safer for both sides to have a contract. These are pretty standard and as usually more protective of the client than the contractor. Thoroughly check it through. It probably endorses stage payments, which helps keep the contractor sweet for the duration.

Beauty from the Beast

I have known some superbly gifted landscapers in my time, from teams of half a dozen or more that work like clockwork, to 'one man and his dog' slogging on alone to achieve perfection, but the best workmen cannot do their best if "fings just aint right!" Unhappy craftsmen are just as capable of making a hash of a project as happy idiots. A lot of what is required to get it right is up to you, the client.

You have got to be a good employer and employing the right people starts from first impressions, goes through an interview and settles down eventually to a team effort involving hard work and reciprocal communication.

We have established that you need to know precisely what you want and you have got the plan. So what else needs to come from you? Because just getting in 5 quotes from 5 geezers that pop round for 5 minutes to measure up, then choosing the cheapest quote is not going to get the water garden of your dreams.

First Impressions of the Contractor

The tendency is to babble on as soon as you set eyes on the man that comes round. Assess what this character is like.

First impressions are important, but try to get beyond these and see if there an ease of communication between the two of you. With the project in hand make sure you see eye to eye, particularly on the construction methods. Also, is he interested and does he take a pride in his work?

Find out whether he works with his men or just visits in a supervisory capacity. If it is the latter, ask if you might be able to meet the foreman in charge before the contract starts, to gauge whether you have a similar sort of concord. Then ensure that he will always be on site with enough delegated responsibility to make decisions even if they might cost extra money. If the project grinds to a halt because of an unpredicted snag, or you suddenly realise the design is not materialising as envisaged, there has to be someone on site who is capable authorising the extra labour or materials necessary in order to keep the job going.

Landscaping is hard rough badly paid work and it attracts hard rough labouring types. Some firms do not encourage their employees in any sort of dress code, but the scruffy individuals that turn up are not necessarily any less conscientious than their smartly dressed logo overalled counterparts. The important thing is that they enjoy their work and they feel accountable to the firm that employs them. There is nothing worse for everybody than disgruntled employees or jobs-worth types that are more interested in the clock and the next teabreak than the job in hand.

Guide to keeping the 'D' out of 'Disgruntled'

Once the project is under way, it is the simple things that keeps everyone happy and the ball rolling.

1. At least 2 cups of tea a day, but not at times that brings the whole site grinding to a halt. Consult the foreman.

2. Treat everyone as responsible for their own work. Give praise to whom and to where it is due.

3. But above all, if things do not seem to be going quite right, dont let your feelings fester. A little well placed diplomatic criticism delivered early on does not necessarily pay dividends, but at least you dont end up with negative equity. After all, problems left un-dealt with can be so difficult or really expensive to rectify at a later date. Also the nature of the beast you are dealing with is such that he hates to go back on a job and redo it.

2 Commandments

Thou shalt never go away for any length of time whilst this level of landscaping is going on. Fate will always strike a wicked blow - usually at the water or electricity main.

Neither shalt thee leave the site for one minute if any large machinery e.g. JCB, large 'slews' like Himacs, come on site. This sort of machinery can save untold hours of labour when correctly supervised, but one minute of machine work that is a mistake can CREATE hours of labour in rectifying it or another or cost a fortune to get it back on site for another day.

Published with permission of Peter May, for more visit  ...http://www.linklux.com/ ..