Was my friend overcharged for mulching?

Asked by mazingerz88 (29260

) August 12th, 2011

My 91 year old friend who owns a house in the Palisades area in Washington DC was charged by a gardener $1200 for mulching his front and backyard. His property is fairly sized I guess since it’s just one of the many houses in this rather well-off area. But does anyone have an idea if this charge was the more or less going on rate these days or is it too much?

We plan to call the gardener asap but is interested in getting some helpful info if possible. Thanks!

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5 Answers

There has to be more information… how many yards of mulch? How many hours of work?
It sounds pricey, but the cost of living here is considerably cheaper, I’m sure.

ANef_is_Enuf (26839

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Since we have no idea of the area mulched, how much others pay, etc, I would suggest you ask the person’s neighbors about how much they pay for yard work.

chyna (51629

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When I used to pay to have mulch dropped at my yard for me to do myself, I’d pay between $500—$700 for good quality mulch. I’d do the labor.

Depending on how many yards of mulch this is for and how many hours it took to drop, I’d say $1200 sounds fair.

If you have the bill handy, let me know the yardage.

SpatzieLover (24609

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@SpatzieLover I suck at Math and estimation. But I did see the mulch trailer and if I’m not mistaken terribly, it’s about 8’ in length, width 5’ and height 3’ and it took them the better part of 6 hours to do it.

THANKS everyone for the great answers!

mazingerz88 (29260

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Fair sized property in DC is postage stamp in Minnesota, and I haven’t lived in DC for 15 years so it would be hard to say for sure. If they just laid mulch and nothing else, my first thought is, overcharged.

linguaphile (14574

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