10002 Gardner Wanted

I had the same problem and solved it by bringing a [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B00004S1RY/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=228013&s=hi"][B]garden whip[/B][/URL] with me on one of my trips.

Took a while but it got the job done without too much effort.

[URL="http://villacasale.net/"]No Bidet[/URL]

Or if it's a very small garden, you might consider one of the new generation of electric battery strimmers, such as [url=http://www.tomsgardenequipment.co.uk/category/Electric_Brushcutters/product/Bosch_ART23_Accutrim_Strimmer/]Toms Garden Equipment & Tools - Bosch ART23 Accutrim Strimmer Brushcutters/strimmers / Electric Brushcutters /[/url].

Haven't tried one myself, but have recently been considering buying one for tidying up the small bits that keep on growing, to avoid strapping on the very heavy, very noisy and very expensive [I]decespugliatore[/I] which I usually have to use with all the protective gear and which is an absolute penance in hot weather. If your gardener has to use one of those then in my view it's worth quite a lot of euros per hour.

You may find that worked out by the hour plus doing the trees might not be such a bad deal after all, just make sure from the start that you are both agreed as to what is going to be done!

you should be able to get local help for anywhere between 70 and 100 e per day, just ask around .........cheers

[quote=maureen;93142]I Am Looking For Someone To Come And Cut The Grass As It Is Very Long, We Live In Civitaquana Abruzzo And Needs Cut Now, We Have Had A Quote For 500euros Which Includes Trees I Nearly Fell Of My Chair , Anyone Know Someone Reliable, I Would Be Very Grateful, Maureen.[/quote]

500euros does seem excessive but then again, how big is your garden and how many trees do you have and what size are they? or, as D&R says, for 70-100 euros a day you should be able to get some local help if you ask around.

That may be Abruzzo prices 70 - 100 euros a day but not in Umbria. A man cut the grass around our pool with a lawn mower. Took 20 mins and cost 10 euros...Rate 30 euros and hour!!! (Pleased to get my husband back from UK!!)

Thanks for the replies, I've also been given a quote from someone in a different village 10 euros an hour, we have an acre so not loads, without the trees we are down to 350euros which still expensive, but we have been told we should keep things in the village, so even if the quotes are ridiculous we should still keep it in the village, what does eveyone think. I do not like being ripped off, and as we are not there I cannot ask anyone, thanks maureen.

In Puglia the going rate is around 80 euros a day for this sort of outdoor work, and the worker provides his equipment. That's a pretty full 8-9 hour day, sometimes broken in 2 pieces depending on how hot the weather is. Hope this helps, and I do agree it is smart to spend your money locally when possible -- it will earn you a lot of goodwill with your neighbors, and you'll make some friends and acquaintances, too, while practicing your Italian.

[quote=Noble;93339]That may be Abruzzo prices 70 - 100 euros a day but not in Umbria. A man cut the grass around our pool with a lawn mower. Took 20 mins and cost 10 euros...Rate 30 euros and hour!!! (Pleased to get my husband back from UK!!)[/quote]

I think you've had a bargain. Someone travelled to your home and only charged you 10 euros for 20 minutes work. I doubt that if you asked him to do a full days work that he would have charged 30 euros an hour. How much did you expect him to charge you for travelling time and 20 minutes work, 2 or 3 euros??.

An acre should be under a day's work with a petrol brushcutter, though as it is very hard, hot, unpleasant work most people wouldn't want to do any other physical work afterwards. With self-propelled equipment, it'd be even shorter - though the equipment costs would be higher. This assumes your land is reasonably well-maintained - if your long grass hides a vast selection of large rocks, pieces of wire and bits of scrap metal, then the work is much slower and harder and the risk of damage to equipment much greater, so a high price might well be justified.

€350 sounds very expensive to me if your land is in good condition. My guess is that whoever is quoting doesn't really want to do it, so if they're going to, they want paying extremely well. I'd go with the €10 an hour quote. Even if the hours are outrageously padded, I wouldn't have thought this could come out at more than €150.

[quote=Biagio;93406]I think you've had a bargain. Someone travelled to your home and only charged you 10 euros for 20 minutes work. I doubt that if you asked him to do a full days work that he would have charged 30 euros an hour. How much did you expect him to charge you for travelling time and 20 minutes work, 2 or 3 euros??.[/quote]
That's not waht happened....Didn't think it appropriate to give ALL the details but the man who cut the grass and charged 10 euros, has to pass our house to and from his "regular" job. He looks after a house way down the track and in summer also deals with the pool. He just stopped off and did the mowing!!

OK. So what do you think he should have charged you as a fair price for 20 minutes work, even if he passes your house 4 times a day ??

Earlier this year, before we bought a ride on mower, our field grass was about 2 feet high, I spotted our neighbour out on his big tractor and asked him to mow our field, he did, and it took him about half an hour, he refused to take any money, or bottles of wine, so we settled on a slice of Victoria sponge.....which he eat as though it was lambs gizzards wrapped in frogs legs.......I guess if mama never made it , thens its weird and strange. LOL

[quote=Biagio;93471]OK. So what do you think he should have charged you as a fair price for 20 minutes work, even if he passes your house 4 times a day ??[/quote]
In truth I thought a fair price would have been 8 euros. Another time he did just over 2 hours strimming and charged 50 (our equipment and fuel). This is an open Forum and covers the whole of Italy so those wanting to find out what it costs to cut grass want an answer that matches where they live. At the Supermarket today i asked what someone had paid for a job to be done similar to that originally mentioned and costed at 500 euros. A tractor had been used to cut the area and the total price was 900 euros.

What I'd like to know is what people pay to get a simple hair cut?

[quote=Noble;93481]...................What I'd like to know is what people pay to get a simple hair cut?[/quote]

My hairs aren't simple, they're relatively intelligent - so can't help you with that one!

.

We have 2 acres of orchard, olives and mixed fruit trees, some of it on a very steep slope.Our neighbour cuts it for us using his tractor, takes about 3hrs, we pay him 70e which actually seems a fair price to us. Also it would be very difficult to find anyone else, he helps us and the money helps him and his family, he is 78 years old and we are grateful for his assistance.
A

[quote=Noble;93481]In truth I thought a fair price would have been 8 euros. [/quote]

Is this a serious reply? You're fretting over 2 euros for a job that no one else would do unless they were passing by anyway?

[quote=juliancoll;93494]Is this a serious reply? You're fretting over 2 euros for a job that no one else would do unless they were passing by anyway?[/quote]

i agree entirely.we pay our man who incidentally is also fully insured (by us) considerably more than this.BTW all these apparently simple tasks in fact involve a certain amout of risk( referring to strimmers/chain saws/moto zappe etc) serious injuries can happen then it becomes "un affare di stato"

I never thought about insurance oh dear,is it neccessary? that is going to be even more expensive, what next, we have arranged for the grass to be cut at 350 euros as it is desperate but will have to leave the trees, hands are tied at the moment. Maureen

maureen, i think sebsatiano was referring to the fact that if you actually use a proper registered and qualified person/company to do your work that they will carry this insurance against their own risk and also third party risk... protecting you from arriving at court if something did go wrong and most probably loosing your house due to not only costs but the amount you could be sued for...

we all tend to risk things in certain ways here...ie getting a neighbour or a friend down the road to do things for you... but it can lead to consequences that the saving of a few hundred euro would later appear to be trivial...

its not only accidents that you are covered against when you use registered trades people its also visits from the dreaded finance people here ... which actually happens more than some people think...

the best way to do things here is to do as you are doing...get a quote, get it on fully headed notepaper, with registration details of the person or company and pay the bill again with all the required heading and footings ... this way there are no consequences for you, your house, or your life here...

[quote=juliancoll;93494]Is this a serious reply? You're fretting over 2 euros for a job that no one else would do unless they were passing by anyway?[/quote]

I thought the discussion was about what it costs to cut grass? The original post thought 500 euros too much. In Umbria a similar job seems to cost 900. Another post paid 70 euros for 3 hours work using a man on a tractor on steep land...the intelligent hairs can work out that this sounds a fair price based on my expected 8 euros.
3 x 8 = 24 x 3 = 72. The answer is perhaps...if someone will do it, you have to pay the price...Some even say let them eat cake, instead!!

I wonder if anyone reading this and thinking of buying that country house with land has now changed their mind and will be looking for an apartment in the centro storico!

[quote=red tulip;93567]I wonder if anyone reading this and thinking of buying that country house with land has now changed their mind and will be looking for an apartment in the centro storico![/quote]

Or.....A lawnmower..........nah, thats far to crazy a thought
:goofy::goofy::goofy::goofy:

[quote=Noble;93559]I thought the discussion was about what it costs to cut grass? The original post thought 500 euros too much. In Umbria a similar job seems to cost 900. Another post paid 70 euros for 3 hours work using a man on a tractor on steep land...the intelligent hairs can work out that this sounds a fair price based on my expected 8 euros.
3 x 8 = 24 x 3 = 72. The answer is perhaps...if someone will do it, you have to pay the price...Some even say let them eat cake, instead!![/quote]

It's all swings and roundabouts Noble.

Angie & Robert paid 70 euros for 3 hours work, so obviously got a discount of 2 euros if we use your calculation. Perhaps it was the same gardener and, realising he had undercharged A & R, he added the extra 2 euros lost with them onto your bill.
Contact Angie & Robert and tell them that by default, they owe you two euros. :laughs:

I think I'm going to move to Umbria with my brushcutter and lawnmower. On the information here, I only need to do a few months work to be able to afford the house prices!

Good idea Juliancoll, actually in Umbria I pay 2 euros for half a dozen organic eggs. Bosco has the right idea and if he has a friend who will clean houses they could make a fortune between them, in Umbria!!

My real estate agent organised two women for 1 and a half days to clean and disinfect the house before moving into it and they charged 260 euros total, which I think it was OK.

1 and a half days x 2 = 3 days solid cleaning. Good Lord Gala, how big is your house? Are we talking Windsor Castle or Palazzo di Stupinigi? :bigergrin:

No, it is relatively small but it was left very dirty by previous tenants and many months of not being used. Cobwebs everywhere..... the works..... And I did not want to tackle any of that....
The girls had to work very hard.

You can feel very smug Gala that you have a beautifully cleaned house for only 260 euros. Here in Umbria some geometra's or builders, will sort out a "cleaning team" for those wanting a thorough, clean up, after the building works have been completed. Price seems to be between 15 and 18 euros an hour as it isn't an ongoing cleaning lady type job but as you say ...it was very dirty. For those wanting to set up in business the going rate is between 10 and 15 euros for domestic help in any village where there is competition from holiday houses demanding cleaners, especially in the summer season.

I had to get someone to strim our plot which I estimated would be about 1 hours work.I think he used the strimmer off another Brit who's garden he does as it was 10 times better than the one he usually has with him.

Paid 30 euros.He did want 40 but that's crazy for 1 hours work.