Tangram

Have been quoted for 50 truck loads of clean fill / topsoil to include hyrdoseeding. All labour included for about 1/2 acre of the plot at $25000 all in. Is this expensive or about average ? This also includes removing two dead trees and creating a couple of copses for future trees.

Atlantic Xpat

Screened topsoil here runs around $220 a tandem load. (I assume your truck-loads are tandem load.) Fill is cheaper. How far they have to haul it to your yard plays a part in cost.

Excavating/JCB work figure anywhere from $60-100 per hour.

Hydroseeding - it's a good whiles since I costed this out but I do recall being shocked at how much I was being quoted vs. the costs one can find on the internet. (Here for example: http://www.thecorporategrounds.com/H...Calculato.html) That was one reason for not doing it. What we did was have the land cleared and levelled, the topsoil spread and then seeded it conventionally ourselves. I did idly toy with buying a hydroseeding rig of my own (cost circa $5k) as a sideline business as there seemed to be few operators round here!

That all being said, your $25k sounds a bit steep. I mean if your 50 truckloads were all screened topsoil, thats $11k. Add 50 hrs of machine time @$100 per hour and thats $5k. I could at a stretch see that costing $20k with a decent return for the contractor but $25k? (& as I say, not all that 50 tandem loads are topsoil).

That being said, I'm not a landscaper, nor am I in NB. So my advice is likely worthless. Perhaps obtaining another couple of quotes would be a good idea? Failing that, do some of it yourself? It's a great excuse to hire heavy equipment to play with!

Tangram

We have negotiated down to $21k for 6-12 inches of topsoil over 3600 sq yards of garden. Having seen others he has done I'm happy at the quality he does so we will take it from there.

Tangram

Well they finished today. We shall wait for the results in the Spring.