Landscape Design in Wellington
Getting the best from your landscape starts with getting the best landscape design. The best landscape design is the one that suits you, your budget and your property. Our landscape design or landscape architect service backed up with other specialists such as consulting engineers allows us to develop innovative, practical and cost effective designs.
We dont just stop at design but we can also undertake resource consent and building consent applications and even consult with your neighbours when you are proposing a development.
Initial Landscape Design Consultation
When you first call us to look at your property and your desire to employ a Wellington landscape designer, we will talk about the things you want and dont want from your landscape. Some people have definite views, while others just know that they need a new landscape.
The first part of the process is to develop a brief for the project. This is a summary of the things you want from the landscape design.
Once we know the things you want we will develop a concept plan. This is a sketch plan showing some ideas we have for the landscape design and we can use this to visualise various elements and see whether they will work as a combination. The concept plan is basically a discussion document and we can adjust it and add or delete features.
You may want a water feature or an outdoor fireplace, lawns, gardens or a playarea. We develop the concept to reflect your needs and if you want to make changes we adjust the concept plan.
Final Landscape Design Concept
Once we have incorporated your ideas we can finalise the concept plan. The final concept plan is a scale drawing which gives the areas of, for example decking, paving, gardens, lawns and the materials that we are going to use in the landscape.
Design Working Drawings
Where there are construction elements in the concept we need to provide details of the way they are built for the landscape construction crew. These detailed drawings are called working drawings.
Some sections of the work such as retaining walls and decks need council consent and generally we will engage an engineer to design these structures.
Landscape Design Costing
When all the drawings and planning work is completed we can move onto costing the project. In this phase we break the project down into its various elements and trade groups and decide on the appropriate way to build the landscape.
Where we need to bring in other tradesmen e.g. plumbers, electricians we will get a quote from them if possible so that project costs are known before we start. Some jobs cannot be quantified and at these times we will allocate a provisional sum to the work which is an estimate based on our experience of other situations. We will generally allow a contingency sum to cover unexpected jobs which sometimes are needed but we have not allowed a price for.
Once we have all the information we need we write up the quote. We will itemise each element to show you where the major items of expenditure are.
The quote also outlines any concerns we have and the things that we have not allowed to do.
We will also set out payment terms and conditions.
Acceptance Of The Design Quote
If you decide to accept the quote for the work we will give you a likely start date based on our current work schedule. We will call you the day prior to work starting to warn you and arrange for things like power and access.
We will appoint a site supervisor for the project and this person will be your primary point of contact for the work. If you have any queries about the project please talk to your supervisor.
Our usual hours of work are 7-30am to 4-30pm Monday to Friday. Because of the nature of our work we dont usually work if it is raining but in thiscase we may need to work on the weekend to maintain the momentum of the project.
We will have a team assigned to your project and they will work on the project continuously till it is completed. There may be occasions where we are held up by delays in the arrival of materials etc. and in this situation we may have to redeploy the workers in the interim. We will keep you informed if this is the case.
Design Changes
As part of the planning process we will produce sketches of the proposed landscape to allow you to visualise the end product. If once the work is underway you want to incorporate other elements or make changes then please talk to the supervisor before we start on an element. If once we have started work on an element and you want to make changes we will charge you for the work done.
Changes may require a new quote to be given and we will prepare the quote before we do any more work. If you have time, have a look over the work at the end of the day to satisfy yourself that you are getting the landscape you want.
On Completion of Landscaping
When we are finished construction work we will start cleaning areas and get any work covered by consent inspected and certified.
If there are any items of plant such as pumps installed we will show how these operate and provide you with operations manuals. In general we dont include maintenance work in our pricing but if you want us to remain involved in the care of the new landscape we can quote for this work.
We will leave the work site in pristine condition for you to enjoy.
We look forward to working with you.
