"Steve" wrote in message
...
My mate's 16-year old son is going to do some work for us before he starts
at college. We're going to hire a skip and he's going to do a general
garage tidy-up (and believe me it needs doing )) and clear the area
behind the garage. The biggest job however, will be the front "garden".

The previous owners got rid of the lawn (not very well, I might add), laid
visqueen, and then put on about 2 to 3 tons of pea gravel. We want to get
rid of the pea gravel, level the ground properly, lay landscape fabric and
then put down a couple of tons of 20mm Golden Gravel.

He's a good strong lad and well up for doing the work for us (I can't
because of a back injury) but we haven't got a clue what to pay him, and
he doesn't know what to ask for because he's never done a job like this
for money before. We obviously want to pay him a fair price for his hard
graft so has anyone got any ideas as to what we should be paying him, and
should we say so much per hour or give him a lump sum for the job?

A lump sum payment will let him set his own pace for the job without you
having to worry about the cost going up if he finds it a bit hard going. Get
a couple of quotes from people who do this as a business, then pay him about
half that as he won't have the overheads that a business would. If you knock
£20 off the price then give it to him at the end as a bonus he will think
you are a great employer.

Colin Bignell