We are not going to give you a price per metre, because anyone who does without seeing your bank is guessing. What we can do is explain exactly what moves the number, so you can read a quote properly and ask the right questions.
The first question everyone asks is what it costs. The honest answer is that two jobs of identical length on the same river can differ by thousands, and the reasons are almost always the same handful of things.
Here they are, roughly in the order they matter.
Access
Usually the single biggest variable, and the one people least expect.
About four jobs in five, we can bring the lorry and the machine down the side of the property and work straight off the bank. That is the cheap version.
Where we cannot, because the ground is too soft, or there is no driveway wide enough, or the garden will not take a machine, the materials and plant go in by water. That means floats and a tug, and moving things about on the river is expensive.
It is not all bad news. Working off the water often means we never touch the garden at all, which some people much prefer.
Then there is the small number of sites where neither works, and everything is carried in by hand down an alleyway with mats laid to get a light machine to the bank. Those are slow, and the price reflects it.
In round numbers, about four jobs in five are straightforward road access, most of the rest go in by water, and a small handful have to be done by hand.
How the job is measured
Two different measurements matter here, and they are easy to confuse.
Along the bank. This is the one people mean when they say they have twenty metres of quay heading. It is what the Broads Authority uses for the 25-metre planning threshold, and it is the number most people give us on the phone. Under 25 metres of like-for-like replacement is treated as maintenance and needs no planning permission. At 25 metres it becomes development, and there is an application, a fee and a wait. See the permissions guide.
Depth. This is the one almost nobody thinks about, and it is usually the bigger variable in the price.
Quay heading is priced by area, not by length along the ground. Piles have to reach ground firm enough to stand on. On one site that might be two metres down. On another, where the ground is soft, the same run might need piles at four metres to reach anything solid.
Two properties with an identical twenty metres of bank can therefore be very different jobs, and the difference is invisible from the garden. It is one of the main reasons quotes for apparently identical work come back thousands apart.
This is also why nobody can price your quay heading over the phone. Until someone has looked at your bank, the depth is a guess.
Materials and specification
This is where quotes diverge most, and where it is hardest for a customer to see what they are getting.
Most quay heading on the Broads is timber. The thickness of the pile is a choice, and it is a choice that changes the price meaningfully without changing anything you can see on the day the job finishes.
We use a two-inch pile. A contractor who has priced the job keenly may be quoting an inch and a half.
That takes roughly 30% off the material cost without costing him a penny of margin. Finished, the two look much the same.
Both look like quay heading. One of them lasts longer.
So the single most useful question you can ask any contractor, including us, is: what thickness of pile are you quoting, and what timber and treatment?
If a quote does not say, ask. If the answers differ between quotes, you are not comparing the same job.
There is more on this in the materials guide.
Ground conditions and what we find
Some banks are straightforward. Others have old quay heading still in the ground, services running behind, a wall or an outbuilding too close to dig a conventional tie-back, or ground too soft to hold.
Most of this can be dealt with. The tie-back is a good example: where we cannot dig, we can drive a cable anchor back into firm ground instead. It solves the problem and it costs more than the standard method.
Permissions
A planning application has a fee and takes time. A flood risk activity permit has an Environment Agency charge, revised each April, and a bespoke application takes around two months.
These are real costs and they belong in a quote. If a quote does not mention permissions at all, that does not mean they are not needed. It usually means someone has decided they are your problem. For details on what permissions are needed, see our permissions and responsibilities guide.
Why the cheapest quote is often the most expensive
Quay heading is largely invisible once it is finished. A thin pile and a proper one look the same in the photograph.
The difference shows up in ten or fifteen years, when one needs doing again and the other does not. Doing this job twice costs far more than doing it once properly, because you pay for the access, the plant and the permissions all over again.
Doing this job twice costs far more than doing it once properly.
You pay for the access, the plant and the permissions all over again.
The contractors who come in significantly cheaper are usually saving money on the things you cannot see: thinner timber, lighter ties, standard rather than marine-grade fixings, or leaving permissions to you.
None of that means you should pay more than you need to. It means you should know what you are paying for.
What to ask before you choose
Here are the questions to ask any contractor before you commit to a quote:
- What thickness of pile, what timber, what treatment?
- Does the price include planning permission and permits, or are those mine to sort out?
- Who is responsible for the flood risk activity permit?
- What happens to my garden, and how is the material getting in?
- What are you doing about welfare facilities and site safety?
- How long, and how long will it last?
Getting a price
We price every job after a site visit. The visit is free, and we will not chase you afterwards.
Pre-purchase quay heading survey
If you are looking at a house on the water and want to know what the quay heading will cost before you commit, we carry out pre-purchase quay heading surveys.
It is a common question and a sensible one. Quay heading can be a significant cost, and it is not something you want to discover after completion. A homebuyer's survey will tell you about the house. It will not tell you what the bank at the bottom of the garden is going to cost you.
We look at the bank, tell you what condition the quay heading is in, what it would take to put right, and what that is likely to cost.
Because you do not yet own the property, there is a charge, currently £250. If you go on to buy the place and have us do the work, we take that £250 off the price of the job. So it costs you nothing unless the sale falls through.