block paving question.

bexbex

Daft question but is it expensive?
I'm from Doncaster and have a small lawn and garage to the front and I want to extend the garden to in front the garage and pave the whole lot (get some one in to do it)
It's very rougly 7x9 metres
Any one any ideas how much I need to start saving?

Pretani

I've no idea how much your plot would be, it all depends on the brick and edging. It's expensive if you get in a squad who supplies everything. You can save quite a bit if you buy the materials direct from the suppliers and get a small local firm who knows how to lay them. Garden centres can put you in contact with individual layers. [A reasonable price to pay a small team to lay the blocks would be £10/square metre with them supplying the whacker plate and tools. So for the laying alone it would cost you £600, plus maybe £100 for laying the kerbs. Don't pay any more than £700-800 for the laying of blocks and kerbs]

Another thing which drives down the costs dramatically is buying kerbs instead of the edging supplied with the block paving. You can save as much as 2/3rd's the price of the edgings if you put in kerbs.

Oh, and get the soil removed youself and putting in drains if needed, it will save you loads of money too.

A cheaper alternative is asphalt. I'm nearly sure it's can be done at half the price of block paving, but then paving generally lasts longer.

Llyllyll

I've had two quotes for a 38 sq. metre drive:

Quote 1:

• Excavate, lay hardcore, install soak away for rain water, block border & concrete driveway - £2855
• Excavate, lay hardcore, install soak away for rain water & block driveway - £3540

Quote 2:

• Excavate, lay hardcore, install soak away for rain water, block border & concrete driveway - £2100
• Excavate, lay hardcore, install soak away for rain water & block driveway - £2780

Do these sound reasonable for the job especially as I'm having a soakaway installed?

Thanks.

ormus

ive heard of peeps paying from 2k to 5k depending on the sizes.
friend of mine paid 3.5k for a size similar to yours. bit smaller.

ic

Note that if your new driveway will drain into the road, you'll need to get planning permission.

planning_officer

You'll also need planning permission for any area of hardstanding that's over 5 sq m in area and is between the house and the road - unless it's a permeable or porous surface, or like 'ic' says above, it allows for natural drainage onto a porous area within your garden, i.e. flower bed or lawn.

Llyllyll

ormus wrote: »

...friend of mine paid 3.5k for a size similar to yours. bit smaller.

Thanks. So these don't seem too bad then? I'm in S. Wales and wonder if the costs vary much by region?

ormus

the variation can be huge even in the sticks. depends on what the builder thinks he can get away with.
generally though it seems like the London/SE area pays approx twice as much for any building work.
ive heard of horror quotes in west london. like a double extension for 100k!
(my ex neighbours house).

or a 25k kitchen (in reading). my mate did that one for 5k. and hes based in manchester!

ic

I paid £4200 for a 15ft x 45ft driveway, including a small amount of drainage. This was for this style with a border. The foundations were dug to about a foot deep, and I even cheekily added a significant amount from my backgarden to the pile of rubble that was taken away (they dug up the old strip of land on the Friday, I worked like crazy over the weekend, and the rubble was taken away by grabber truck on the Monday). Includes a ten year guarantee.

When pricing up, I was looking at this style and prices varied from £3000 to £6000. There was a definiate thing that some builders were more interested in what the neighbours had in deciding what the price should be. I ulimately went with the guy that was happy to answer my questions, gave me a full list of previous jobs so I could check out his work, and gave me a full detailed quotation.

Another friend went with the second style, but from a different builder. He beat him down on price from £2000 to £1400. When it came to it the guy only did about 3 or 4 inches worth of foundations, and left all the old flags behind stacked along the pavement for a week, blocking entrance to the driveway. Needless to say he now has trouble with weeds and the drive is beginning to sag in places. You get what you pay for!

Pretani

Llyllyll wrote: »

I've had two quotes for a 38 sq. metre drive:

Quote 1:

• Excavate, lay hardcore, install soak away for rain water, block border & concrete driveway - £2855
• Excavate, lay hardcore, install soak away for rain water & block driveway - £3540

Quote 2:

• Excavate, lay hardcore, install soak away for rain water, block border & concrete driveway - £2100
• Excavate, lay hardcore, install soak away for rain water & block driveway - £2780

Do these sound reasonable for the job especially as I'm having a soakaway installed?

Thanks.

It's not easy to say, but here's a few things to consider.

Find out where your brick paving/cement is coming from (different manufacturers have different quality of bricks and concrete), ask the manufacturer how much the brick, block border, sand and hardcore will be to cover 38 sq metre, exclude the delivery price because brick paving companies get delivery free and other discounts from the manufacturer. deduct the cost of the materials from the quote you got.

Take £10/square metre as a guide for just laying the brick with no major excavations needed (Approx £400 for your job). deduct that.

The amount you have left you can conclude whether it is worth the amount of excavation work you have been told will be carried out. The complexity of the soakaway depends on the water table, soil and how much pipe work is needed, you'll have to judge that for yourself.

If however you're left with very little money (which I seriously doubt), you can be sure that person isn't going to excavate properly.