Patio

garcon6

Thinking of having our patio done which is the original concrete as there are a few cracks starting to appear due to the frost.

Someone came to view the patio and he said instead of digging up the concrete that can be used as the original base. Obviously this will save the tradesman time and us money I really want to make sure that this is the right way. The tradesman will use sand (cement?) in laying the patio slabs.

Also he is not VAT registered so i won't need to pay any VAT is that a good/bad thing to consider.

Thanks,

Garcon6

societys_child

It's what I'd do, makes a good solid base. I don't think being vat registered or not makes any difference to the quality of workmanship, if your happy with the fella, and his quote let him get on with it.

bobhawke

Depends on what type of slabs you're laying, what mix your tradesmen will be using and as andrew-b says - whether it will breach dpc or not.
If he is going to just throw sand down then water could still get in the cracks, freeze and cause damage.

garcon6

There is plenty of depth up to the damp proof course, do the regulations state that it should be 150 mm and the tradesman seems very knowledegable i will aim to get about 4 quotes.

If someone could let me know the exact depth upto the damp proof course is.

Thanks,

garcon6

whowants2brich

garcon6 wrote: »

Also he is not VAT registered so i won't need to pay any VAT is that a good/bad thing to consider.

I think you might need to think twice and carefully about this. It is somewhat illegal to charge someone for services and not charge VAT (and then not to hand this VAT element over HMRC... )

Actually, because he is not VAT registered, that means he cannot claim back the VAT he pays on his supplies, but you still need to pay him VAT on what you pay him.

(Being VAT registered means that if you pay £100 of VAT on the services he provides, and he paid £100 on the materials to allow him to do his job, then HMRC will offset the two and he won't need to pay any VAT to HMRC. As he is not VAT registered then he will pay £100 to his suppliers and have to pay HMRC the £100 which you paid him in VAT... complicated, I know, but it allows businesses to offset input and output VAT. )

Leads me to query how much tax he pays in general if this is his attidute, and if he doesn't care about paying tax, who knows if he'll be any more ethical (or around) in the future...

PS I'm sure he'll do a great job of your driveway, but this statement about not needing to pay VAT always rings alarm bells with me...

PPS I'm the son of an accountant and learnt this when working with/for him for a while a few years ago...

garcon6

This tradesman is on the website mybuilder.com has had some excellent feedback I will take note of what you said.

garcon6

He was upfront and told me about not being VAT registered.

Thenig

Hi All

Im confussed by what "whowants2brich" wrote regarding the VAT issue. i dont believe this to be as big a deal as many small sole traders are trading legally under the VAT registration limit. However that said, most patios are laid on a solid bed of blinding (Stone and dust)and sharp sand. Hope that helps

Nig

jollyanna

Nig, this solid bed of blinding, would it be OK to use this to build a small stepped area on top of existing pavings ? I'm hoping to raise a step down/up to a more comfortable height.
Apologies to OP, not trying to hi-jack your thread.

frequent

hi, what you said about the cracks appearing, well the water has to be able to get through, and is more like to be coming up from under the surface than freezing and cracking above surface, so you could place a membraine over the entire surface of old concrete then put a new layer of concrete on top of that.

ic

whowants2brich wrote: »

It is somewhat illegal to charge someone for services and not charge VAT

The VAT threshold is currently £73,000. If a business's turnover is below this amount, then they don't need to be registered and charge VAT (and subsequently can't claim back VAT either). What this generally means is you get the labour VAT free, but not the materials as it is likely the materials will still be sourced from a company trading over the threshold.

For an individual who installs fencing, patios, does gardening, etc for a fair price it is very easy for them to stay under this limit but still earn a very good keep.

Lack of VAT registration is not in itself dodgy. What is dodgy is saying "if you pay cash, then it'll be VAT free". This suggests that either they're not registered and adding VAT when they shouldn't be (on cheque and card payments), or they are registered but keeping jobs off the book in order to make themselves more competitively priced.

So in summary - there is difference between a trader saying "I'm not VAT registered" vs. "you don't pay VAT if you pay in cash".