Cheaper alternative to slabs??

away-with-the-fairies

I had a quote to redo my 'patio area' directly outside my back door.there are currently slabs down but so poorly laid by last owner-not only are they all up and down but there is a drain cover that stands proud by about 2 inches and the down pipe drain is located at the highest point so water can't drain away. The main reason for the high cost is the fact that the new area needs to be raised up by about 2inches.

I am looking at cheaper alternatives.i could get 4 bulk bags of gravel at £200 but then it would all get trodden into grass and I do go around barefoot which I wouldn't be able to if its gravel. I vaguely thought about using sleepers somehow but that's as far as my thoughts went. I haven't measured it but it's about 10ft x 14 ft going by the slabs already there.so if anyone has any cheaper ideas I would love to hear. Thanks

kerri_gt

It depends what your long term plans are, we are in the middle of having a patio put in and it's been much more expensive than we expected, we could've done something cheaper, like putting stones down but ultimately it wasn't what we wanted and we'd have just wished we'd done something else for the next however many years so bit the bullet and took the 'we are doing this once and once only' approach.

If you can or don't want to pay for the patio with slabs how about decking? It does get slippy when it's wet but I also think, if it's wet, will you actually be wanting outside anyway? We treated ours with screwfix no nonsense wood preserver and it dries really quickly after rain.

A.Penny.Saved

How about concrete with large gravel. Some concrete colouring and some plastic fibres which help bind the concrete together and help prevent it from breaking up. Then you can have a coloured patio of your choice and the price should be lower than paying for slabs.

I had this idea for my back yard because I did not want to pay out for slabs.

You might need some drainage fitted such as a soakaway to remove rainwater. Some strategically placed drains and pipework into a soakaway is what I had in mind.

Pdbaggett

+1 for decking, relatively cheap and easy to put down your self if you are slightly diy competent (especially over slabs) plenty of variations in colour too I just painted mine all black and I'm getting endless complements of how nice i t looks

Money_Grabber13579

Can you not just relay the slabs properly?

away-with-the-fairies

Thanks for the advice.

I had thought of decking but thought it got too slippery so will have to rethink that one. Relaying the slabs is one option but I would still have to bring in a load of sand to raise the height 2 inches all over.i just don't know!!!! I will look at decking and see how much that may cost