Patio cost

Rosa_Damascena

stuart45 said:

Can you put up a rough sketch of the job?

I'll stick examples up when I get a chance this evening.

Doozergirl

Look at composite decking.  It is as maintenance free as slabs would be and will not rot if you also use composite joists.  

I'm not sure about the rat thing.  We had a slabbed patio and rats would come into our actual house in the last place. 😂

Ballymoney

Our 9m x 4m indian sandstone patio came in at £5.5k. For that we had destruction and removal of our old 9m x 2.5m concrete patio, excavation and laying of new patio plus materials.

It isn't zero maintenance though. Requires power washing on an annual basis.

Rosa_Damascena

Ballymoney said:

Our 9m x 4m indian sandstone patio came in at £5.5k. For that we had destruction and removal of our old 9m x 2.5m concrete patio, excavation and laying of new patio plus materials.

It isn't zero maintenance though. Requires power washing on an annual basis.

Indian sandstone is exactly what I'm after and I'd budgeted £3-4k for this project. I'd wanted to avoid a drop from my doors and have the steps further away, which I assumed meant building up a structure with a retaining wall, filling with hardcore and topped with concrete before adding slabs. And for the retaining wall to extend upwards so no one falls off the edge of the patio! 

I can live with an annual powerwash, no more than that though. Sanding and varnishing - you can forget it.

Jeepers_Creepers

You can use pedestals to support 'proper' slabs. https://www.wallbarn.com/pedestals-2/universal/

Rats? You just sit out there in yer rockin' chair, with yer banjo and yer six-shooter.

FreeBear

Jeepers_Creepers said: You can use pedestals to support 'proper' slabs.

Sorry, proper paving slabs need 100% support over a well designed & prepared base. Using jacking devices on the corners will see the slabs (especially sandstone) breaking up within a few weeks. The only time where something like that might be suitable is when you have heavy steel reinforced concrete slabs.

phoebe1989seb

Doozergirl said:

There's decking for different tastes too.  This is our friends' going in. Lovely soft tone to it.  

That looks fab, Doozer....do you happen to know what brand it is please?

We're looking for something similar for a small area (approx 11 sq m) of our garden and I've fallen for Millboard which is £££££ 🙄

DH says because it's not near the house, but in a tucked away location we can get away with cheaper stuff but I'm not convinced, lol!

stuart45

FreeBear said:

Jeepers_Creepers said: You can use pedestals to support 'proper' slabs.

Sorry, proper paving slabs need 100% support over a well designed & prepared base. Using jacking devices on the corners will see the slabs (especially sandstone) breaking up within a few weeks. The only time where something like that might be suitable is when you have heavy steel reinforced concrete slabs.

I've never used that system myself as I don't really like slabbing anyway, but I know a man who has. I did question him about the problem of a slab breaking, but he said that if there was likely to be a problem you can get ones for the centre of the slab as well as the corners.

Rosa_Damascena

stuart45 said:

FreeBear said:

Jeepers_Creepers said: You can use pedestals to support 'proper' slabs.

Sorry, proper paving slabs need 100% support over a well designed & prepared base. Using jacking devices on the corners will see the slabs (especially sandstone) breaking up within a few weeks. The only time where something like that might be suitable is when you have heavy steel reinforced concrete slabs.

I've never used that system myself as I don't really like slabbing anyway, but I know a man who has. I did question him about the problem of a slab breaking, but he said that if there was likely to be a problem you can get ones for the centre of the slab as well as the corners.

I'd rather it was done once and done properly. I just don't have the budget for it and even if I did, I do not expect it to come to tens of thousands.

FreeBear

stuart45 said:

FreeBear said:

Jeepers_Creepers said: You can use pedestals to support 'proper' slabs.

Sorry, proper paving slabs need 100% support over a well designed & prepared base. Using jacking devices on the corners will see the slabs (especially sandstone) breaking up within a few weeks. The only time where something like that might be suitable is when you have heavy steel reinforced concrete slabs.

I've never used that system myself as I don't really like slabbing anyway, but I know a man who has. I did question him about the problem of a slab breaking, but he said that if there was likely to be a problem you can get ones for the centre of the slab as well as the corners.

So, a variation of the five blobs of mortar.... Doesn't meet the requirements of BS7533 which covers paving. A full bed of mortar or compacted sharp sand is the only way of laying slabs, especially something like sandstone