Quote for paving slabs

[SpunkyPombear]

Ive been quoted £3600-£6500 for paving slabs in my back garden. The higher quotes were for a different type but I don't think it would have bumped it up that much. Council pavers v Indian stone.

How on earth do you choose? The in the middle quite at £5600 isn't getting back with a date.

The £3600 (would cost £4k with my preferred black paving type paving) seemed ok. English guy, 40s, a couple of good reviews on Facebook - but can't find much else.

Thoughts?

It's 35 m square. Will require leveling of.

Recently got 15 sq m sandstone for 500, sand, primers and grout another 150 so you'd be looking at 1500 on materials?
Few days work and the lower quote v reasonable

Thank you

That's probably reasonable for levelling, prepping etc, making sure any suitable drainage put in.

Were you going to pink the flags which are white and pink/white and yellow for the council flags ? That will look nowhere near as nice in comparison to the Indian Stone I think.

Sounds reasonable quotes. If you can afford it I would go for the Indian sandstone.
I had porcelain tiles last year on my large patio and love them.

I just don't know how someone can charge 40% less

Not sure what you mean by pink etc

I'm on a FB group for trades people. And continually see shared posts asking for plumbers/decorators to work for £100 a day. They are always accompanied by a list so if you will I will kindly remind you why it's so high:
Insurance - liability insurance for landscapers is so expensive...I still have jobbing gardeners insurance as my wife still occasionally does some. One year they miss quoted at over £3k.
Tools to actually do the job...a decent stone cutting blade is about £15 and doesn't last long.
Experience and skills... I've done landscaping and it's a skilled occupation just to get the patio to look level but actually slope so water runs off.
Materials have rocketed I built a wall in my garden last year, just tiny decorative, the materials have gone up about 15% since. Plus there are delivery costs.
Plus disposing of waste has become ridiculously expensive.

If you can afford the guy with the good reputation go for it, it's not getting any cheaper

Wow what a post, so much to unpick.

I'm not asking for someone to work for £100 a day, I'm asking for what is reasonable. .

No one is saying £110 m2 is too cheap nor £160 me too expensive.

They all have good reputations, but that's only based on Facebook reviews which aren't mandatory.

Waste is £190 for 5 tonne. Yes it's more expensive but only gone up £60 in 4 years.

As bad as someone else gloating that her partner did it and how it was so cheap.

Thanks.

Indian is the cheapest pavers. Porcelain wouldn't look good at my house.

I don't know if it's too cheap. Others on my builder etc have stated it would cost £3.5k and a paving guy I know says he charges £100 plus vat. So about the same. His work is ok but he's too far away to be able to work for me.

I've messaged him :) I could probably afford to get more replaced in the garden now because of his quote

Ps a Facebook group for trades people,,, are you a trades person?

My friend has his own landscaping business and paving can cost his customers thousands!

Of course, like all things.... It's easy enough to get a rough price online.... I'm young for budget Indian stone....

I was a gardener. My wife is a cleaner/gardener. I have stayed in the group as some of the customers requests are fantastically ridiculous...as I said £100 a day for a plumber.

My neighbours have just had a wall built around the front garden, artificial lawn and small back patio and the quote they went with was 50% cheaper than the other two. He's done a fantastic job so it doesn't necessarily mean a lot to quote less.

You should separate materials from labour and price up the actual materials you want. You can search online and order for yourself if you want something in particular. For the effort, you need to understand what each one is doing to level and prepare the ground. The higher or lower quote might be shit if you've picked someone who isn't going to do the job properly. Maybe start again and ask what they plan to actually do.

Thanks but I don't want to order my own materials, the contractor can do t

Ok.... I kinda feel that those are on going jobs so people get a bit more price driven

Thank you.

Yes so hard to know what is reasonable. This guy has lots of pictures on Facebook which seems great

You don't have to buy materials to find out what they cost, only if you see something you like. You said the quote was for different types of materials, and you don't know how much the materials cost from each quote. It would take you a few minutes to find that out looking online. It also happens to be cheaper to buy your own materials, but I'm very sorry for trying to help you.

It's £8 square meter different

It is never cheaper to buy your own materials. False economy.

You have no recourse should anything go wrong and the contractor should get a good price and get good materials.
.

On your quotes, but not for materials. Concrete slabs could be £15/sqm and Indian sandstone could be £20 to £35 depending on what type you like, what pattern they place, who you buy from etc. It just seems very silly not to put a minute into working out what you actually want by looking up Landscaping direct.

Not correct, you have the same recourse from the retailer as buying any other goods, plus save paying the tradesman the 20% or so sourcing and handling cost. I am suggesting that you consider what materials you want used in your own garden, you can still pay the tradesman extra to buy them if you prefer, but it seems wild to me not to even look at what the actual options are before they are paid for and cemented into your garden. I'm not sure why it's making you aggressive to be honest, so I'll leave you to it.