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.

If it's just grass you should expect good foundations which means removing soil so it's not above your damp proof course.
The cost of skips is expensive, grab removal has a cost too.

Are the quotes detailed on the base material depth?

Errrr if you have issues with the pavers your contractor has laid than you only have recourse with the contractor for the work he's done, not materials he's laid.

Therefore make the contractor responsible for all the items and provide everything.

It's not grass

Concrete slabs aren't £15 square meter, more like £30

You make a lot of assumptions and it's the cost of doing business. Like going to a restaurant and providing your own steak and being annoyed when they say no or that you claim you should be getting everything at cost.

Soil? Concrete? Old paving slabs (Don't let them bin them offer them to the local Facebook group. Someone will have them. )

It'll all need removing and proper foundation layers putting in place.

The area is already cleared.

prepared to the right depth and with suitable layers of materials and weed membranes?

You are making things up. Stop confusing yourself.

The ground will need preparing. I don't need to worry about the disposal of the old slabs

Sorry I didn't word mine very well (typo) I meant you can get council pavers in yellow and white (people usually lay them alternating) or pink and white (alternating), or obviously just all white. Either way it will look nowhere near as nice and expensive as the Indian Stone, although the council pavers would be quicker to lay if your Indian Stone are different sizes.

Just bear in mind whether it may be slippy in the winter too, our back garden is north facing so we have to have a tile with a rough surface, if we have porcelain and smooth it would be slippy in the rain and with moss etc on it. When we moved in there was decking and it was lethal !

Than they aren't council pavers. The council pavers are always grey and a certain thickness.

Porcelain is supposed to be used in wet surfaces and has a slip rating

Ok, my low price quote was getting the materials myself and laying in a pre existing concrete substrate.
As long as you order materials on credit card you have recourse if they fail, and still some guarantee if not credit.
If you ask the contractor to order they will always markup and why shouldn't they for their own time, understanding you and ordering/ risk.

That's not how it works. Any issues with the materials are one and I wouldn't have recourse with the person fitting it, so what's the point, there is none. Let him supply everything and you have fullr recourse for the whole job

Hope he is English though!

Haha I don't know why I wrote that, but he is local

I had a very similar experience last year when we got our back garden done. Ended up getting three quotes and the prices varied wildly too. The cheapest one seemed decent but I was nervous about the quality and whether they'd do a proper job on the levelling.

In the end we went with a proper paving company in West London and they helped a lot with our Garden Paving.