Anyone had paving/a patio done recently or know about them in general? Is this quote reasonable?

[PorkySisyphus]

Have a 14sq m garden which us currently a wasteland.

Have been quoted £3k for cheapest Indian stone paving plus the levelling that would need doing first. No frills, just plain paving.

I have no idea whether or not this is reasonable. The company are very well reviewed and their communication has been excellent. Have been trying to get this job done by handymen/word of mouth recs for a few years and have had nothing but disasters (them not showing up, coming back, job too small, ghosting me etc).

This company can start straight away and I'm tempted to go for it just so I can get the job done finally.

Is it reasonable or a ripoff in your experience?

In Yorkshire for context.

I paid over 4k 8 years ago and that was for a patio size probably a bit bigger than the average , but not massive, so I think 3k is probably reasonable. Don't pay all upfront - I've just looked at my documents and we had a payment schedule of £1000 on completion of the base, £2000 on delivery of material and the rest on completion.

Are you sure that’s the size of the whole garden, it’s only about 12 foot by 12 foot? How big is the patio?

Sounds about right - our similarly sized patio is about the same. They took out old battered cracked concrete stones, relevelled and replaced with nicer sandstone slabs.

She said the garden is 14 m square not the patio.

Yep Summer. It's a terraced house with path from front door to gate. One side of the path is sorted (pebbles and planters etc) and the other side is the wasteland bit that I want to have fully paved.

I made the mistake of asking my dad for advice and he's put me off saying it's extortionate but he's 76 and while he does work in the construction industry, he seems to be stuck working off rates from about 30 years ago (mates rates at that!).

We’ve just paid £7.5k for a 50m2 sandstone patio in the south east so your quote sounds about right. Prices have shot up in recent years - our quote was lower when we got it in jan but materials are now more expensive.

We didn’t go for the cheapest quote as you generally get what you pay for with this sort of thing. A company that is efficient and doesn’t mess you about is worth their weight in gold too!

Agree with pp not to pay the whole amount upfront.

Get them to write out an itemised list of everything they’ve said they’ll do. I just had some work done and they only did half
the stuff I paid for, but have denied that they ever agreed to do XY and Z

Sounds about right. I'd be worried about drainage though and the wildlife

We paid a similar amount in 2019 for a similar sized area.

Thanks everyone. It sounds like it's reasonable enough quote.

I know enough to know not to pay the total upfront. The written quote breaks down what the price includes (i.e. the levelling etc).

Good point about the drainage. My dad suggested I ask about that as well.

There is no wildlife to speak of apart from worms in the existing mud. The space is just there, unused. My house is small and to have an outdoor space where we could put some furniture and have the option of sitting out on a warm evening would be invaluable. We live on a very quiet cul-de-sac with houses only on one side and a green space opposite so it's fairly private.

The company's testimonials and photos of previous work are top notch.

All in all I'm leaning towards going for it.

Sounds a pretty reasonable quote to me, we must have paid around that or more a good few years ago for a similar area (was part of a larger job so I'm guessing the proportions).

Well that’s totally reasonable op, go for it, it will make a huge difference. Honestly getting ours done was one of the best things we did, we are always out there when it’s dry,