Building your own patio

[ThomasinaLivesHere]

I have little DIY experience. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos on building your own patio. Anyone done it? I don’t know if I’m mad to consider it. It would be a small patio so nothing crazy.

I am considering the same.

The issues as I see it :

It's hard work.
Getting it flat while making sure it drains correctly could be tricky.
Stopping subsidence is a key issue.

Re i), yes it is hard, but you can do it over a long time. The middle of summer is not a great time to start excavating because the dirt will be rock hard. Re iii) so long as there is not too much weight on it it should be OK.

I think you have to look at the downside. If you build it and it fails and has to be relaid then what have you lost (maybe the labour on doing it in the first place).

OTOH if I wanted something really posh, with expensive slabs rather than just cheapo concrete ones and wanted it to look excellent then I would probably get someone else in to do it.

my son did ours he used a mini digger to do the foundation level then had to dispose of all the earth he had moved, then aid a concrete foundation, then laid the patio slabs if you can confidently say you can do this then go for it, im lucky my son is a builder our patio is around 15 feet long 10 feet wide and 4 year ago cost around £1000 with my son charging mom rates for the actual labour

It’s hard work, and time consuming, but not difficult.
You can make life easier by having all the tools and a partner to help, which will reduce the time by 2/3rds.

Patio slabs can be really heavy. My brother slipped a disc building his many years back. So if you do build it yourself, be very careful not to overload your body.

I'm also considering this - buying a 10yo new build with very cheap looking concrete tiles patio outside. Looking at maybe using this as a base and overlaying rather than breaking it all up. But there's loads of scare stories about it all cracking under the weight etc etc. So still dithering (I can't really afford much on it -it currently is an eyesore but functional).

My brother did quite a large patio outside their home last year with really large flagstones. He's a tree surgeon so practically minded and physically very strong. It took him forever (doing in weekends / evenings) with a huge amount of prep work involved in getting everything level. It looks excellent but I can tell you even he regrets it as it was hard, hard work. So I'm kind of inclined to save up myself and pay for it when I can and try and look beyond the concrete tiles to.. .the orange stained fence :(

There's plenty of websites that lay out the steps in a patio. The key is to use a sub base of Hardcore. You can put a slight fall on it so water runs off but you do need to think about where the water is going to drain etc. After that,you add a base laser of sand or granite dust and then lay the slabs on mortar.

For foot traffic the subbase does not had to be very thick but it can add up over a large area.

Slabs can be heavy to move but you can use smaller ones but that means you will have to lay more.

It's perfectly doable but if you are buying expensive slabs it might be better to get someone in

Hey I have that ugly concrete slabs too, thinking of masking it with patio concrete paint! Anyone tried this??

I also prefer square edge than chamfered, as the later requires pointing and the former just silver sand brushing in.
The 450mm slabs are not really heavy. I’d also do the base out of hoggin, whack it, then a sharp sand/ weak cement base, place slab on, tamp it down. Personally I don’t like using mortar.

It's the hardcore base that's the main effort imo. That's a lot of work.

I did it. It nearly killed me.

I didnt do it properly, just laid on soil and sand.

Its inevitably sunken and now out of alignment and even when it was done it was higgldy piggldy

It now needs to be done by professionals. What a waste of time

Thanks for the replies. Lots to consider!

I would definitely do your research and give it a go. My husband laid ours fairly big one too after we got some astronomical quotes. It took ages to do it but it looks great and 4 years later it still looks great

We did our patio two years ago and it still looks great. You Tube is your friend here. It is proper hard work and took four weekends (including Easter weekend) and about £1000, for hiring a cement mixer and mechanical leveller (I can’t remember the proper name). We opted to lay brick pavers instead of slabs, so we could recycle what was already there. The kids helped out and it was a really great project for us.

Definitely go for it! But do your research first, and prepare to do some maths for calculating bricks and the gradient - you don’t want rain to pool near your house.

£1000 was for lots of bricks too, and vast amounts of sand. Should make clear, the cement mixer was to fix a wall at the garden’s edge too, not because we were cementing the pavers. The pavers were just laid on our v carefully constructed base and the kiln-dried sand brushed into the gaps stops them from budging. I learnt loads and respect builders very much now. It’s hard work!

@DamsonIcecream that looks really super!

I think people underestimate how hard it is to get right. Bil is a builder and did ours. He spends a lot of time correcting bodges.

I wish we could do it ourselves. Have been quoted anything from £5k-£7k just to replace the small one we already have 😩

https://www.pavingexpert.com/

Everything you need to know. This website is basically a Landscape Architect, Structural engineer and builder all in one.

I design this type of thing everyday. And watch others build them. I wouldn’t do it; doesn’t mean you shouldn’t!