Replacing a large lawn with patio or resin: reasonable idea and cost?

[Happydays777]

DH has decided he wants rid of the garden and replace it with patio / resin. The grass lawn is about 70 square meters in total. It's rather a large garden and DH struggles to do it as it needs cutting every 2 weeks in summer. He's never been a gardener but likes to keep the grass nice. We have seen some nice block paved drives and resin drives. We got a quote and it was 20k to do a block pave drive and put a drain and a gate in and a gravelboard wall up. I must admit the idea sounds good and so does the company. The manager was great and very friendly. We asked another contraactor but we didn't go with them as he said he won't know how much it costs and said to give him money to buy materials without a quote in writing just asked for upfront money. I said to DH we should get a few quotes as we have no clue re: prices. some like in picture. WWYD? Pay it or get some quotes? DH just wants to go for it.. Or leave grass?

Definitely keep the lawn. Entirely paved gardens look awful and are awful for both the little wildlife left and because of the flood risk. It's a huge amount of money to pay just to devalue your property. It's only a small garden so either pay someone every other week to mow it or buy a robot mower for a fraction of the price you would have paid for your concrete garden.

The unanimous support for grass on this thread has restored some of my faith in humanity. I'm currently searching for a new house and a concrete prison yard or fake grass is an immediate no and move on, unless the house is priced so low I think I could afford to put it back to lawn.
Concrete, paving and resin will be unbearably hot in summer and adds to the flood risk in this country. We need permeable surfaces like lawn to soak up water rather than channel it straight into an ancient drain system and make flooding worse. Everyone can do their bit to reduce the pressure on drains in high rainfall by keeping lawns.
Help a local business by getting a gardener (or local teen) in every 2 weeks to mow it. You could even get them to add and maintain some wildlife friendly plants, making your space more pleasant for you, your neighbours and your local wildlife, all while saving yourself £20k!
Or get a robot lawn mower to do the lawn.
But keep the lawn

You can get those without wires now. You just set the mowing area on a map in the app and it mows within that area.

Grass.

Just get a robot lawn mower, great fun to watch while you put your feet up with a glass of wine!

Keep the lawn
get a local teenager to mow it
Teenagers are really struggling;g to find Saturday jobs now.
It will be LOADS better for the environment
Cheaper for you
Putting some money into the economy locally
And look better

Please, please, Please think of the Planet,

This tickled me 🤣

Put ox eye daisies through the lawn and leave it as a meadow. If you want to add more tall colour that will come back every year add knapweed, scabious, knautia macedonia and meadow cranesbill.

This. GRASS

I wouldn’t buy a house with a concrete garden. Keep the grass it looks so much better.

Team Grass!

My central area of my garden sounds roughly the same size (there are deep borders around the sides) and is half lawn, half paved. The paved area needs much more upkeep than the grass. It needs sweeping once or twice a week and power washing twice a year. Mowing is no bother in comparison.

20K would go a very long way in paying a neighbouring teenager to cut your square of lawn 20 times per year.
If you must do away with an environmentally sound lawn which allows water to feed worms, insects, birds etc and keeps the temperature low, look into slow growing alternatives like herbs.
Seek proper advice from a horticulturalist not a paver.
It should be illegal, for the health of all living things, to cover more than a set % of a property in buildings and concrete.

As everyone else says, please don't pave your garden! Environmentally, it's a disaster and it looks so bleak and grim. I agree too that it would knock value off your house. If mowing it is the only issue, then just pay someone else to do it!

We are replacing our super hot large terrace with a lot more grass and trees. Buying a mowing robot to avoid any extra hassle. Weeding the patio is a real bother as well as it being so hot in the summer and reflecting the day’s heat into our kitchen all evening.

£20k seems steep for some paving... if that's your budget you could get a garden designer to do you a low maintenance plan and actually make the garden into a lovely place

Grass is good for the environment, it's good for animals, insects etc, it helps to prevent flooding. Get some meadow seeds and allow the lawn to become more like a meadow. Cut in spring then leave until the flowers die. Otherwise just buy a robot mower. Cheaper and better for nature.

Honestly 70m2 of block paving is going to look like a Tesco’s car park. You will devalue your home - anyone who wants a courtyard garden will be buying a townhouse with a small courtyard garden. Anyone buying a house with a 70m2 garden will likely have children and will certainly expect a usable garden.

If I was considering buying your house, I’d immediately knock £20k off my offer to cover ripping out the block paving and reinstating the garden.

I assume your DH can’t manage the lawn due to age or disability, and you’ve had some very unkind comments from posters who seem not to have considered that. DM was in this position a couple of years ago and now has a weekly gardener who mows the lawn, takes the cuttings to the tip, prunes the hedges, mulches the beds, and all the other little garden maintenance jobs that involve heavy work. Costs very little - certainly less than a cleaner (he has a big petrol mower he brings with him so takes no time at all, and her garden is much bigger than 70m2).

I’m also slightly concerned about you potentially getting ripped off, given one of your contractors refused to give you a proper quote and you didn’t immediately tell him to sling his hook. Fake driveway/paving contractors are a well known source of scams targeting elderly homeowners.

Grass Always! If you and husband can't be bothered to cut the grass pay someone to do.

I mow my lawn in 5 minutes with a rechargeable mower. A prison yard is not attractive

Please ask him to reconsider, bad for wildlife, drainage and temperature moderation. Get a local teen looking for a regular cash hit to mow if you have the money. Or can mix in wildflower mix, chamomile, creeping thyme etc and leave it alone the planet will thank you!

I bought a robot lawnmower last summer - such a game changer ! It mows the lawn every couple of days, cost less than £500 and doesn’t need any wires laying - it has eyes :-)

We gave up mowing our lawn during Covid & haven’t mown it since. We let the natural grasses & plants take hold & just pull up what we don’t want that encroaches on the beds. It’s much greener & cooler than even mown lawns & is full of much needed wildlife.

Get a robot lawn mower - this is what I have done.

Please do not cover it with slabs or resin - so very very bad for the environment and increases flooding risks.

I also have a wild area with grasses and wild flowers - I fling in seed in the spring.