Labour only costs to lay a patio in UK

Don’t expect that the costs will drastically reduce if the customer is supplying the materials as the main cost in a patio is mostly involved in ground preparation and the labour to lay the slabs while not cutting the corners.

Every company differs in overheads and profit margins they intend so it’s nearly impossible to come up with a definitive answer for how much it costs to lay a patio.

There are a lot of different possibilities, like some charge for the blades required for cutting the slabs separately while some include it in the day rate, so at first, the price per m2 or per day may sound reasonable or expensive depending on what’s included.

Most firms won’t charge for small hand tools such as grinders but the charge for bigger tools such as diggers is absolutely included in your as they might have hired it themselves or even if not, they’ll have to compensate for its wear and tear.

£55-£100 a square metre is a fair starting price labour only to lay the slabs (if the ground has already been prepped) and £100-£150 is what you’re looking at to prepare the ground and lay the slabs. But again, some may do grout and cleaning in it while others may charge separately.

Remember, the price varies because of the overheads (personal and company) and profit margins and also the area you live in.

The quotes that you may see, some of them will charge per m2 basis while some of them will do day rates.

One thing that you should be aware of is most of the quotes that you’ll get are just a rough estimation because, from the landscaper’s point of view, 80% of the quotes they give don’t bring any business so it’s not worth spending a ton of time costing every aspect of the job to every single quote.

This is just to give the clients a ballpark figure so that they can decide if it’s realistic for them. However, if you have no idea about the costs yet, the best way is to ask to a quote.

At the end of this post, there’s a form which you can fill up and

Customer is supplying the materials

If the customer supplies materials, i.e. slabs, grout or jointing compound and everything else like the labour and prep work, laying the slabs, and jointing has to be done by a builder, in this case, whatever the usual costs are just less the materials, and you get the idea.

Just for your information, the average cost to supply and fit porcelain is 180-200m2, and the average cost of porcelain slabs is £50 a metre square.

Ground has been already prepped

Some of you may ask what will it cost if I get sub-base prepped myself and call a builder over to lay the slabs professionally.

As discussed earlier, there’s no definitive answer to these questions as you may get quotes from £30-£35 per m2 (which you absolutely cheap) to £80-£100 per m2 depending on what’s involved in the job.

For your information, some firms don’t work on the sub-base that’s prepped by others so it’s either start to finish or nothing.

One thing to remember is the builders that would come just to lay the slabs usually won’t guarantee the work if the sub-base is done by someone else.

There can be some further costs which can’t be ignored that can be differed from job to job as you might have to pay £100-£200 extra for manhole, steps, drainage, access and excessive cuts.

What you want to know

If you’re looking for a professional just to come and lay the slabs, it might be because you’re on a really tight budget, and might be thinking of compromising at some point of the job.

The advice would be to save up some cash and get some decent slabs that will also look good rather than getting anything and regretting it later on. It costs the same to lay quality slabs and then say if you were to go for some cheaper slabs.

The sweet spot is £30-£40 a metre square for decent quality slabs, either sandstone or porcelain, anything less like £20-£25 is just not worth laying.