Just had a guy round to quote for a patio, 20 foot by 20 foot
something like this:
[img] 
[/img]
£1800 - does that sound about right?
I'd do it myself, but the missus wants it done right, and after materials and hiring equipment and skips etc I can't see much change out of a grand plus.
(the picture is purely for reference, it wont be that shape)
There and there abouts depends on a lot of things eg: paving price per m2, hardcore fill ect.
but one of the main factors in the present climate is waste , The price of skips at the moment is extortionate.
That's not bad, if it's done properly, ie' digger hire' hardcore at the proper depth, wacked down, skip, flags, and someone who knows what they're doing.,
sounds like a pretty good price to me (depending on slabs / stone)
A very fair price, knowing the work involved to do the job properly.
I've used the same slabs as in the photo and done about 4 times the area in paths, separate patios etc.
Harcore is not necessary except for backfilling perhaps, but a well compacted base with about 3-4 inches of ballast and cement on top is. The slabs are then laid on this using a mix of sharp sand and cement. The joints are then pointed with a strong mix of soft sand and cement. The pointing needs to be done with a damp mix and has to be tamped into the joins and smoothed off.
Your bodger tradesman will dab a few blobs of cement down on a bed of compacted sand, but this will only remain solid for a matter of weeks. Whacking down some type one, or broken up hardcore below this would be beneficial, but not really necessary for a garden patio (method used for floating block paving). The pointing on a patio bedded on sand will crumble in no time.
If you need to park a car on your surface, you would need a thicker layer of ballast and cement, ideally reinforced with steel rod sheeting. The slabs will need to be very well bedded down and of suitable thickness and strength too.
If there is levelling to do for this patio and retaining walls are required, footings will need to be dug and concreted before any bricks are laid and the resulting void will need to be built up and concreted too.
£1800 for a job as per the photo is a realistic and fair price.
PS, any pattio abutting the walls of the house need to be below the damp proof course. In the photo, this has been mitigated by use of a peashingle infill. I'm not sure whether this is a little on the small side however. Difficult to say without looking closely.
You need to leave access to manhole covers and in the photo they have used one which you can lay slabs into. I used one of these on the patio i did and reckon they are worth the £50 outlay.