How we price

No guesswork, no 'from' prices. For each material band we read real, VAT-inclusive prices from a basket of named suppliers — national sheds, specialist online merchants, and independent regional yards — and use the average. Here's the latest basket, receipts and all.

Prices checked August 2026

The material bands

Each band's £/m² is the middle price (the median) of its national basket below and the regional yards we've read — a median, not an average, so one dear 30 mm slab can't drag a whole family up. Promotional prices count at their pre-sale price; rows that don't state VAT are shown but not blended.

The independents in the basket: RF Landscape Products (East Yorkshire), AC Pavings (Nottinghamshire), Glasgow Aggregates (Ayrshire) and AWBS (Oxfordshire). None of them know we exist — that's the point.

The other families — named-supplier reads

Not yet in the monthly receipt ritual: prices an agent read from named supplier pages on the date shown, VAT-inclusive unless marked, sale prices at their pre-sale figure. Typical is the middle price; budget and premium the 20th and 80th percentiles.

Local prices, by region

Pick your region in the calculator and the numbers shift: we blend the national basket with prices read from local suppliers in your part of the country. The locals we checked, region by region:

• London: MGN Builders Merchants, Lawsons, London Stone, Lords Builders Merchants
• South East: AWBS, Stone Traders, Marble Mosaics, Corker
• South West: Bradfords Building Supplies, Stone Zone, Trago Mills, RGB Building Supplies
• Midlands: AC Pavings, Tippers, Garden Build, Milton Garden Products
• North of England: RF Landscape Products, The Grass Centre, Cumbria Building Supplies, High Class Paving Supplies
• Scotland: Glasgow Aggregates, Beatsons Building Supplies, Keith Builders Merchants, Thistle Timber & Building Supplies
• Wales: Robert Price, LBS Builders Merchants, Huws Gray
• Northern Ireland: JP Corry, Slemish Landscape Centre, Kelly Landscape & Stone, Carryduff Building Supplies

One thing the research shouted

Where you buy now matters more than what you buy. Calibrated Indian sandstone delivered from a specialist runs cheaper than branded concrete slabs from the big sheds. The 'posh' stone being the cheap option surprised us too — it's why we price from baskets, not folklore.

The work side

Labour, dig-out and skip figures come from the 2026 trade cost guides (Checkatrade, MyBuilder, MyJobQuote, PriceYourJob), live day-rate indexes, and skip-price surveys — cross-checked against each other. London labour runs roughly a quarter above the national average; skip prices follow their own postcode lottery entirely.

The work, line by line

The Patio Job Sheet splits the same honest ranges across every line a landscaper prices — strip, dig, cart away, sub-base, bed, lay, cut, joint — by measured quantity and crew-hours, so the sheet always adds up to the calculator's number. Three kinds of figure sit on it, and each says which it is: checked prices (receipts in the baskets above), indicative figures (a named source and a date), and estimates not yet confirmed by trades — the crew-hours behind ‘days on site’, and the regional day-rate and skip seeds. An estimate is never allowed to decide whether a quote is high or low; the Quote-Checker only counts checked and indicative money, and asks a question about the rest.

VAT, and what the headline means

The headline range is what a homeowner typically pays: materials at retail prices including VAT; labour as charged by a mix of VAT-registered and unregistered traders. When you check a quote that says ‘plus VAT’, the checker adds it for the comparison; ‘includes VAT’ and ‘not VAT-registered’ compare as written.

Patio prices by region →

How often we re-read

• Monthly: national slab basket — receipts published on how-we-price
• Quarterly: regional slab rows (≥2 per band per region); sundries and plant hire; jointing/primer/membrane prices
• Twice a year (April and October): labour £/m² band + regional multipliers; statutory (VAT, landfill); ONS ASHE Table 15 (October); skip index
• Yearly: guarantee norms; postcode → region file
• Once, then as needed: landscaper panel: confirm crew day rates and productivity

Honest caveats

• Prices move. The date stamp on every page is the day we last read them.
• Delivery changes small-order economics — specialists bundle pallet delivery into their £/m²; sheds charge for bulky bags.
• Your quote depends on access, ground and how busy local trades are. We show ranges, not promises.