Patio cost in Naas: porcelain, sandstone, concrete

Ask what a patio costs in Ireland and you will find two very different answers. One Irish guide puts concrete flags laid at about €50 to €90 a square metre. Another puts a typical paved patio at €175 to €275 a square metre all in. Both can be right, because they count different things. The slab is the smaller part of the bill, groundwork and labour are the larger, and a 20 m² patio therefore lands anywhere from about €1,000 to €5,500 depending on what is in the price. This guide shows the sums.

Why the published figures do not agree

Three kinds of figure get passed around, and mixing them up is how people end up thinking a patio costs €30 a square metre or €300.

• Material only. What the slab costs from a yard or a builders' merchant. This is the lowest number and says nothing about laying it.
• Laid, by material. Slab, base and labour for a straightforward area, usually quoted by the type of paving.
• All in. Everything for a finished patio: the dig, the sub-base, bedding, slabs, edging, jointing, spoil taken away and making good.

The Irish ranges below sit in different columns of that list. A homeowner comparing a €39 slab price with a €175 all-in figure is comparing a part with a whole. If you are collecting quotes, the first job is to find out which one each quote is. The patios and paving service page describes the work a full patio includes.

What the published prices say

Two things stand out. First, the material-only prices for natural stone, sandstone and porcelain sit within about €25 to €55 a square metre, so the slab you choose moves the price by tens of euro a square metre, not hundreds. Second, the all-in figure is several times the material figure. The difference is the work under and around the slab, and that is where quotes differ most. Your own dig, levels and access change it again. For the order of work on a rough site, see what to do with a garden after an extension.

The sums: a 20 m² patio, three ways

Take a 20 m² patio, for example 5 m by 4 m, behind a house. The table uses the published ranges above and multiplies them out. It shows the spread, not a price for your garden.

Read the last two rows against the first two. Choosing porcelain over sandstone changes the slab bill on 20 m² by at most a couple of hundred euro on these ranges. The gap between the first row and the second is thousands. That gap is the dig, the base, the edging and the removal of what comes out of the ground, which is why a quote that is far lower than the rest deserves a question before it deserves a yes.

Adding VAT: one sum with and without

Revenue lists landscaping at a private dwelling, including laying paths and patios, at the reduced VAT rate, currently 13.5%. The page is the Revenue VAT rate for landscaping (private dwellings). It applies where the contractor is VAT registered, so ask. The published guides above do not say whether their ranges include VAT, which is a reason to treat them as guides, not prices.

When the contractor supplies the materials, Revenue's two-thirds rule applies: where the materials do not exceed two thirds of the total price, both before VAT, the rate for the service applies to the whole job, and above that the rate for the materials does. On the illustration, two thirds of €4,000 is about €2,667. Porcelain at the top of the Farmers Journal range, €47.99 a square metre on 22 m² to allow a 10% cutting allowance, is about €1,056. That is around 26% of the quote, well inside the limit. Shop prices usually include VAT, so take it off before testing a real quote. This is an illustration of how the test works, not tax advice. If your quote adds VAT at a different rate, ask why.

Porcelain, sandstone or concrete: what the figures say

This is a comparison of cost, which is what the published figures cover. It does not rank how long they last, because the sources here do not.

• Concrete flags. The cheapest to buy and the cheapest to lay on the ranges above. One concrete paving slab at a DIY retailer is priced around €39 a square metre in the Farmers Journal list.
• Indian sandstone. A narrow range, €35 to €40 a square metre, so there is little room to save on the slab and little to be surprised by.
• Porcelain. €30 to €33 for one yard product and €47.99 for another in the Farmers Journal list, and €45 to €55 or more in Onlinetradesmen. The spread is wide, so two porcelain quotes can be using very different slabs. Ask for the product name.

Whatever the material, ask how the slab is laid, what base goes under it and what finish it has, because those decide how the patio performs and what the quote includes. A good installer will say what they use and why. If you are comparing installers, the questions in nine questions to ask a Kildare landscaper first apply to a patio as much as to any job.

What changes the price on your site

• Area and shape. A small patio can cost more per square metre than a large one, because set-up and base work do not shrink with the area. Curves, steps and a stepped layout mean more cutting.
• What is there now. Lifting an old slab patio, a concrete pad or a lawn and taking it away adds labour and waste. Spoil is a cost to ask about by name.
• Levels and drainage. A patio needs a fall away from the house. If the ground is not level or water collects, the base and drainage work grow. See landscaping and groundworks for what that involves.
• Access. Slabs and base material are heavy. A narrow side passage with no machine access means moving them by hand.
• Edging and finishing. A sett border, raised bed or step is extra cutting and extra material. A patio laid right up to patio doors needs levels set carefully against the threshold.
• The slab itself. From the table above, the most variable part is the porcelain, and even that moves a 20 m² patio by a few hundred euro.

Which material suits: a decision table

This uses only the figures and factors on this page.

Do you need planning permission?

For a hard surface behind the house, usually not. Class 6 of Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended in 2011, exempts a hard surface to the rear of a house when it is for a purpose incidental to enjoying the house. In the front or side garden the exemption comes with a condition: the surface is exempt if it is under 25 m² (or under half of that part of the garden, whichever is smaller), and a larger one must be built so rainwater soaks into the ground. These are national rules, so they apply in Kildare as anywhere else, but a house in an estate with planning conditions, a conservation area or a protected structure can change the answer. If you are unsure, ask Kildare County Council before paving, or apply for a declaration under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act. Do this before you pay a deposit, not after.

What a patio quote should say

A written quote that lists the same items lets you compare like with like.

1. The area

   Square metres, and a sketch or measurements, so every quote prices the same patio.

2. The slab

   The product name, size and finish, not just "porcelain".

3. The base

   What goes under the slabs and how deep the dig is.

4. Levels and drainage

   The fall away from the house and what happens to rainwater.

5. Edging and finishing

   Borders, steps, jointing and any cutting-in around beds or doors.

6. What comes up and what goes away

   Lifting the old surface and taking spoil and waste away.

7. VAT

   Whether the price includes VAT at 13.5% and whether the business is VAT registered.

8. Timing and payment

   Start date, how long it takes, what is paid up front and when the rest falls due.

9. Insurance

   Whether the business carries public liability cover for work at your home. Ask to see it.

If something goes wrong, services sold since 29 November 2022 are covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2022. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission explains your rights in its guidance on selling services. A written scope makes any complaint easier to settle.

How Kildare Plant & Garden approaches a patio

Kildare Plant & Garden Solutions is based in Kilcullen and works in Naas, Newbridge and across the county. The photos in this guide show a porcelain patio job from start to finish: the levelled bedding layer, laying the slabs and the finished patio.

Seanie does not publish a price per square metre, because the dig, the levels and the access decide the price more than the slab does. He looks at the site, agrees what is wanted, and puts the price in writing with what is included and whether materials and waste removal are in it. The quotation is free, subject to the project and location.

To start, send your town, the rough size and a few photos through the contact page, or read about patios and paving first. If the patio is part of a bigger change, see garden transformations.