What a patio and garden landscaping cost in the UK

National ranges from published price guides, so you can tell whether a quote is normal before you accept it.

Read this first

These are national UK ranges published by price-guide sites, not a quote and not what any particular firm charges. Regional variation is significant and ground conditions change everything. Use them to sanity-check a number, not to predict one.

The published ranges

A new patio is commonly quoted at roughly £80 to £150 per square metre installed, which puts a typical 40 to 50 square metre patio somewhere around £2,000 to £6,000. Some guides quote all-in figures a little lower, around £60 to £120 per square metre, depending on material.

A whole-garden landscaping project covers a much wider band, roughly £80 to £250 per square metre, because it depends entirely on how much of it is structural: retaining walls, steps, drainage and level changes cost far more per square metre than turf.

Where the money actually goes

Most people assume the paving is the cost. Usually it is not. Excavation, disposal of spoil, and the sub-base underneath commonly account for more than the material on top, and none of it is visible when the job is finished. This is precisely why the cheapest quote is often the one that has skipped it.

Access is the other big variable. A rear garden reachable only through the house changes the method for every stage: material in by barrow, spoil out the same way.

Level changes are expensive. A flat garden and a sloping one of the same size are different projects, because a slope means retaining structures, and retaining structures need foundations and drainage.

Material differences

Concrete paving is the cheapest per square metre. Natural stone costs more and varies in thickness, which slows laying. Porcelain costs more again both to buy and to lay, because it needs cutting with the right equipment and is normally laid on a full mortar bed with a slurry primer.

Comparing quotes properly

Ask each quote for the excavation depth, the sub-base material and depth, how the paving is bedded, how edges are restrained, and where surface water is going. A quote that answers all five has been written by someone who looked at the site. One that gives a rate per square metre and nothing else has not, and the difference between two prices is usually hiding in those five answers.