Driveways, patios and gardens with the groundwork done right.
Block paving driveways, porcelain and sandstone patios, retaining walls, sleeper beds and turfing in Doncaster. Full dig-out and sub-base on every job, honest from-prices. One person start to finish.
A finished lawn and garden in Sprotbrough, curved edge into the existing block paving/img/sprotbrough-lawn-finished-3.jpg · 1800×1012
The bit you see is the last ten percent.
A patio or a drive is a groundworks job with a nice surface on top. The surface is what you choose; the groundworks is what you're paying for. Every drive I lay comes out to 250mm and gets 150mm of compacted stone. Every patio sits 150mm below the damp-proof course and falls away from the house. Every porcelain slab is primed and fully bedded. It's not complicated. It's just slower than the way most people do it, and it's why mine stay flat.
Operating the excavator myself changes the price. A landscaping firm hires a machine and a driver for the dig, then brings in the paving lads. I dig it Monday and I'm laying by Wednesday, and there's nobody in between to pay. That's how I can put real prices on this page and still do the job properly.
Drainage is part of every outside job. New hard standing at the front has to drain to your own land, not the road. A patio against the house needs a channel or a gully. If your garden floods now, paving it won't fix that, but a land drain under the new lawn will. I'll design that in from the start rather than bolt it on when the water shows up.
Porcelain going down on a real job, levelling clips in, every slab fully bedded/img/porcelein-patio-in-progress.jpg · 1200×1500
Every job, priced from the start.
Starting prices are real. The final figure depends on access, ground and spec, and I'll explain which of those is moving it.
- Block paving drivewaysfrom £75/m² · 4–6 daysProper 150mm sub-base, edge restraints set in concrete, drainage sorted so the council can't complain.
- Porcelain patiosfrom £125/m² · 4–7 days20mm porcelain on a rigid bed, every slab slurry-primed. Costs more than sandstone and I'll tell you why.
- Slabbed & sandstone patiosfrom £90/m² · 3–5 daysIndian sandstone, limestone or concrete flags. Full mortar bed, no dot-and-dab, ever.
- Retaining wallsfrom £150 per linear metre · 2–5 daysBlock, brick or sleeper walls to hold a level change, with the drainage behind them that makes them last.
- Sleeper beds & garden structuresfrom £115 per linear metre · 1–3 daysRaised beds, steps and low walls in oak or treated softwood, pinned and lined properly.
- Turfing & lawn preparationfrom £22/m² · 1–2 daysStrip out, level, fresh topsoil, lay. The £8/m² turf-only price is not the same job.
- Fencingquote on request · 1–3 daysCloseboard, Venetian slat and gates, put up straight and repaired when they're not. Concreted in, not spiked.
Patios, paths and gardens, finished.
Indian sandstone patio, random coursed, on a real job/img/sandstone-patio-finished.jpg · 1200×800
An old flagged patio raked out and repointed/img/patio-pointing-after.jpg · 1200×800
A finished lawn in Sprotbrough/img/sprot-lawn-finished-4.jpg · 1200×800
A porcelain patio going down, levelling clips in and every slab fully bedded/img/porcelein-patio-in-progress.jpg · 1200×800
External works on a commercial job: tarmac, kerbs, flagging, timber bin store and cycle stands/img/commercial-external-works.jpg · 1200×800
Hedges trimmed and tidied as part of a garden job in Bawtry/img/hedges-trimmed-in-bawtry.jpg · 1200×800
Finished closeboard fence on a real job in Scawsby/img/proj-scawsby-fence-hero.jpg · 1600×900
Closeboard garden fence, start to finish, Scawsby
A tired garden fence in Scawsby replaced end to end: old posts and panels out, new posts concreted in, closeboard panels up straight and square.
Finished kitchen in my own house in Scawsby, new units, worktop and grey LVT flooring/img/proj-scawsby-renovation-hero.jpg · 1600×900
My own house, back to brick, Scawsby
The rental I bought in Scawsby and took back to brick myself: new water main, new kitchen, bathroom and toilet knocked into one, bedroom, pantry, landing and garden. Every trade done by me on evenings and weekends around a forty-hour week, with friends and family mucking in on the stripping out.
Porcelain, sandstone or block paving: which should I have?
Porcelain for a patio you never want to maintain. Sandstone for a natural look at a lower price. Block paving for drives and paths that take cars. I'll bring samples and I lay all three, so I've no reason to push one.
When should I book?
Spring and summer fill up quickly. A patio for June wants booking by March. Autumn is quieter, the ground's still workable and prices are the same, so it's a good time to have outside work done.
Do you do the whole garden?
Patio, paths, drive, walls, steps, sleeper beds, turf, fencing and gates: yes. Planting and design: I'll level and prepare the beds and you or a garden designer choose the plants.
Will the price change once you start?
Not unless we find something nobody could have known about (a buried tank, an old well, a live cable where it shouldn't be). If that happens I stop, show you, and price it before I carry on.
Degree-qualified. Still in the digger.
Most of the people who'll quote you for this work are one or the other: a machine man who's never read a drawing, or a project manager who's never got his hands dirty. I'm both. Here's the story.
- 5.0 stars on Google6 reviews from real customers
- Fully insuredPublic liability
- SMSTS and First AidLegally qualified to run a UK construction site under CDM
- BSc (Hons) Construction Project Management, First ClassSheffield Hallam University, degree apprenticeship
- CIOB Certificate of ExcellenceChartered Institute of Building
- Twelve years on siteUK and Australia, £10m+ delivered as project manager
- Three full back to brick house renovationsTwo in Scawsby, one in Sprotbrough
- All aspects of groundworksAnd I operate the plant myself
Get a straight price.
Photos, postcode, rough size. Same-day reply most days.