Two quotes for the same garden can land thousands apart, and the gap almost never means one of them is trying it on. It usually means they aren't quoting the same job. Most of what decides whether a patio is still flat in ten years is invisible in the finished photo — and just as invisible on a one-line quote. Here's what a proper hard-landscaping price actually covers, and why the lowest number on the table is rarely the lowest number you end up paying.
The bit you can see is the smallest part
The surface — the paving, the sleepers, the brick — is maybe the top third of a build. Underneath it sits groundwork, a sub-base, drainage, bedding and edge restraint. That's where the money quietly goes, and it's where the corners quietly get cut. A quote that comes in suspiciously low has usually saved its money somewhere you won't notice until the third winter, when the joints open and the slabs start to rock.
Groundworks and muck-away — the cost nobody photographs
Before a single slab is laid, the ground has to come out. Dig to the right depth, set the levels, and cart the spoil away — and muck-away isn't free. Skips and grab lorries are a real line on the bill, and on a sloping or tiered plot there's a great deal more of it. On the two-tier porcelain garden in Fareham, half the work was in the levels before any porcelain went down. A quote that says nothing about what's happening to the dug-out material is a quote with a hole in it. What's actually under the surface (gravel, clay, chalk or made ground) varies block by block across Hampshire, and it's covered properly in soils across the Solent.
The sub-base is the whole game
Under any patio or drive sits a compacted stone sub-base — usually MOT Type 1, laid and whacked down in layers to a depth that suits the load. It is the single biggest factor in whether the surface stays flat and true. Lay it thin, skip the compaction, and the slabs move within a couple of years. This is the line most likely to differ between a cheap quote and a proper one, and it's the one you can't inspect once the job's done. It matters most on anything that carries weight — which is why a driveway needs a deeper, stronger base than a patio, and why "supply and lay" prices that don't state a base depth are worth nothing.
Bedding and jointing — full mortar beds, not five dabs
A slab can be laid on five blobs of mortar — the "dot-and-dab" method — or on a full wet mortar bed across its whole underside. The five-dab way is faster and cheaper, and it's exactly why patios ring hollow underfoot and crack at the corners. We bed every slab on a full mortar bed and point the joints properly, so water can't get underneath and lift them. It's slower and it costs more, and it's the difference between a terrace that's still flat in a decade and one with joints that open up in three winters. Whether the surface is porcelain or sandstone, the part that decides how long it lasts is the part you never see.
Materials — where "the same" isn't the same
"Sandstone paving" covers a twenty-pound import and a hand-selected Raj green. "Brick" covers a builders'-merchant multi and an Ibstock red or a blue engineering brick chosen to sit right against the house. Two quotes can both say "porcelain" and mean very different tiles, calibres and finishes. A real price names the material — the range, the size, sometimes the batch — so you're comparing like with like rather than a headline word. It's the same care we bring to the brickwork: the brick is specified to the property, not pulled off whatever pallet was cheapest that week.
Labour — and who's actually holding the trowel
This is the honest one. Etonic isn't a fleet of vans and subcontracted gangs. Ryan designs, prices and builds every project himself, with Dave — one set of hands on every site. That isn't the cheapest labour model and it was never meant to be. It's why the finish is consistent across a whole garden, and why the person who priced the job is the same person on his knees pointing the joints. When you set a studio price against a bigger outfit's, you're often comparing a subcontracted day rate against a maker who puts his name on it — on every drawing and every quote.
The corners you can't see are the ones that cost you later.
What a proper quote spells out — and what a cheap one leaves vague
By now the pattern's clear. A quote worth trusting tells you the excavation depth, the sub-base spec, the bedding method, the exact materials, the drainage and the edge detail — and what's included versus extra, whether that's turf, planting, lighting or waste. "Supply and lay patio — £X" isn't a quote, it's a number. We give a written brief and price, usually within ten days of the visit, so there are no surprises and nothing gets "discovered" halfway through at your expense. If you want to know how to prepare for that conversation, we've written about what actually matters before you call anyone.
Why the lowest number rarely finishes lowest
A cheap quote gets expensive in two ways. First, the corners cut underground come back as callbacks, relays and repairs inside a few years — you pay for the job twice. Second, the vague quote becomes the variations quote: the price creeps as things that should have been included turn out to be extra. The honest higher number, fully specified, is very often the lower finished cost. That's the whole case for doing it right, and it's the reason we don't pretend to be the cheapest.
If you want a price you can actually rely on — one that spells out what's under the surface as well as on it — send a brief through here and I'll come and take a look. We work across Hampshire — Warsash, Fareham, Southampton, Portsmouth and the towns in between.